Slasher (TV series)

Slasher
Genre Horror
Anthology
Drama
Mystery
Created by Aaron Martin
Directed by Craig David Wallace
Starring
Composer(s) Shawn Pierce
Country of origin Canada
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Editor(s) Erin Deck
Camera setup Single-camera
Production company(s) Super Channel
Chiller Films
Shaftesbury Films
Release
Original network Super Channel (Canada)
Chiller (USA)
Original release March 4, 2016 (2016-03-04) – present
External links
Website

Slasher is a Canadian television horror anthology series starring Katie McGrath. Produced in association with the Canadian network Super Channel, Slasher is the first original series by U.S. TV channel Chiller, which premiered the series on Friday, March 4, 2016, at 9:00 pm EST. Super Channel aired the show's Canadian premiere on April 1, 2016.[1]

The series' first season, which centered on a mysterious figure billed as "The Executioner" terrorizing the fictional town of Waterbury, Canada, was filmed between July and October 2015 in Sudbury, Parry Sound, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.[2]

Background

Slasher employs a season-long anthology format, with an overarching mystery storyline that will be resolved upon the season's conclusion.[3] 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.[4]

Martin aims to tell "a modern-day monster story" in Slasher, combining three of his favorite genres: The contemporary murder mystery (a la Broadchurch),[5] the works of Agatha Christie (one of Martin's favorite crime writers), and the classic slasher films he grew up with.[6] 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.[4]

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,[7] 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.[3] Sarah's return to Waterbury in the is greeted with the start of a series of copycat murders, all appearing to be at the hands of "The Executioner".[8]

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").[9]

The sin The Executioner's victim Episode of death Background
Wrath Verna McBride 1 After Sarah discovered the remains of Verna's husband, Peter, in Episode 2, Allison theorizes that Verna killed Peter years earlier after she discovered he and Rachel (Sarah's mother) were making sex tapes.
Gluttony Justin Faysal 2 Though it was shown that Justin used cocaine prior to his death, Sarah is initially confused as to why he would be punished for gluttony (his ingestion of rat poison is a twist on a glutton's punishment of being forced-fed rats). Widower, Robin, offers Sara some insight in Episode 3: A friend of Justin's knew someone on Waterbury's city council, who rezoned a parcel of lakefront land where the Vicker family had been living. Unable to afford the taxes, the Vickers were forced to sell their land and squat in an abandoned house, where they suffocated in their sleep due to a malfunctioning propane heater. (The Executioner's victim lists and drawings depicting the deadly sins would be discovered in that same house in Episode 7.) Justin would acquire the Vickers' land, on which he and Robin built their dream house.[9][10]
Envy Brenda Merrit 3 In 1968, a young Brenda was unable to attend the prom because her 'friend' Ronald (Waterbury's future mayor) got her pregnant. Wanting to hurt friend Sonja, she stood on a bridge over a road on prom night and dropped a cinder block on the car Sonja was driving with her friends. Intending to hit Sonja, the block accidentally hit Brenda's best friend Ada, who wasn't supposed to be with them. The injury sent Ada into a coma she has never awoken from.[9]
Sloth Trent McBride and June Henry 4 Five years ago, Trent and June were driving their ambulance back to the hospital to sign out of their EMT shift. As they did, they saw Ariel Peterson (Heather's 15-year-old daughter) standing on the side of the road, clearly drunk. Seeking a quick end to their shift (and not wanting to fill out the necessary paperwork had they treated her), Trent and June just made sure Ariel was alright and drove on. It was the night Ariel disappeared.
Greed Alison Sutherland 5 After pouring her own savings into the Waterbury Bulletin, Alison needed a big story to generate readership, and saw sensational material in Ariel's disappearance: She published in the Bulletin false evidence that Benny Peterson (Heather's husband, who physically beat both his wife and daughter) abducted Ariel, along with juicy messages suggesting he was sexually interested in his daughter. This focused the investigation on Benny instead of other, more productive avenues, which drove Benny to take his own life. When Alison disclosed this to Lisa Ann Follows in Episode 5, she did not express any regrets or thoughts of doing things differently, being content in the fact that the story kept the Bulletin afloat.
Lust Iain Vaughn 6 Sometime after Trent and June left Ariel on the night of her disappearance, an off-duty Iain picked her up in his car. Telling Ariel she should sober up first, Iain drove past the Peterson home, later pulling to the side and raping Ariel. In the years that followed, Iain kept Ariel as a concubine, imprisoning both her and Jake, the son they conceived together, in a room-sized safe in his basement (a room that, it is suggested, not even Iain's wife had access to).
Pride Tom Winston 7 Only Tom and Sarah were targeted for their pride of playing God, which they both admit to in Episode 7: Sarah admits she once attempted to take her own life, but Tom's dates back to his time as a priest in Waterbury, when he became infatuated with Rachel Ingram. Rachel wanted to help Tom "clean up the town's sins," but the two became sexually attracted to each other. Rachel's husband, Bryan, intruded on one of her and Tom's interludes, only to reveal that he taped it for a sex video (Alan Henry helped to distribute the videos). Bryan states the moment will be kept between the three of them, but gets Tom to admit his love for Rachel. The anger and heartbreak Tom felt would help formulate his plan to murder both Bryan and Rachel on Halloween Night 1988.[10]

