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“WHERE NOTHING IS OFF LIMITS”: , COMMERCIAL REVITALIZATION, AND THE TEEN SLASHER POSTERS OF 1982-1984

RICHARD NOWELL

The poster with which Artists Releasing by resourceful distributors. Catalyzing this Corporation promoted its 1983 teen slasher situation, and the prominent role distribu- film promised American youths that The tors played in it, was the fact that the teen House on Sorority Row (Rosman 1983) would slashers released across these three years be the type of place “[w]here nothing is off had either been made before the 1981 teen limits”. Sitting beneath an imposing image slashers were released or soon after – a of a scantily-clad young woman, which period of time that witnessed no clear dem- bore little relation to the film’s content, this onstrations of a textually innovative teen tagline might as well have been an industry slasher securing a large enough audience in-joke concerning the lengths to which US to encourage filmmakers to replicate its distributors were going in their attempts distinctive content. to reinvigorate the commercial potential In spite of cases like the teen slasher of films about groups of young people be- films of 1982-84, scholars, like popular writ- ing menaced by shadowy maniacs. After ers and industry-insiders, tend to spotlight having proven highly profitable on the the conduct and contributions of production back of the relative commercial success personnel rather than that of distributors. In of (1978), Silent (Harris doing so, they are inclined to underestimate 1980), Friday the 13th (Cunningham 1980), or downplay the extent to which marketing and (Lynch 1980), teen slashers practices drive efforts to reinvigorate the had, by 1981, come to be considered box box office prowess of once-lucrative types office poison following a series of flops that of film. This focus placed on production had included My Bloody Valentine (Mihalka operations often gives rise to what Robert 1981), (DeSimone 1981), and The C. Allen and Douglas Gomery called the Prowler (Zito 1981). Misrepresenting these “masterpiece tradition” (67-76), wherein a light-hearted youth-centered date-movies canon of films is constructed on the back as what Robin Wood (1987, 79-85) called of what is deemed aesthetic achievement “violence-against-women movies” was just (and, to which I would add, on the back of one of the enterprising ways in which from what are perceived to be impressive financial 1982 to 1984 efforts to reenergize the ticket accomplishments). Locating supposedly sales of teen slasher films were engineered, visionary or astute production personnel not by creatively-minded filmmakers but at the center of film historiography results

Volume 30, No. 2 46 Post Script in the bypassing of those commercially almost every year for over three decades. unremarkable episodes that scholars such These important points would have come as Peter Stanfield (2001) and Tico Romao to light had more attention been paid to the (2003) have shown are part of the lifespan films’ distributors. Accordingly, a fuller in- of any given type of film. These tendencies dustrial history of the teen slasher film or for have generated highly selective histories that matter other types of film would benefit that propagate simplified notions of indus- from taking greater account of distribution trial machinery consistently overcoming operations and from also examining those economic challenges thanks to inventive periods characterized primarily by financial filmmaking practice. disappointment. The foundation of innovation and This essay therefore seeks to fill a void success that supports much film historiog- in American film historiography, pointing raphy is arguably nowhere more apparent in the process to the necessity to revise the or unsound than in histories of the tales of histories of other types of film. It will do so youth-in-jeopardy which have been dubbed by focusing on a neglected chapter in the stalker films (Dika), slasher movies (Clover), history of the American movie business in or teen slasher films (Wee). Widely accepted which, to resuscitate a formerly lucrative in popular and academic circles has been one type of film, a disparate collection of mostly particular history of the teen slasher film. independent distributors relied heavily on It begins invariably with discussion of the movie posters – the most widely reproduced, supposedly visionary drive-in hit The Texas widely seen, and, for under-capitalized in- Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper 1974) before dependent companies, the most affordable turning to ’s supposedly marketing tool available in the early-to-mid stylish hit Halloween (Carpenter 1978). After 1980s. Reinvigorating teen slasher films in brief mention is made of the production the period 1982-84, I argue, was attempted boom of 1980 and 1981that films like not by significant innovations in film content Friday the 13th, Graduation Day (Freed 1981) but by employing film posters to convey and Happy Birthday to Me (Thompson 1981) a series of discourses that had circulated saturate American theaters, focus usually around earlier teen slashers. The posters shifts to the comparatively money-spinning framed the new teen slasher films not only and visually imaginative A Nightmare on Elm as violence-against-women movies, but as Street series of the mid-to-late 1980s (Craven youth event pictures, as quality exploitation, 1984, Sholder 1985, Russell 1987, Harlin and as indeterminate horror films. 1988, Hopkins 1989). Finally, is spotlighted the high-profile “re-emergence” of teen slasher films in the wake of the surprise or MOVIE POSTERS, GENRE, AND “sleeper” hit Scream (Craven 1996); an event INDUSTRY LOGIC often claimed to have marked the advent of Before focusing on how posters framed the “post-modern slasher”—purported to the teen slasher films of 1982-84, it is advan- be the product of an intelligent, witty, and tageous to consider two key developments self-conscious mode of filmmaking that in genre studies that shed light on how deconstructed the supposedly humorless, economic logic and commercial strategies dumb, and unselfconscious teen slashers of underpin the assembly and proliferation of yesteryear (see for example Rockoff; Wee). film posters generally. Although, usually Within this saga of creative aspiration and associated with film content, the concepts of commercial reward, little room has evidently genre as discourse and generic hybridity are existed for complicating notions such as also applicable to examinations of market- textual continuation, marketing guile, fi- ing materials. nancial disappointment, or for the fact that A significant breakthrough in genre teen slashers have been made and released studies came with Rick Altman’s distinc-

