Slasher franchises are known for brutal kills, the targeting and terrorizing of potential victims, and usually a masked killer whose motive is as hidden as the face that is behind whatever horrific veil they’ve chosen to evoke fear. But it is the masks that become the most iconic visual of the movies and franchises as it symbolizes the unknown plight of the story as well as the fate of the characters.
Let’s take a look at slasher movie franchises whose titular killer wears a mask and rank them from least prominent to most.
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9 Happy Death Day
Universal Pictures
Viewed as a black comedy slasher film, Happy Death Day’s killer wears a baby mask that is simplistically eerie and happens to also be the mascot of the university that is the setting of the movie. The plot of the story revolves around Tree Gelbman, a univesity student, who after a drunken night of partying wakes up on her birthday in the dorm room of a student, Carter, she’s never met before, only to later be murdered by the baby-masked killer. Tree then wakes up in Carter’s bed again, and the previous events keep repeating itself. She’s forced to live her death on her birthday over and over again until she figures out who the killer is and the motive for the attack. The franchise has two movies with a possibe third going into production.
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8 The Strangers
Probably one of the darkest slasher movies ever made, the killers in The Strangers are as motiveless as their masks are emotionless. Throughout the movie, there’s an eerie quietness, a stillness in each frame, as each killer taunts and terrorizes the couple, Kristen Mckay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman), before attempting to kill them. The franchise has two movies, with the sequel to The Strangers released ten years after the original in 2018, ultimately bringing the story to a close with a final resolution for the masked killers.
7 The Collector
The Collector’s masked killer is a burly brute that has a penchant for setting traps and trapping his victims in a trunk, collecting them. The plot of the story centers around Arkin O’Brien, who breaks into a home to steal a ruby to pay off loan sharks to protect his wife and child. However, after entering the home, he discovers that there’s another assailant who has more menacing machinations. This sets off a chain of events, full of mayhem, as Arkin and other members of the house he broke into attempt to survive the masked killer. There are two movies in the franchise. The Collector 2 released in 2012. There have been talks of making a third film to finish off the story as a trilogy.
6 Saw
Lionsgate
The masked killer in Saw is a mastermind named Jigsaw who plays deadly games with his victims, usually placing them in some kind of contraption, device, or circumstance that is designed to torture them and eventually kill them. Often times, victims are pit against each other for survival. What’s unique about this franchise and its killer is that Jigsaw himself never actually kills anyone, not physically. Saw, as a franchise, has nine movies.
5 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
New Line Cinema
Originally released in 1974, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s killer is Leatherface, a chainsaw wielding behemoth of a man who wears the sewn together skin of victims as a mask. The film follows a group of friends who become victims of a family of cannibals, with one of the sons, deformed, leading the charge of terror as the group of friends try to survive. Interestingly enough, Leatherface is credited with being one of the first masked killers in the slasher genre to use power tools as a way of killing victims. The franchise has 10 movies, including sequels, prequels, and reboots.
4 My Bloody Valentine
The masked killer in My Bloody Valentine dons a miner’s mask and gear and uses a pick axe to murder his victims. The plot of the story revolves around a group of friends who decide to throw a Valentine’s Day party in a mine only to incur the wrath and vengeance of The Miner, also known as Harry Warden. This slasher franchise has two movies, the original and a remake titled, My Bloody Valentine 3D.
3 Friday The 13th
Paramount Pictures
The original Friday the 13th did not have a masked killer. Rather, it followed the plight of camp counselors who are murdered by an unknown killer. It is later revealed that the killer is Pamela Voorhees, a mother seeking revenge for a horrible tragedy that happened to her son. It is not until Friday the 13th: Part 2 that Jason Voorhees becomes the killer, resurrecting from the dead in a zombie/monster-like state to punish any and all camp counselors going forward, often with a machete. Jason did not get the iconic mask until Part III when he takes it from Shelly. The slasher franchise has twelve movies.
2 Scream
Dimension Films
The killer(s) in the Scream franchise wear a hooded black robe and dons a Ghostface mask. The choice of mask has become the killers’ moniker, Ghostface, and is never the same person behind the mask from movie to movie, making the identity and reveal of the killer(s) in each movie a penultimate moment. The plot of the original movie follows Sidney Prescott and a group of friends as they are terrorized by a killer in a Halloween costume, i.e. Ghostface. Several sequels continue to follow a similar storyline as different killers wear the robe and mask in an effort to kill Sidney. It isn’t until Scream (2022), also known as Scream 5, that the target changes from Sidney. The franchise has five films with a sixth releasing in 2023.
1 Halloween
Michael Myers is probably one of the most iconic figures in the slasher subgenre. Known as The Shape (in the original screenplay that is what he is referred to as), Michael dons a plain white-faced mask with hair. The plot of Halloween focuses on Michael, who was committed to a sanitarium for killing his sister, Judith. Fifteen years later, Michael escapes from that sanitarium and goes on killing spree on Halloween night. In the original Halloween movie, the character gets the mask from a hardware store the night he escapes the sanitarium. Michael Myers’ killing spree and body count throughout the franchise’s history is epic and there’s probably no other slasher icon that’s more revered and known, by music and mask. There are 13 films in the slasher franchise.