Cast

Main

Recurring

Episodes

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateU.S. viewers
(millions)
1"An Eye for an Eye"Craig David WallaceAaron MartinMarch 4, 2016 (2016-03-04)0.120[16]
Sarah and Dylan move to Waterbury and into the former home and murder site of her parents. The new "Executioner" surfaces for the first time, chasing Sarah down her street before beating a teen boy who had been destroying mailboxes with his baseball bat. Following a suggestion from Tom Winston after their first meeting, Sarah discovers a camcorder and illicit sex tapes her parents buried in their house, tapes that Verna discovers and takes to her house after snooping around. The Executioner ties down and dismembers Verna in her bedroom as punishment for the sin of wrath. Sarah discovers Verna's body, only to fall down the stairs and lose consciousness while trying to escape The Executioner, who leaves one sex tape beside her.
2"Digging Your Grave With Your Teeth"Craig David WallaceAaron MartinMarch 4, 2016 (2016-03-04)0.110[16]
Sarah's grandmother, Brenda arrives at the Bennett's home, suitcase in hand. Robin is confronted by Trent, while Sarah is confronted by Heather. Sarah receives a package containing a severed human finger and a note; following Tom's suggestion that the note contains geographic coordinates, Sarah discovers the remains of Verna McBride's husband, Peter, in a nearby wooded area. Lured out into an alley way by a severed power cable, Robin's arms are slashed by The Executioner, with a bystander rescuing Robin. While Robin recovers in hospital, another outage occurs, after which Robin receives flowers and a card of condolence. Believing Justin is in danger, Robin and Cam frantically try to call Justin but Justin dies after collapsing and frothing at the mouth after ingesting rat poisoning, serving as the punishment for gluttony. After she had previously threatened Justin and Robin, A fitful Heather is arrested by the police.
3"Like as Fire Eateth Up and Burneth Wood"Craig David WallaceAaron MartinMarch 11, 2016 (2016-03-11)0.067[17]
Robin, deep in grief over Justin and deep in the business mess he left behind, deals with Trent's anger over Justin giving him a bad check. After The Executioner breaks into her home, Sarah heads out of town. After swerving off the road to avoid a truck, Sarah and Brenda become separated in the woods. Brenda, who had just admitted to Sarah her role in Ada's accident, is kidnapped by The Executioner, who ties her to a block and tosses it into the lake at a nearby boathouse. Brenda's drowning death, the punishment for envy, prompts the police to release Heather from custody.
4"As Water is Corrupted Unless It Moves"Craig David WallaceAaron MartinMarch 18, 2016 (2016-03-18)0.067[18]
The police verify that the truck that ran off Sarah and Brenda belonged to Trent. Trent is chased into a pit in the woods and eaten by snakes as punishment for sloth by The Executioner. Dylan interviews Tom in prison for the Bulletin. Tom produces evidence to Dylan that suggests he has had a greater interest in Tom than he let on to Sarah. Apologetic for drunkenly claiming Sarah is in love with Cam, June confides to Sarah that she and Trent had an affair while they were EMT partners; she also tells Sarah about Trent's encounter with Ariel Peterson. Security camera footage reveals a detail June left out: She was with Trent in his ambulance that night. After comforting a hysteric Heather, June heads to church to pray but The Executioner abducts her. June awakens in a cornfield naked, attached to an IV, and covered in honey.
5"Ill-Gotten Gains"Craig David WallaceAaron MartinMarch 25, 2016 (2016-03-25)0.053[19]