Volume 30, No. 2 47 Post Script tion between two concepts that had been and thus attracting different demographics (and which continue to be) routinely called and taste formations within its general target “genre”. The first concept is primarily audience. These strategies even undergird discursive in nature and concerns a phe- so-called high concept posters—the visu- nomenon wherein consumers and com- ally arresting and unfussy compositions mentators respond to perceived textual and that Justin Wyatt (112-33) contends were extra-textual commonalities among films by designed to distill a film’s identity to a single coining labels, building corpora, and devel- easily digestible notion. Contrary to Wyatt’s oping discourses about the films (Altman conclusions, high concept posters have his- 14-15, 100-142). This essay follows Jason Mit- torically been fashioned to invite a range of tell’s (11-18) exploration of Altman’s ideas associations thus diffusing a film’s identity. by referring to the sum of these evolving This phenomenon is made possible by the discourses as “a genre”. Altman’s second inter-textual qualities of the components concept, which is primarily industrial in that comprise high concept designs, includ- nature, emphasizes that the term “genre” ing their compositions, color-schemes, and is also used widely to refer to “blueprints” styles, as well as by the posters’ status as (14-15)—which is to say textual models upon examples of high concept posters that evoke which creative personnel draw to help them earlier films which themselves were pro- shape a film’s content. For reasons of clarity, moted with similar high concept poster de- this essay refers from this point onwards to signs. To borrow Thomas Austin’s term (27), textual models such as the one that formed the “dispersible” qualities of high concept the basis of teen slasher film production as film posters are abundantly evident upon “film-types”. consideration of what Wyatt considered to Altman (129), like Janet Staiger (1997) be the quintessential high concept poster— before him, also questioned the validity of that used to promote Jaws (Spielberg 1975). notions of generic purity—a position which The Jaws poster was clearly tailored not only assumes that films or other cultural products to convey underwater threat, as Wyatt rec- belong to a single category. Both scholars’ ognized, but also to evoke iconographically work ushered in widespread acceptance in and compositionally the promotional poster the belief that films tend to be produced, of the hit (Boorman 1972) consumed, and understood as “hybrid” in order that it would encourage potential artifacts that belong to several categories theatergoers to draw parallels between the simultaneously. Invoking a range of catego- two films and increase Jaws’ chances of cap- ries and individual films has been shown turing the crowds that had made Deliverance to have been a longstanding cornerstone of such a commercial success (see Figure 1).1 American film promotion (Staiger 190-5). It Although it may appear oxymoronic, is implemented to minimize financial risk, hybridity and blueprints are not contradic- driven as it is by concerns that spotlighting tory concepts, either at the level of film a film’s generic credentials can either attract production or promotion. On the contrary, or alienate potential audiences (Altman 113). it has been demonstrated that filmmakers Marketers, whether the in-house personnel routinely complement their self-conscious of the small-time distributors that handled use of established textual models by ex- the teen slashers films of 1982-84 or employ- tracting elements of content from a range ees of the specialist firms with which the of individual and other film-types majors sometimes collaborated deemed at the time of production to boast in the early 1980s, usually spotlight a range significant audience appeal, particularly of elements which fragments a film’s iden- for the new film’s target audience (Nowell tity (Klinger 3-19; Austin 27-31). Fashioning Blood). Underwriting this strategy is the marketing materials in this way is thought belief that a film has a better chance of fulfill- to increase a film’s chances of appealing to ing its makers’ commercial objectives when

Volume 30, No. 2 48 Post Script it reflects a recognizable category in ways filmic hallmark of the teen genre that also reflect a range of up-to-the-minute (see Figure 1). trends in film and, on occasion, other media In addition to inviting comparisons (see for example Munby). Some film posters to other films, , and posters, poster are also made to type, whereby previous designs often represent the extra-filmic films’ poster designs provide inter-textual discourses that constitute the genre(s) into filters through which potential audiences which marketers attempt to position the are invited to make connections to earlier films. Posters are therefore a key compo- films and their associated genres. For in- nent of what Gregory Lucow and Stephen stance, the distributors of early-1980s teen Ricci called the “inter-textual relay” (29); a sex comedies like Spring Break (Cunningham constantly evolving matrix of informational 1983) and Screwballs (Zeilinski 1983) used exchanges that shape understandings of posters that had been modeled on the poster and relationships between films and which for Porky’s (Clark 1981), the blockbuster hit ultimately provides the building blocks upon which both films had been made to from which film genres are assembled. The capitalize.2 This conduct resulted in images invocation of extra-filmic discourse includes of undressed female bodies that stretched expressing visually, or through advertising beyond the borders of the frame and small copy (taglines), the film’s relationships to images of male pursuers becoming an extra- social, political or cultural currents as well as articulating aspects of the film’s popular reception. Jon Kraszewski (48-61) has for ex- ample shown that distributors of mid-1970s films targeted audiences with posters that encapsulated tensions relating to how a new black middle-class impacted African-American identities and race-relations. Notions of genre as discourse along with the concepts of hybridity and film- types converged as distributors sought for three years to reinvigorate audience inter- est in teen slasher films following the box office slump of 1981. This process began by framing new teen slashers as youth event pictures.

YOUTH EVENT PICTURES Throughout 1982, teen distributors mobilized en masse posters featuring a silhouette of a blade-wielding figure. These designs evoked iconographi- cally and compositionally the artwork with which had promoted Fig. 1. Dispersible High Concept—posters its 1980 teen slasher hit Friday the 13th. They evoking posters: Jaws (Universal) and De- also represented the continuation of an ap- liverance (Warner Bros.); Early-1980s Teen proach that had been used in summer 1981 Sex Comedy Posters, Porky’s (Twentieth to promote the commercially unsuccessful Century Fox) and Spring Break (Colum- teen slasher films Final Exam (Huston 1981) bia). and The Burning (Maylam 1981) (see Figure

