3 out of 5

Created by: Aaron Martin

Breaking Bad paved the way for cinematic storytelling on TV.  Some steps to The Walking Dead, which paved the way for horror.  Some more steps to American Horror Story, which continued pushing barriers, and provided this idea of anthology storytelling, which pretty much caused the entire world of Idea Men (ahem, and Women) to poop their pants over the possibilities of branding + endless reinvention.

All of this is a good thing, even if it means that every other series is now cinematic, with horror and/or comic book elements, and an anthology.  And it led us to Slasher, one of several bids this year for an ongoing non-zombie / vampire horror shows, along with AHS creators’ Scream Queens as much of a tonal mess as everything else they do, and MTV’s Scream pretty much as teeny obnoxious as one would associate with MTV.  Slasher, praise Halloween, has its heart in the right place: legitimizing the slasher genre with a real story, solid characters and acting, and, of course, without shying away from blood and guts.  But the key here is that Slasher didn’t appear concerned with upping the ante every kill: it introduced its 7-sins-themed killer with a bloody stabbing, sure, but then focused on groundwork, weaving a complicated whodunnit web around the small town to which lead Sarah (Katie McGrath) has moved back – a decision which has also seemed to kick off the murderin’s.  The logic of series writer Aaron Martin, which turned out to be incredibly sound, was that you’d need this kind of solid core to make the pitch work for a full season.  Indeed, once the main pieces were in place (Sarah’s history, her family’s history and the motivations of the killer require some time to properly explain), I generally preferred spending time digging into the mystery versus flashing to what our bad guy – dubbed The Executioner – was up to.  Except, I mean, totally cool costume, and it’s also a key way to tick off potential suspects, so it’s a required slasher element.

…The show’s dedication to which is what blocks it from being… well, more than what it is.  Which isn’t exactly a slight, it’s just to say: at the end of the day, Slasher is a slasher.  It’s full of misdirects regarding the killer, tunnel-vision motivations, and occasionally unnecessary character padding – which comes via Sarah’s husband’s (Brandon Jay McLaren) hopes of translating the murders into fame as a reporter / author – or odd subplot diversions done just to up the creep factor.  I mean, it all functions exactly as it should, and this is perfect for the anthology format, as we really shouldn’t be stretching the concept out more than the 8 episodes to which it ran.  And it is the clear winner of the horror series war.  So please, yes, bring on the next season, Mr. Martin; keep doing exactly what you did with season 1 and I’ll be a happy genre fan.