June's rotted remains are discovered. Cam and Sarah argue over suspicions each other have about the killer; Alan learns about the argument and advises Sarah to be careful. Sarah and Robin discover a "murder kit" in Alan's church office, later discovering Alan needs the contents for a BDSM session. Sarah discovers her parents' sex videos feature a young Tom Winston. Alison asks The Executioner on-air for an interview who obliges and, in full costume, speaks with Alison at an abandoned foundry. Alison confides to Lisa Ann that she fabricated evidence in the Bulletin that tied Benny Peterson to his daughter's disappearance. Heading to New York, Alison gets into a courtesy limo driven by the Executioner, who takes her back to the foundry slashes her throat; her head is later found in a restaurant's deep fryer as punishment for greed. Vaughn heads home to his basement, where he opens a room-sized safe; inside, a young boy is being sung to by Ariel Peterson.
6"The One Who Sows His Own Flesh"Craig David WallaceAaron MartinApril 1, 2016 (2016-04-01)0.076[20]
The cold open depicts Iain Vaughn's abduction and rape of Ariel 5 years ago; in the present day, he prevents an attempt by Ariel and son Jake to escape his basement. Sarah becomes suspicious about Dylan's whereabouts when Alison was killed. Tom insists to Sarah that he is her father with a DNA test to confirm. After Sarah and Cam tell Vaughn their suspicions about Marjorie Travers' claim of seeing Ariel the night she disappeared, Vaughn and Marjorie meet and he gives Marjorie a needle filled with heroin that she fatally overdoses on. Realizing Sarah is suspicious about Marjorie's death, Vaughn takes Sarah to a junkyard and attempts to make it appear as if The Executioner punished Sarah for the sin of pride. Knowing his sin is lust, Vaughn makes an attempt to punish himself along with Ariel and Jake. With the police demanding Vaughn's whereabouts, Sarah encourages his wife, Nancy, to let them into their basement, from which only Ariel and Jake exit. Vaughn escapes to a secluded lakeside shack, where The Executioner knocks him out; he later awakens to being burned alive in a crematorium.
7"In the Pride of His Face"Craig David WallaceAaron MartinApril 8, 2016 (2016-04-08)0.077[21]
A flashback to Bryan and Rachel Ingram's murder reveals a new detail: Before killing her, Tom reveals himself to Rachel; she responds by professing her love for him and pleads for their baby's life. Sharma and Cam discover The Executioner's list of sinners, which include Tom's and Sarah's names for pride. Sarah becomes angry at Dylan after discovering his website dedicated to her parents' murders. Lisa Ann upsets Dylan with her knowledge that Tom and Sarah are targets, but mollifies him with news that she got his request for a book deal approved — and an intimate moment. While heading back to prison from hospital, Tom escapes to Sarah's house; Sarah willingly goes with him to the woods where The Executioner captures them both. With Sarah tied to a buzzsaw, Tom reveals how his own ego and pride led him to murder Bryan and Rachel. Tom demands that The Executioner punish him instead of Sarah, and he dives onto the running buzzsaw, being "broken on a wheel". At Cam's house, Cam adds a bloody piece of Tom's prison jumpsuit to a hidden box of murder mementos.
8"Soon Your Own Eyes Will See"Craig David WallaceAaron MartinApril 15, 2016 (2016-04-15)0.086[22]
After a flashback depicts the death of Cam's mother, the story picks up on Halloween eve: Alan finds Cam's box of murder mementos, but is strangled by Cam while praying for his son. Cam plants the mementos in the Bennetts' house and, after Sarah discovers them, arrests Dylan. Cam comforts Sarah, and the two have a sexual interlude. Browsing through a summer camp scrapbook, Sarah discovers a sketch Cam drew that resembles The Executioner's drawings; her new suspicions are confirmed when she sneaks into Cam's house and discovers Alan's remains and a bloody knife. Sarah takes the knife and, after luring him out of Robin's Halloween party, stabs Cam, who takes that same knife and stabs both Sarah and Robin. Sarah escapes to her house, but Cam pursues her and stabs Sarah again. Sarah, along with Dylan, turn the tables, however, stabbing Cam several times and slitting his throat. Four weeks later, a reconciled Sarah and Dylan leave Waterbury, with Robin showing their former house to two prospective buyers and their young daughter, who snaps the neck of a stray cat in the yard.