Volume 30, No. 2 49 Post Script 2). Distributors remobilize their immediate event picture. The youth event picture was predecessors’ ineffective strategies when a nascent industrial category that was dis- they believe that a film-type’s plummeting tinguished by efforts to imbue films aimed ticket sales have been caused by local con- mainly at young people with the “must-see” ditions rather than by the prolonged and qualities of the period’s blockbusters. In widespread evaporation of audience inter- summer 1980, an innovative release pattern, est. Many distributors evidently interpreted forward-thinking marketing, and intensive the teen slasher film’s diminishing box of- publicity had catapulted Friday the 13th to fice returns as a short-lived by-product of the center of American film culture. These temporary audience apathy that had been strategies briefly transformed a low-budget brought about by an unparalleled eight new teen horror film into something of a cultural teen slashers having been released across phenomenon, which industry-watchers nine months in 1981.3 Such conduct suggests evidently considered to be as newswor- that an early response among distributors to thy as the highly anticipated release and a previously lucrative film-type’s dwindling subsequent commercial achievements of commercial viability is the adoption of a the sequel to Star Wars (Lucas 1977), The “business as usual” mindset. Supporting Empire Strikes Back (Kershner 1980) (See this conclusion are additional instances of Nowell “Ambitions”). Friday the 13th’s event derivative marketing campaigns prolifer- picture status was engineered partly by ating long after a film-type has stopped its simultaneous opening at a near-record generating hits. Thus, distributors of teen sex comedies aped Porky’s poster design across the 1980s and into the early 1990s, despite the prolonged absence of a teen sex comedy hit. With regard to the teen slashers of 1982: Picture Media and Jensen Farley Pictures used posters dominated by a blade-wielding silhouette to advertise re- spectively Just Before Dawn (Lieberman 1981) and Madman (Giannone 1982) (see Figure 2). Despite the commercial failure of these two films, distributors retained their confidence in blade-wielding silhouettes. As late as Au- gust 1982, Paramount Pictures re-mobilized the graphic to promote Friday the 13th 3: 3D (see Figure 2), a year after the company had dropped the design from its US posters for Friday the 13th Part II (1981). Recalling Friday the 13th’s poster enabled distributors to frame their teen slashers as important cinematic events for American youth, for although much subsequent popular and academic discussion has reduced the film to a blood- soaked Halloween rip-off (see Hills 227-34), Friday the 13th was understood somewhat Fig. 2. Back-lit, blade-wielding silhouettes: differently upon its initial release. Friday the 13th (Paramount Pictures), The Friday the 13th was among other things Burning (Filmways), Madman (Jensen seen alongside such films as Saturday Night Farley Pictures), Friday the 13th Part 3: 3D Fever (Badham 1977), Grease (Kleiser 1978), (Paramount Pictures). and The Blue Lagoon (Kleiser 1980) as a youth

Volume 30, No. 2 50 Post Script 1100 North American theaters (“Box Office 1982 release of New World Pictures’ new Mojo”). This prestigious and attention- teen slasher film The Slumber Party Massacre grabbing tactic distinguished Friday the 13th (Holden Jones 1982) marked a turning point from other cut-price horror films because it in teen slasher poster design. New World’s copied the pattern of release that was pri- poster, as is elucidated below, reduced the marily reserved at the time for calculated once dominant silhouette to a mere framing blockbusters like Superman (Donner 1978) device for a new kind of attention-grabbing (see Hall and Neale). Marketing materials imagery. Conveyed by that imagery was a also framed Friday the 13th as an important generic category that had featured promi- event for young people. For example, the nently in the popular reception of some early film’s detailed hand-painted poster design teen slashers but which distributors had invited parallels with the posters of then- not previously evoked because they feared recent youth market hits including Animal that it would alienate the key female youth House (Landis 1978) and Meatballs (Reitman demographic (see Nowell “There’s”). That 1979). Friday the 13th’s youth event movie category was the controversial violence- status was cemented by intensive popular against-women movie. press coverage that included rags-to-riches exposés of its producer-director, Sean S. Cunningham, similarly themed columns VIOLENCE-AGAINST-WOMEN penned by its screenwriter, Victor Miller, MOVIES and articles overstating its financial achieve- By misleadingly portraying teen slasher ments (see Harmetz; Miller; Pollock). By films as violence-against-women movies, th transforming Friday the 13 from a moderate distributors moved away from invoking economic success for a conglomerate-owned earlier promotional texts in favor of evok- major Hollywood studio into a Cinderella ing a more general generic discourse. Such story comparable to that spun around the conduct suggests that, once inviting paral- subsequent semi-independent hit My Big Fat lels to a recent hit fails to attract audiences, Greek Wedding (Zwick 2002) (see Perren 18- distributors turn to dominant strands of 31), journalists on mass circulation American discussion orbiting the film-type. Initially, newspapers bolstered Paramount’s efforts selling teen slasher films on misogynist to make Friday the 13th an important cultural content would appear to exemplify stan- event for their significant young readership dard business practice among independent (Donahue). distributors given that companies handling By late 1982, developments in the Amer- low-budget, low-status product routinely ican film market had resulted in distributors spotlight their films’ more sensational ele- losing faith in the promotion of teen slashers ments (Schaefer 96-135). Following received through poster art that evoked that of Friday logic (see Clover 187-228; Prince 351-3), the the 13th. Granted, Friday the 13th Part 3:3D promotion of supposedly sexist films like (Miner 1982) had been a relative commercial teen slashers as misogynist entertainment success when marketed in this way; how- would provide an additional example of ever, its solid box office performance did not textbook “exploitation” marketing, were it encourage further use of the strategy because not for the fact that claims of early teen slash- its status as a presold property—the appeal ers showcasing female victimization are not of which hinged mainly on consumption supported by examinations of the films’ con- of earlier installments—did little to offset tent and demonstrate little understanding of the weak returns that companies had been the commercial imperatives that shaped teen enduring for almost eighteen months when slasher film production and distribution. In using posters of blade-wielding silhouettes short, prior to 1981, the independent produc- to frame non-franchise teen slashers as youth ers who made teen slashers had eschewed or event pictures. Consequently, the November had tightly self-policed misogynist content.

