"I’m very close with my mom, but the #1 thing we bond over is a love for scary movies. It’s something my mom shared with my grandma (she’s read about every Ann Rule book ever made and watched every true-crime documentary before it became trendy and Netflix-worthy), so it’s run in our family forever. I love hearing my mom talk about going to the movies to see all of our favorites when they first came into theaters (Scream and Final Destination are our favorites — I vividly remember the first time my mom showed me those!).
Another thing to know about my mom: she’s a hardcore Netflix binger. She’ll watch an entire series in a couple of days, and she scours Netflix for new and hidden horror and thriller shows. I can text my mom a day after a new movie comes out, and she’s already watched it.
This weekend, my mom immediately texted me after she watched this new show, Slasher, telling me I *had* to watch. I had nothing to do all weekend, so I decided to try it out. It’s an anthology series, and she said I had to start at season two.
Ladies and gents, I was hooked after episode one. And I watched all three seasons in three days.
Slasher is a Canadian show that was originally on Chiller, an NBC channel that specialized in thriller and horror shows. It was acquired by Netflix in 2017, and Netflix has produced two more seasons of the show, with the newest season premiering in May. I can’t quite figure out why this show isn’t getting the press it deserves, because I truly haven’t stopped thinking about this show since I watched the first episode.
The basics of the show are that it’s a slasher film in an 8-episode-season anthology series. I started with season two, and I’d recommend to do the same. It’s definitely gory, so don’t turn this on if you hate seeing a whole lot of red-dyed corn syrup. The themes are also definitely on the adult side — it’s not rife with nudity or anything, but I wouldn’t watch it with kids around. It has all the strong bones of a classic slasher film (think teenagers, camping, home invasion, the “who done it?” vibe), but it’s updated for the 21st century. The twists are intelligent and well-thought; I struggle to find most plot twists original (what can I say, I have a good eye), but I was truly surprised by the twist in each season of the show. I kept hitting “next episode” because I genuinely had no idea who it was. (Well, I did, but I was definitely wrong.)
I thought it would be cheesy, guilty-pleasure horror at first. To an extent, some of the gore is this way, but I also feel like it’s so much more and a lot more intense than a typical slasher like Friday the 13th (which I also love, of course). The issues are more complex, and the themes have much more depth. There were parts of the show that I was close to tears because aside from the horror and ~slashing~, it deals with abuse, friendship, sex, and more. (This is where I’d like to state a trigger warning for sexual assault — that’s one part of the show I didn’t love!)
I’m a huge American Horror Story fan, and this show has a similar vibe in the construction and concept. I love that they kept some of the same actors and actresses between each season; I fell in love with some of these actors, so moving onto another story knowing I’d at least see their faces again made it a lot easier.
If you watched Degrassi in middle school as intently as I did (I have a lot of thoughts on Degrassi), you’ll recognize a few familiar faces; however, most of the actors were new faces to me. At first thought, I imagined the lack of love I’ve seen for the show was because there weren’t famous faces in the show. However, other Netflix shows have done the same, bringing new people to fame (holla at Netflix prodigy, Noah Centineo). So, I crossed that off the list.
Then, I thought maybe it was just hidden deep within Netflix. It’s not promoted anywhere, and I haven’t seen any articles singing its praises (glad to be the first!). I’m not sure how my mom found the show, but once she found it and told me about it, I immediately wanted to watch it. I almost prefer to watch Netflix hidden gems, if I’m being honest, because it feels more exclusive and elusive. There are fewer spoilers roaming around the Internet, and it’s even more of a thrill to take the gamble on if the show will be good or a complete disaster. But this show deserves much more than hidden gem status.