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.[5] 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.[2] A first trailer for the series would be released on November 26, 2015.[23]

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).[24]

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).[25] 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.[26] 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.[13]

International broadcast

On May 25, 2016, the entire first season of Slasher became available to stream instantly on Netflix US.[27]

References

  1. ↑ Brzoznowski, Kristin. "Super Channel Sets April Premiere for Original Series Slasher". TVDrama.ws. World Screen (WSN Inc.). Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Chiller and Shaftesbury Announce Start of Production and Cast for "Slasher"". The Futon Critic. July 28, 2016. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Patrick Hipes. "Chiller Unveils First Original Series 'Slasher', More New Movies". Deadline Hollywood.
  4. 1 2 3 "Slasher delivers a good old-fashioned murder mystery," from The TV Junkies, 3/3/2016
  5. 1 2 "A Conversation with 'Slasher' Creator Aaron Martin," from TheTelevixen, 3/4/2016
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Katie McGrath, Brandon Jay McLaren, Wendy Crewson & More To Star In Chiller's Anthology Series 'Slasher'". TVWise.
  7. ↑ Apr 1 (2016-04-01). "Steve Byers on Twitter: "Welcome to Waterbury Canada. #Slasher starts any minute on @SuperChannel @SlasherSeries". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Slasher Premieres With Two Back-to-Back Episodes," from TheTeleVixen.com, 3/2/2016
  9. 1 2 3 4 Recap for Slasher Season 1, Episode 3 from ChillerTV.com
  10. 1 2 Recap for Slasher Season 1, Episode 7 from ChillerTV.com
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Mario Giglio. "Slasher: Chiller stellt Cast seiner Horrorserie auf". Serienjunkies (in German).
  12. ↑ Recap of Chiller Season 1, Episode 6 from ChillerTV.com
  13. 1 2 "John Doyle: If gore’s your thing, Slasher will slay you," from The Globe and Mail, 4/3/2016
  14. ↑ "Erin Karpluk Ventures Into New Territory on ‘Slasher’," from TheTelevixen.com, 3/25/2016
  15. ↑ Recap of Slasher Season 1, Episode 2 from ChillerTV.com
  16. 1 2 Metcalf, Mitch (March 7, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Friday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 3.4.2016". Showbuzzdaily. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  17. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (March 14, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Friday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 3.11.2016". Showbuzzdaily. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
  18. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (March 21, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Friday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 3.18.2016". Showbuzzdaily. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  19. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (March 28, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Friday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 3.25.2016". Showbuzzdaily. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  20. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (April 4, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Friday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 4.1.2016". Showbuzzdaily. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  21. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (April 11, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Friday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 4.8.2016". Showbuzzdaily. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  22. ↑ Pucci, Douglas (April 18, 2016). "Friday Final Nationals: CBS and ABC Lead Prime Time". Programming Insider. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  23. ↑ Mario Giglio (November 27, 2015). "Slasher: Erster Trailer zur Horrorserie von Chiller". Serienjunkies.
  24. ↑ "Aaron Martin Talks Slasher's First Season And Teases The Finale," from TheTeleVixen, 4/15/2016
  25. ↑ "'Slasher': Guts & gore galore and 5 more reasons to watch Chiller's first scripted series". Zap2it.com. March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  26. ↑ "[TV Review] Chiller's 'Slasher' Impresses With More Drama Than Kills!". Bloody Disgusting. February 29, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  27. ↑ Nat Brehmer. "New on Netflix: May 27th, 2016". Wicked Horror. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
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