Volume 30, No. 2 51 Post Script They had engaged in this conduct because maniacs, but which had subsequently been they believed that the presence of misogynist appropriated by opportunistic journalists material would compromise their ability to decrying teen slasher films before it had, sell the films for large sums of money to one in an ironic turn of events, developed into of the major studio distributors, which it was an oft-used production and marketing cat- felt were prepared to pay quite generous egory/strategy. sums of money for teen slashers based on The conditions which gave rise to the the films’ assumed capacity to attract male violence-against-women movie as both a and female youth audiences and thus return film-type and as a genre as well as the rela- more than the high costs of bankrolling a tionships between violence-against-women wide release and a generous marketing bud- and teen slasher films demand levels of get (see Nowell “Ambitions”). The makers of enquiry beyond the scope of this essay; the teen slashers released from 1982 to 1984 however, suffice it to say that the popular also tended to limit depictions of female suf- belief that violence-against-women movies fering to the extent that prominent feminists represented an hysterical response to patri- and archal America’s rage at increases in female were recruited by New World Pictures to social, sexual, and professional mobility is write and direct The Slumber Party Massacre. a woefully inadequate explanation. Such However, the economic incentive of securing claims fail to account for the contradictory large numbers of female youths exerted little gender-politics articulated across individual influence on most of the distributors of these films, bypass the mechanisms and rationales new teen slasher films. The companies that that green-light production and which gov- distributed most of the teen slashers of 1982 ern the mobilization of film content, and do to 1984 had acquired the largely unwanted not explain why violence-against-women new films for significantly less money than movies were evidently made for and mar- the distributors of earlier teen slashers. As keted to middle-class mature females. While such, they calculated that they would be released sporadically throughout the 1970s, able to turn a profit from significantly fewer tales of psychosexually disturbed loners tar- ticket sales than their predecessors, mean- geting mature women gained a prominent ing that they could afford to be less reliant foothold in American film culture in summer on securing the young female patrons that 1980 after some feminist groups protested had been so important to the distributors against, and many cineaste elites debated the of previous teen slashers and could thus relative merits of, the up-market production emphasize misogynist material on promo- Dressed to Kill (De Palma 1980) (See Sandler tional posters. 73-82), the box office performance of which This shift to the promotion of teen was comparable to that of Friday the 13th. slasher films as violence-against-women These critical outpourings were soon pig- movies amounted to misleading advertis- gybacked by Gene Siskel and , ing. In fact promoting teen slashers in this two ambitious populist movie reviewers way is comparable to British and cable television hosts, who made a bid and DVD distributors’ transformation into a for national stardom by denouncing teen marketing hook of the term “video ”— slasher films as incendiary misogynist pro- initially a pejorative coined by British social paganda (“Sneak Previews”)—despite, or conservatives (Egan)—to repackage the perhaps because of, their having lavished films in the 1990s and 2000s for self-styled praise on Dressed to Kill (Ebert; Siskel). Not horror connoisseurs and aficionados (Ibid. letting these apparent contradictions stand 185-228). Teen slasher distributors sold their in the way of a golden chance to further films as violence-against-women movies in their media careers, the duo went about order to capitalize financially on controversy constructing a critical category comprised of that had circled adult-centered films about what had been hitherto seen as two distinct

Volume 30, No. 2 52 Post Script film-types: obscure violence-against-women the film as a of early teen slashers (see movies like Don’t Answer the Phone (Ham- for example Maslin 1982). Lounging between mer 1979) and comparatively high-profile the legs of a drill-wielding figure on the youth-centered teen slashers like Friday the poster for The Slumber Party Massacre were 13th (“Sneak Previews”). The teen slasher films four young women sporting underwear and were important reference points for Siskel facial expressions ranging from quizzical to and Ebert because, in contrast to the little- terrified (see Figure 3). Within weeks the ante known violence-against-women movies that was upped a notch as a poster combining a they cited, films such as Friday the 13th were negligee-clad young woman and the tagline recognizable titles that their middle-aged “Nothing can prepare you for what happens viewers were unlikely to have seen. Teen when she fights back” led The House on Soror- slashers therefore provided convincing albeit ity Row to become the first teen slasher film disingenuous evidence of the mainstream- to be sold explicitly yet misleadingly on the ing of sexually violent material (See Nowell theme of rape and revenge (see Figure 3). This Blood 225-8). discourse had been used earlier to promote While the absorption of teen slashers into genuine rape-revenge pictures including the category of the violence-against-women Paramount’s glossy entry Lipstick (Johnson movie initiated the enduring misconception 1976) and the notorious drive-in release I that teen slashers showcased misogynist Spit on Your Grave (Zarchi 1977). The trend brutality, market developments ensured that in teen slasher film promotion continued promoting teen slashers as violence-against- the following year when the poster for In- women movies appeared commercially vi- dependent International Pictures’ Girls Nite able. The box office achievements of Dressed Out (Deubel 1984) featured three partially- to Kill had made violence-against-women clad young women fleeing in terror from an movies industrially attractive. Accordingly, unseen threat and Almi Pictures’ poster for once the smoke had cleared following the Silent Madness (Nuchtern 1984) showcased a controversies of 1980, major studios and in- crazed -wielding maniac pursuing a dependent distributors peppered American hot pants-wearing sorority sister (see Figure theaters with actual violence-against-women 3). The strong commercial performance— movies such as A Stranger is Watching (Cun- by the modest standards of independent ningham 1982) and Visiting Hours (Lord distributors—of The House on Sorority Row 1982). These actions ensured that the vio- had catalyzed the promotion of teen slasher lence-against-women movie had become so films on images of female fear, but the failure entrenched in American film culture that by of subsequent releases marketed this way 1983 a distributor could promote a film called ensured that the specter of the violence- Pieces (Simón 1982) with a poster featuring a against-women movie was rarely conjured up chainsaw, a partially clad female corpse, and to promote subsequent theatrically released the tagline “It’s exactly what you think it is” teen slashers. (see Figure 3). Framing teen slasher films as violence- Evoking the violence-against-women against-women movies may have been movie demonstrated more longevity than intended to differentiate the films from the the other promotional strategies employed largely unsuccessful teen slashers that had to revitalize teen slasher films between 1982 been sold as youth event pictures, but it and 1984. As noted above, using posters had failed to generate any genuine hit films. to promote teen slashers this way began Perhaps unsurprisingly, a third marketing in November 1982 with the release of The approach that was employed in the early-to- Slumber Party Massacre, which baffled several mid 1980s sidestepped discourses that had industry-watchers who, evidently unable to circulated teen slashers released at the dawn reconcile feminist production personnel and of the 1980s; instead it evoked an earlier pe- misogynist marketing, resorted to discussing riod in film history, in which the depiction of

