Slasher (TV series)

Background

Slasher employs a season-long anthology format, with an overarching mystery storyline that will be resolved upon the season's conclusion. Aaron Martin, the series' creator/producer, acknowledged gaining inspiration for the format from American Horror Story, stating that, should Slasher have subsequent seasons, the AHS style of self-contained storylines would be used along with, ideally, the reliance on as many actors from previous seasons as possible to portray brand new roles.

Martin aims to tell "a modern-day monster story" in Slasher, combining three of his favorite genres: The contemporary murder mystery (a la Broadchurch), the works of Agatha Christie (one of Martin's favorite crime writers), and the classic slasher films he grew up with. In terms of the latter, Martin has specifically cited the influences of Halloween and It Follows in Slasher's use of a mysterious singular embodiment that is responsible for a series of killings. Not wanting to have the show's killer be "a mythological creature" (as he feels the killers in most slasher films do not have much mystery surrounding them), Martin also uses elements of the traditional whodunit in Slasher: The show's characters, many of whom have mysterious backgrounds — and their own reasons for possibly being the killer — are featured, explored, and eliminated from consideration, one by one (either through death or the natural deductive process), until the "all too human" killer and their motivations for their actions are revealed.

Plot

Slasher's 8-episode first season centers around Sarah Bennett who, with husband Dylan, moves back to the town of her birth, Waterbury a fictional town in Canada, and into her parents' former home. It was in that house on Halloween Night 1988 where both of her parents, Bryan and Rachel, were murdered. Rachel was pregnant with Sarah at the time of her murder, with police discovering the killer holding Rachel's newborn baby after the slayings. Sarah's return to Waterbury is greeted with the start of a series of copycat murders, all appearing to be at the hands of "The Executioner".

The Seven Deadly Sins

Seeking insight on her sightings of "The Executioner" and the slayings he or she has committed, Sarah has paid visits to her parents' imprisoned murderer, Tom Winston. Tom suggests to Sarah that though most of Waterbury's residents project a veneer of friendship, innocence, and self-righteousness, many of them harbor dark secrets, including her late parents. During these conversations, Tom expresses thoughts on what is a common theme of Slasher's first season — the seven deadly sins. Gaining information from Sarah on the victims' backgrounds and the nature of their deaths, Tom provides suggestions as to what sin the victims may have violated; Sarah would begin to employ this approach herself without Tom's assistance in later episodes.

Just as Tom declared himself "the Lord's messenger" in a 1988 police interrogation video after murdering Sarah's parents (seen in Episode 1), he believes in the present day that the new Executioner has become a self-appointed deliverer of "Biblical" punishment towards those he or she believes have committed one of the seven deadly sins in their past, employing methods that are apropos to the individual natures of the deadly sins. Future victim Alison Sutherland would get The Executioner to admit this in their Episode 5 interview: Alison asks why The Executioner would be as much a sinner as everyone else and violate one of God's commandments to not kill; The Executioner counters that God only commanded not to murder the innocent, and that his/her victims are not innocent. Tom has suggested to Sarah, in Episode 3, that The Executioner him/herself has committed a deadly sin of their own, being blinded by pride ("the greatest of sins").

Main

Recurring

Development and production

Aaron Martin was inspired to write Slasher after his work on the first season of the medical series Saving Hope, including his writing of two Hope episodes where, in his words, "people got chopped up." Martin would write the first episode of Slasher as a spec script, with two intentions for doing so: To offer it to prospective studios, and to show a writing style that was different from his previous work (e.g. Saving Hope, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Being Erica). Though the script did not receive immediate interest, Shaftesbury Films would discover and option it to prospective broadcasters. The script would land at Canadian premium network Super Channel, who, their interest piqued in part by Slasher's fixed-end format, would order it as a series. The American network Chiller, which specializes in the horror/thriller genre, would join in production sometime after Super Channel; Slasher would be Chiller's first foray into original scripted series content.

Production on Slasher's 8-episode first season was announced on July 28, 2015, with filming taking place between then and October 2015. Three Northern Ontario municipalities — the cities of Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie and the town of Parry Sound — would stand in for the show's fictitious location, the town of Waterbury. A first trailer for the series would be released on November 26, 2015.

Unlike most TV series that film their episodes in order, Slasher, under the direction of Craig David Wallace, was shot as if it were a "super-sized" movie: Scenes from multiple episodes were shot at the same time, with the availability of locations and cast being factored in. The out-of-order schedule allowed the actors to know of their characters' fates, especially those who had to film their death scenes one day but return later to film earlier scenes as necessary. As an example of this, Martin cited Mark Ghanimé's first day on set, when his character, Justin Faysal, was laid out in a casket for a scene early in Slasher's third episode (Justin's death, which took place in Episode 2, would be filmed later on).

Reception

Slasher has received positive views. Zap2it called the series "a whole lot of fun" and "something for everyone", praising the series' anthology nature, its cast of characters, storyline, plot twists, bloody violence, and even the series-within-the-series Falcon Husbandry (shown as a favorite of Robin and Justin's in Episode 2). Bloody Disgusting awarded the show four skulls out of five, praising Katie McGrath as a great "protagonist and possible final girl" and the series' decision to feature an adult cast, rather than teenagers, with well-developed characters and a "decidedly classic" presentation. On the occasion of Slasher's Super Channel premiere, The Globe and Mail's John Doyle, while remarking that it "is no masterpiece of horror, nor was it meant to be," called the show "very well-crafted," praising its "exceptional cast" and tight pacing, and noting fans of gory horror will appreciate its bloody scenes.

Awards and accolades

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International broadcast

On May 25, 2016, the entire first season of Slasher became available to stream instantly on Netflix US.