by Benjamin Leonard, Managing Editor, Best Boy

Hello film friends! We have just started shipping out the latest issue of the zine, and I thought it’d be fun to tell you all about it. It’s the spooky season and our topic this time is SLASHERS. We tried to stay away from the big franchises so that maybe we could expose y’all to something new. If you want to watch before you read, I’ve included links for where you can find the films we’ve discussed. Also, we’ve got a slew of new writers. So I’ve linked to everyone’s articles (where applicable) on the website in hopes that you’ll get to know them better.

First up, we’ve got Vannah Taylor discussing emasculation and phallic weaponry in slashers such as: The Driller Killer and The Toolbox Murders. Then, Avery Coffey makes the case for Horny the Clown: the killer that coulda been a contender in Drive Thru. Is he a creature or a slasher? J †Johnson posits that Dr. Giggles is torn between to genres. Nikk Nelson preaches the importance of physical media because High Tension is not currently available to stream. Also not currently available is Popcorn, which Hunter Bush uses to talk about the tradition of honoring films of the past in horror. Christopher La Vigna tells you about one of my favorite movies, Deerskin, in which a man is so obsessed with his badass jacket that he thinks no one else should even be allowed to own a jacket.

Our cover story is Candyman where Melissa Strong recounts her experience with watching it for the first time in 2024. Sadly also not streaming is Wicked, Wicked, which was new to me this year and I absolutely LOVED it! William Bibbiani tells us all about its use of Duo-Vision, a cinematographic style that really coulda caught on. Speaking of duos, Fiona Underhill discusses one half of the film making duo The Archers with Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom. Then, you favorite Slumberkins Rosalie Kicks and Katie McBrown shoot their shot and pitch a Ma sequel to Mr. Blum.

After all that, maybe you need to pause for a drink. Liz Locke of CinemaSips.com is here to help with a drink pairing for the John Waters classic Serial Mom. Stacey Osbeck offers up a slasher for the squeamish with the milder-than-anticipated The Town that Dreaded Sundown. Clayton Hayes discusses the mini sub-genre of slashers at the gym with Killer Workout and The Toxic Avenger. Next we have an ode to the bottom shelf terrors of the old VHS racks at the video store in Prom Night by Kevin Murphy. Jill Vranken gives us a ranking of the kills in Dario Argento’s giallo classic Deep Red. Then Alex Rudolph brings us the one movie here I haven’t seen, the 1997 martial arts slasher mashup Bloodmoon. Sadly, you probably won’t be able to see it either because it is also not currently streaming. And finally, Bridget Hovell discusses the destruction of women’s spaces in The Slumber Party Massacre.

I know that’s quite the list, but don’t think of it as homework. Rather, use this as a guide to start your watchlist for the Halloween season. And, it’s not like you have to watch them all before you read about them. There will be plenty of surprises in store that we didn’t tell you about. Thanks for reading and, if you didn’t order yourself a copy of the zine yet, you can always order it here.