Volume 30, No. 2 53 Post Script diences to anticipate films that belonged to an emergent critical category of North American Cinema: what I call quality ex- ploitation. Quality exploitation was born of a hitherto overlooked shift in the industrial and aesthetic practices of North American filmmakers. It represented a response to Hol- lywood’s much-discussed return to the pro- duction and distribution of film-types that were previously associated with B-studios. This conduct had spawned big-budget hor- ror films such as The Exorcist (Friedkin 1973), up-market science fiction epics like Super- man, glossy teen films a la Grease (Schatz 3-86), and star-studded rural-market films including Smokey and the Bandit (Needham 1977) (Romao). Hollywood’s demonstration of confidence in products of this sort had opened up an opportunity, particularly for market-savvy independent producers, to fashion similar, yet less costly, films that could be sold to major distributors. To do so, filmmakers gentrified their films by increas- ing their production budgets and emulating Fig. 3. Absorbing teen slashers into the the content of Hollywood’s lavish contribu- violence-against-women movie: Pieces tions (see Nowell “Ambitions”). For example, (Artists Releasing Corporation), The Slum- 1979 had seen independently produced ber Party Massacre (New World Pictures), dance films like (Lester 1979) The House on Sorority Row (Artists Releas- modeled on Saturday Night Fever and boister- ing Corporation), Silent Madness (Almi ous comedies including Meatballs that had Pictures Inc.). been fashioned after Animal House. In terms of production values, quality exploitation films occupied a middle-ground between young people being menaced by a shadowy cut-price independently produced pictures prowler had been briefly associated with flair, and comparatively expensive major studio vision, and innovation. financed projects; however, occasionally they also blurred prevailing distinctions be- tween what the critical establishment saw as the many workmanlike pot-boilers released QUALITY EXPLOITATION each year and those rare films deserving of In 1983 and 1984, teen slasher film dis- praise for their supposed advancement of tributors employed posters modeled on an the cinematic art. The exchanges between eye-catching design comprising three bold Hollywood and independent filmmakers interconnected hand-painted iconographic of blueprints and content had taken place elements—a jack-o-lantern, a hand, and a against a popular critical landscape that had large knife—that Compass International been reshaped by a new American cinema; Pictures’ had used to promote its critically this was in part characterized by a cohort of applauded 1978 teen slasher hit Halloween mainly film school-educated directors, com- (see Figure 4). Replicating the Compass monly referred to as the movie brats, who design enabled distributors to invite au- had imbued Hollywood film-types with

Volume 30, No. 2 54 Post Script flourishes drawn from what was widely dent and outspoken critics: Gene Siskel and received in the US as Roger Ebert (“Sneak Previews”). (see Cook). On occasion these two currents Belated confirmation of Halloween’s box had intersected, giving rise to inexpensive office performance also suggested that the “genre films” that were lauded in critical film was well-liked by “regular” theatergo- circles for their apparently exceptional sty- ers. Reliable notice of Halloween’s US ticket listic characteristics. Among these celebrated sales did not become publicly available until films had been George Lucas’ 1973 coming- 1982 when the trade paper Variety showed of-age drama , Brian De that Halloween had surpassed Friday the 13th Palma’s teen horror movie Carrie (1976), to become a major hit among independently and crucially John Carpenter’s teen slasher released films and a solid earner by Hol- film Halloween. In general terms, the promo- lywood’s more exacting standards (Anon tion of teen slashers as quality exploitation 1982, 54). Halloween’s commercial accom- suggests that once distributors recognize plishments were significant because they that a film-type’s commercial potential is had been achieved through steady ticket not energized by inviting similarities to a sales being generated across several releases recent hit or by mobilizing a topical critical in small numbers of theaters; by contrast, discourse, they turn to evoking a critically Friday the 13th’s comparable returns had been applauded film. This strategy appears to be generated quickly due to its having been based on the assumption that critical success released simultaneously on a huge quantity can be sometimes indicative of a film having of screens. Friday the 13th’s ticket sales had been enjoyed by a significant percentage of therefore been mostly accumulated before, its audience, a quality that is not necessarily as a Variety writer had predicted (Step), reflected solely by strong box office perfor- negative word-of-mouth stood to decimate mance which, under certain circumstances, the appeal of the film. In the context of the can suggest initial audience interest prior to disappointing performances in 1981of all consumption while not ruling out the pos- teen slasher films, including Friday the 13th sibility of widespread audience disappoint- Part II, this pattern of ticket sales indicated ment during and after consumption. that many viewers of Friday the 13th had been The rise to prominence of quality exploi- letdown by the film and were therefore likely tation provided distributors with a method to avoid films promoted as being similar – a of suggesting the superiority of their films, point that had been made by young movie- whether in terms of their production values goers that American journalists interviewed or their stylistic/thematic sophistication. at the time (see Garner; Caulfield and Gar- Recalling Halloween’s poster was particularly ner). In contrast, most of Halloween’s ticket attractive because Halloween was, despite sales had been accrued via re-releases in initial ambivalence, embraced by American the falls of 1979, 1980, and 1981, i.e. after film critics after it received glowing re-ap- sufficient time had passed for word-of- praisals from powerful cultural arbiters like mouth to spread. The continued appeal of Pauline Kael of The New Yorker magazine (see Halloween therefore indicated that audience Kapsis 159-62). Throughout 1979, journalists feedback had probably been quite positive. reiterated Halloween’s supposed aesthetic A surprising aspect of the recalling of Hal- qualities and thereafter it was distinguished loween through references to its poster is that routinely from subsequent teen slashers by this tactic did not emerge sooner or was not virtue of the exceptional flare with which employed with greater regularity. John Carpenter had supposedly directed the Evocation of the bold three-part design film (Nowell Blood 109). Nowhere was the of the Halloween poster continued from late exceptional status afforded Halloween more 1983 to late 1984, comprising the promotion apparent than in the ongoing endorsements of four teen slasher films. The principles of it was given by the teen slasher’s most ar- fun and horror captured in the iconography

Volume 30, No. 2 55 Post Script and style of Halloween’s poster—the non- Arguably the most significant endorsement traumatizing roller-coaster experience that of the promotion of teen slashers with post- Isobel Cristina Pinedo (40) called “recre- ers that recalled Halloween’s poster took ational terror”—were followed in the poster place in March 1984 when Paramount pre- used by United Film Distribution Company marketed Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter to promote (Hiltzik 1983). (Zito 1984) with a poster that replicated not This design retained the large knife and the poster designs of earlier installments of hand that had featured on Halloween’s poster the franchise, but the three-part iconography but replaced the jack-o-lantern with a tennis of the Halloween poster, albeit not in a hand- shoe (see Figure 4). Similarly, the posters that painted look. On the poster were a mask advertised New World Pictures’ The Initia- and a knife, with Halloween’s jack-o-lantern tion (Stewart 1984) and Media Home Enter- replaced by a pool of blood. To maximize tainment’s home video release of Fatal Games publicity for the Friday the 13th franchise’s (Elliot 1984) both preserved the image of a “new-look” poster design—promotion of hand, but with a female-shaped candle and promotion if you will—Paramount released an eye replacing the knife and jack-o-lantern the poster without having received neces- on The Initiation’s poster, and with Fatal sary approval from the industry trade body Games’ poster showing a blood-dripping the Motion Picture Association of America medal and a ribbon instead (see Figure 4). (Anon 1984). This “oversight” ensured that exceptionally large amounts of press coverage were devoted to the film’s poster, inviting potential audiences to consider its similarities to Halloween’s poster in the hope that they would associate the new Friday the 13th film with notions of quality exploitation that had hitherto been absent from the fran- chise’s brand identity. The employment of gradually more temporally and/or conceptually distant reference points in teen slasher promotion continued as distributors used posters to obscure their films’ locations within industry strategy, critical canons, and public sphere discourse. They did this by highlighting one aspect of the films’ generic heritage.

INDETERMINATE HORROR FILMS In 1983 and 1984, the framing of teen slasher films as indeterminate horror films represented an attempt to distance the films from the teen slasher as a generic category, as well as an attempt to prevent potential the- Fig. 4. Bold designs representing quality atergoers from drawing connections between exploitation: Halloween (Compass Interna- new films and the previous teen slashers that tional Pictures), Sleepaway Camp (United ticket sales suggested they had been avoid- Film Distribution Company), Fatal Games ing since summer 1980. This method of teen (Media Home Entertainment), The Initia- slasher film promotion illustrates an as-yet tion (New World Pictures). unexplored way in which marketers negoti- ate the communication of their films’ horror

Volume 30, No. 2 56 Post Script credentials. To date, scholars have shown that Terror concerned an extraterrestrial threat in distributors adopt strategic stances towards the vein of Alien (1979) or The Thing (1982) the communication of horror material by also (see Figure 5). Portraying teen slashers as spotlighting elements of romance, mystery, indeterminate horror films was not as self- and adventure so as to avoid alienating po- evident a choice in 1983 and 1984 as it may tential ticket buyers who otherwise would seem today. eschew films sold exclusively as horror (see Although treated in intervening years for example Berenstein; Erb 21-121). This is a as a quintessential example of American hor- major concern based on the belief that horror ror cinema, teen slasher films were initially tends to polarize movie-watchers, leading seen to belong to several generic categories to committed fandom or absolute rejection of which horror was but one. When the (Wood 1986 77). Where such findings add film-type was becoming established indus- empirical weight to Klinger’s theory of the trially and culturally between 1980 and 1981, commercial logic underwriting hybrid film industry-watchers had discussed teen slash- marketing (3-19) described above, some teen ers not only as horror films, not even just as slashers released between 1982 and 1984 dem- thrillers (Rubin 161-170), (Koven onstrate that, when market forces indicate it 162-8), and teen films (Shary 147-67), but as could prove to be profitable, distributors films that exhibited significant similarities to will mask the hybrid character of their films “” (Canby), “romances” (Mar- by emphasizing a single generic element. tin), and boisterous teen comedies (Gross). Speaking more generally, the promotion of Similarly, in much the same way as Mark teen slashers as indeterminate horror films Jancovich (34-45) has discussed posters indicates that when all else fails, distributors presenting 1940s films as look to obscure their films’ immediate indus- at once horror films, mysteries, and more, trial and discursive bonds by calling forth a industry-insiders had invited comparisons broader sense of the film’s relationships to between previous teen slashers and other film culture and film history. types of film. In 1981, Filmways poster for Central to the promotion of teen slasher The Burning had for example combined films as indeterminate horror films were iconographic features of the posters of Friday efforts to avoid all references to the distinct the 13th and The Blue Lagoon, a teen romance. vision of “normalcy” and “the monster”, to However, in the light of Siskel and Ebert’s use Wood’s terms (ibid.), which set teen slash- aforementioned crusade against films featur- ers apart from other films. While stressing threat and horror, the posters that promoted Comworld Pictures’ (Davis 1983) in 1983 and advertised United Film Distribution Company’s Death Screams (Nel- son 1982) a year later avoided mention or depiction of maniacal killers or youths. The Death Screams poster featured a close-up of a screaming adult male face beneath the suitably horror-oriented and vague tagline “The last scream you hear…is your own” (see Figure 5). Similarly, the combination of an image of adults fleeing from an unidenti- fied menace, an obelisk-like title font, and Fig. 5. Teen Slashers as Indeterminate Horror the imprecise yet, in context, unequivocally Films: Death Screams (United Film Distribu- ominous tagline “Without knowing they had tion Company); The Final Terror (Comworld released an unknown force”, suggested that Pictures and Aquarius Releasing). the backwoods teen slasher film The Final

Volume 30, No. 2 57 Post Script ing maniacs, a distillation of the teen slasher Halloween’s popular critical reception and film’s generic status had been initiated as to capitalize on apparent audience fond- these tales of youth-in-jeopardy came to ness for the film. Promoting teen slashers be discussed with increasing uniformity in as indeterminate horror films, on the other the trade, popular, and fan presses as a new hand, represented an attempt by distribu- kind of horror film (see for example Maslin tors to distance the films from individual 1981; Platman and Steigerwald). With this teen slashers and associated discourses by shift had therefore emerged another oppor- stressing one aspect of the films’ generic tunity for distributors to revise the identity heritage. of teen slasher films at the level of promo- This essay invites further consideration tion, which, perhaps befitting the sense of of both the broader influence and prevalence desperation that underwrote its mobiliza- of the kinds of the marketing strategies ex- tion, failed to attract a significant number amined herein. Writing on the emergence of of theatergoers. the medium in the early 20th century, Gary D. Rhodes suggests that film posters can become enduring synecdoches for the films CONCLUSION they promote (228). Rhodes’ observation In summary, where scholars have holds true for the teen slasher posters of shown how attempts to re-energize film- 1982-84, particularly in terms of how the teen types commercially are conducted during slasher film has in later years been consid- production through the recalibration of ered to be a genre and a film-type. The teen film content (Stanfield), the case of the teen slasher posters of the period contributed to slasher films of 1982-84 shows the degree to the selective traditions that characterize the which marketing practices contribute to the teen slasher genre. They have helped to en- process. The extent to which this conduct shrine Halloween and Friday the 13th as the key has occurred is particularly apparent when early teen slashers at the expense of other focus is shifted from highly publicized yet important films like Black Christmas (Clark infrequent instances of a film-type perform- 1974), Silent Scream, and Prom Night. In doing ing well financially onto the more numerous so, the posters reinforced the misconception occasions in which films prove financially that teen slashers showcased femicide and disappointing. This essay has focused on contributed to teen slashers coming to be one such case, revealing how promotional seen primarily as horror films. posters were used to attempt to resuscitate The strategies employed across 1982-84 the appeal of teen slasher films between 1982 also provided a springboard from which and 1984. These affordable marketing tools American film companies subsequently expressed four strategies, each of which in launched successful bids to reinvigorate the effect commodified a key way teen slashers teen slasher film-type commercially. Thus, had been understood contemporaneously by adopting the synergetic marketing tac- within American film culture. The replica- tics used for contemporaneous Hollywood tion of a blade-wielding silhouette that had blockbusters, sold its later dominated posters for Friday the 13th enabled A Nightmare on Elm Street films (1987-91) distributors to appropriate Friday the 13th’s as youth event pictures. Similarly, Mira- status as a must-see film for young people. max Films’ promotion of its Scream trilogy Selling the films on images of imperiled (Craven 1996, 1997, 2000) as an intelligent females, while a poor reflection of their deconstruction of teen slasher film conven- content, permitted distributors to capitalize tions, when its constituent films exhibited on high-profile critical discourse that had few differences from their somewhat self- orbited teen slashers. Distributors of teen conscious predecessors, positioned the tril- slashers aped Halloween’s poster to evoke ogy as quality exploitation. Meanwhile, the discourses of quality that had dominated notion that the films being advertised were

Volume 30, No. 2 58 Post Script indeterminate horror films was a principle 2Porky’s poster was itself modelled that shaped posters for The Texas Chainsaw on that used to promote ’ Massacre (Nispel 2004), which featured a 10 (Edwards 1979), a sex comedy hit that close-up of a monstrous face. The exception featured if not adolescent protagonists then remains the violence-against-women movie, juvenile ones. which, although central to the posters of re- 3Those 1981 films were My Bloody Valen- cent torture-based horror films like Captivity tine (Mihalka), Friday the 13th Part II (Miner), (Joffé 2007) and Hostel Part II (Roth 2007), has Graduation Day (Freed), Happy Birthday to yet to be used as a marketing lynchpin for Me (Thompson), The Burning, Final Exam the commercially successful re-launching of (Maylam), Hell Night (DeSimone), and The the teen slasher film, despite the best efforts Prowler (Zito). of the markets of the box office failure Soror- ity Row (Hendler 2009), posters for which warned audiences that sisters of “Theta Pi Works Cited must die”. Allen, Robert C, and Douglas Gomery. Film Determining the extent to which the History: Theory and Practice. New York: individual marketing strategies that accom- McGraw-Hill, 1985. panied the 1982-84 teen slashers, as well as Altman, Rick. Film/Genre. London: BFI, the pattern they followed, are representative 1999. of the ways distributors attempt to revital- Anon., “All-Time Film Rental Champs.” ize film-types more generally hinges upon Variety, 13 Jan 1982: 54. new scholarly enquiry being conducted. Anon., “Gore Movie Ad that Ran without Attempts to re-energize teen slasher ticket Approval.” New York Times, 27 Apr sales followed for the most part a centrifugal 1984: C8. trajectory. They began with evocation of the Austin, Thomas. Hollywood, Hype and Audi- most recent hit, shifted to reflecting a domi- ences: Selling and Watching Popular Film nant contemporaneous critical discourse, in the 1990s. Manchester: Manchester then recalled an earlier critically respected UP, 2002. and (evidently) much-loved example of the Berenstein, Rhona. J. Attack of the Leading film-type, before finally masking the films’ Ladies: Gender, Sexuality, and Spectator- status as teen slasher films all together in ship in Classic Horror Cinema. New York: order to recall a major aspect of what had Columbia UP, 1996. come to be seen as their broader generic “Box Office Mojo”: http://www.boxoffic- heritage. Only through close examinations emojo.com/movies/?id=friday13th. of distributors attempting, occasionally htm [accessed 23 Feb 2011] successfully but usually unsuccessfully, to Canby, Vincent. “‘Prom Night’, Thriller from renew audience interest in other types of Canada Masks Gore.” New York Times, film, during other periods of time, in other 16 Aug 1980: 11. national markets, and with respect to other Caulfield, Deborah, and Jude Garner. forms of delivery/exhibition, will it become “‘Fringe’ Teens Versus Mainstream clear if this pattern unfolds generally. We Movies.” Los Angeles Times, 24 May may then discover if, when it comes to at- 1981: L22. tempts to reinvigorate commercially weak- Clover, Carol J. ‘Her Body, Himself: Gender ened film-types, nothing is off limits. in the Slasher Film’, Representations 20 (Fall 1987): 187-228. Collins, James. Hilary Radner and Ava Notes Preacher Collins, ed. Film Theory Goes 1For a candid discussion of these issues to the Movies. New York: Routledge, by leading American film marketing execu- 1993. tives of the period, see Yakir.

Volume 30, No. 2 59 Post Script Cook, David. A. “ Cinema and the Koven, Mikel J. La Dolce Morte: Vernacular ‘Film Generation’ in 1970s Cinema.” The Cinema and the Italian . Lanham: New American Cinema. Ed. Jon Lewis. Scarecrow P, 2006. Durham: Duke UP, 1994: 11-37. Kraszewski, Jon. “Recontexualizing the Dika, Vera. Games of Terror: Halloween, Friday Historical Reception of Blaxploitation: the 13th and the Films of the Stalker Cycle. Articulations of Class, Black National- London: Associated UPs, 1990. ism, and Anxiety in the Genre’s Adver- Donahue, Suzanne Mary. American Film Dis- tisements.” The Velvet Light Trap 50 (Fall tribution: The Changing Marketplace. Ann 2002): 48-61. Arbor: UMI Research P, 1987. Jon Lewis, ed. The New American Cinema. Ebert, Robert. “Dressed to Kill”, Chicago Durham: Duke UP, 1994. Sun-Times, 1 Jul 1980. Accessible on- Lukow, Gregory, and Stephen Ricci. “The line at: “Chicago Sun-Times”: http:// ‘Audience’ Goes ‘Public’: Intertextuality, rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs. Genre, and the Responsibilities of Film dll/article?AID=/19800101/RE- Literacy.” On Film 12 (1984): 28-36. VIEWS/1010312/1023 (accessed 23 Maslin, Janet. “A Bloody “Birthday” Picture”, Feb 2011) Washington Post, 15 May 1981: W19. Egan, Kate. Trash or Treasure: Censorship and __. “Tired Blood Claims the as the Changing Meanings of the Video Nasties. a Fresh Victim.” New York Times, 1 Nov Manchester: Manchester UP, 2007. 1981: D15. Erb, Cynthia. Tracking King Kong: A Holly- —. “The Slumber Party”, New York Times, 12 wood Icon in World Culture (2nd Edition). Nov 1982: C8. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2009. Miller, Victor. “Confessions of a Horror Writ- Garner, Jude. “Teens Blah on Killer Thrillers.” er.” Washington Post, 22 Jun 1980: K1. Los Angeles Times, 22 Aug 1981: L29. Mittell, Jason. Television Genre: From Cop Shows Gross, Linda. “‘Final Exam’: Some Answers to Cartoons in American Culture. New Missing.” Los Angeles Times, 11 Jun 1981: York: Routledge, 2004. H7. Munby, Jonathan. “From Gangsta to Gang- Hall, Sheldon, and Steve Neale. Epics, Specta- ster: The ’s Criminal Alle- cles and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History. giance with Hollywood.” The New Film Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2010. History: Sources, Methods, Approaches. Ed. Harmetz, Aljean. “For Films, a Chilly Sum- James Chapman, Martin Glancy and Sue mer Warmed Up.” New York Times, 5 Harper. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, Sep 1980: C4. 2007: 166-179 Hills, Matt “Para-: The Friday the Neale, Steve. Genre and Hollywood. London: 13th Film Series as Other to Trash and Routledge, 2000. Legitimate Film Cultures.” Sleaze Art- Nowell, Richard. Blood Money: A History of the ists: Cinema at the Margins of Taste, Style, First Teen Slasher Film Cycle. New York: and Politics. Ed. Jeffrey Sconce. Durham: Continuum, 2011. Duke UP, 2007: 219-239. __. “‘The Ambitions of Most Independent Jancovich, Mark. “The Meaning of Mystery: Filmmakers’: Indie Production, the Genre, Marketing and the Universal Majors, and Friday the 13th (1980).” Sherlock Holmes Series of the 1940s”, Film Journal of Film and Video 63.2 (Summer International 3.17 (2005): 34-45. 2011): 28-44. Kapsis, Robert. E. Hitchcock: The Making of __. “‘There’s More than One Way to Lose Your a Reputation. Chicago: U of Chicago P, Heart’: The American Film Industry, 1992 Early Teen Slasher Films, and Female Klinger, Barbara. “Digressions at the Cinema: Youth.” Cinema Journal, Forthcoming. Reception and Mass Culture.” Cinema Perren, Alisa. (2004), “A Big Fat Indie Success Journal 28.4 (Summer 1989): 3-19. Story? Press Discourses Surrounding the

Volume 30, No. 2 60 Post Script Making and Marketing of a ‘Hollywood’ James. Collins, Hilary Radner and Ava Movie.” Journal of Film and Video 56.2 Preacher Collins. New York: Routledge, (Summer 2004): 18-31. 1993: 8-36. Pinedo, Isabel Christina, Recreational Terror: Sconce, Jeffrey, ed. Sleaze Artists: Cinema at Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film the Margins of Taste, Style, and Politics. Viewing. Albany: State U of New York Durham: Duke UP, 2007: 219-239. P, 1997. Shary, Timothy. Generation Multiplex: The Platman, Kerry, and Steigerwald, Bill. “For Image of Youth in Contemporary American Gore Fans, Life is a Scream.” Los Angeles Cinema. Austin: U of Texas P, 2002. Times, 17 Oct 1982: O3. “Sneak Previews”. Broadcast 23 October Pollock, Dale. “Second Most Successful Film: 1980. Scary News: It’s ‘Friday the 13th’. Los Staiger, Janet. “Hybrid or Inbred: The Pu- Angeles Times, 27 June 1980: G11. rity Hypothesis and Hollywood Genre Prince, Stephen. A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood History.” Film Criticism 22.1 (Fall 1997): under the Electronic Rainbow, 1980-1989 5-20. (History of the American Cinema, Volume Stanfield, Peter. (2001), Hollywood, Westerns 10). Berkeley: U of California P. 2000. and the 1930s: The Lost Trail. Exeter: Rhodes, Gary D. “The Origin and Develop- Exeter UP. ment of the American Moving Picture Step. “Friday the 13th”, Variety, 14 May Poster.” Film History 19 (2007): 228- 1980: 14. 246. Waller, Gregory A., ed. American Horrors: Es- Rockoff, Adam. (2002), Going to Pieces: The says on the Modern Horror Film. Urbana: Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-86. U of Illinois P, 1987. Jefferson: McFarland. Wee, Valerie. “The Scream Trilogy, ‘Hyper- Romao, Tico. “Engines of Transformation: Postmodernism’ and the Late-Nineties An Analytical History of the 1970s Car Teen Slasher Film.” Journal of Film and Chase Cycle.” New Review of Film and Video 57.3 (Fall 2005): 44-61. Television Studies, 1.1 (2003): 31-54. Wood, Robin. (1986), Hollywood from Vietnam Rubin, Martin. Thrillers. Cambridge: Cam- to Reagan. New York: Columbia UP. bridge UP, 1999. __. “Returning the Look: Eyes of a Stranger.” Sandler, Kevin. S. The Naked Truth: Why American Horrors: Essays on the Modern Hollywood Doesn’t Make X-rated Movies. Horror Film. Ed. Gregory A. Waller. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2007. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1987. Siskel, Gene. “De Palma’s Sharp ‘Dress’ Wyatt, Justin. High Concept: Movies and Almost has it All.” , 25 Marketing in Hollywood. Austin: U of Jul 1980: C3. Texas P, 1994. Schaefer, Eric. Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! A Yakir, Dan. “Industry Campaigns and Ca- History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959. veat.” Film Comment, 16.3 (May/June Durham: Duke UP, 1999. 1980): 72-80. Schatz, Thomas. “The .” Film Theory Goes to the Movies. Ed.

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