Slasher is a Canadian television horror anthology series created by Aaron Martin.
The first season, retroactively subtitled The Executioner, was produced in association with the Canadian network Super Channel, Slasher was the first (and only) original series by the now-defunct 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. 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.
On May 1, 2017, Slasher began filming a second season in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada. The licensing rights for the second season was acquired by Netflix. The season was released as a "Netflix Original" title in various countries on October 17, 2017. The second season titled Slasher: Guilty Party is centered on a group of former summer camp counselors who return to an isolated campground in order to bury their sins of the past, before being targeted, one by one, by an unknown killer.
Video 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.
Maps Slasher (TV series)
Plot
Season 1: The Executioner (2016)
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".
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").
The police chief is found harboring Ariel, a missing teenager that he kidnapped, and a child they had together, in a enclosed locked room in his basement. Sarah's grandmother accidentally put her best friend in a coma by dropping a cinder block on her head (in fact, she was aiming for the girl sitting next to her best friend; the boy who had gotten Sarah's grandmother pregnant as a teenager was taking this girl to their high school prom). Bryan and Rachel (Sarah's parents) were cuckolding multiple men and video taping them into service to support them, including Tom Winston. Tom decided to kill Bryan and Rachel after falling in love with Rachel and being blackmailed, but saved Sarah after Rachel told him Sarah was actually his and not her husband's.
Eventually, it's revealed that the deputy Cam is the Executioner, suffering under an abusive mother whom he pushed down the stairs, killing her. Cam's father, the town priest, discovered that Cam was the Executioner, and Cam killed him as well. After finding her father's body parts in his home, Sarah kills Cam with a machete.
Season 2: Guilty Party (2017)
Slasher's 8-episode second season centers around a horrific secret that a group of former summer camp counselors have buried long ago. Due to a changing circumstance, they must return to their resort in the dead of winter to retrieve the body of Talvinder, whom they murdered while they were camp counsellors, five years earlier. They get surprised when they can't find the body at the campsite. Later, the group start dying one by one at the hands of a mysterious person wearing a parka, which also alerts the second group of counselors at the resort.
Eventually, it's revealed that Judith is the killer, and another character, Wren, is actually Owen "Wren" Turnbull, her son who committed suicide after being framed for Talvinder's murder, and is a figment of Judith's imagination. Owen wrote a letter to his mother, asking her to get justice for him before hanging himself. Judith killed several members of the commune for their complicity after the fact, as Antoine discovered Talvinder's body and hid it to avoid jeopardizing a real estate deal. Dawn and Keira are the only ones to escape her wrath and the former finally turns herself in for her crime during the epilogue. Judith can be seen watching them along with the hallucination of Owen, who says they'll be waiting for Dawn after she is released from prison.
Cast and characters
Season 1: The Executioner
Main
- Katie McGrath as Sarah Bennett, an art gallery owner who recently moved to Waterbury, her place of birth.
- Brandon Jay McLaren as Dylan Bennett, Sarah's husband and editor-in-chief of the local newspaper, the Waterbury Bulletin.
- Steve Byers as Cam Henry, a member of Waterbury's police force.
- Patrick Garrow as Tom Winston, the original Executioner who murdered Sarah's parents in 1988 and who advises Sarah on the new Executioner's murders in the present day.
- Dean McDermott as Iain Vaughn, Waterbury's police chief.
- Christopher Jacot as Robin Turner, who, after the death of his husband, Justin, must deal with the business mess he left behind.
- Wendy Crewson as Brenda Merrit, Sarah's maternal grandmother, who returns to Waterbury to look after Sarah and Dylan.
Recurring
- Jessica Sipos as June Henry, Cam's wife, who works as an EMT and shows jealousy over Cam's relationship to Sarah.
- Mary Walsh as Verna McBride, Sarah and Dylan's neighbor, who passed judgement almost immediately on the two.
- Enuka Okuma as Lisa Ann Follows, a former criminal justice lawyer, now a New York-based journalist and talk show host.
- Erin Karpluk as Heather Peterson. She is deeply haunted by and obsessed with her daughter Ariel's disappearance, which occurred 5 years before the show begins. Karpluk has equated Heather to the Log Lady, in that much like the Twin Peaks character, Heather appears to have a sixth sense about Waterbury's residents and their dark secrets.
- Mayko Nguyen as Alison Sutherland, the publisher of the Waterbury Bulletin and Dylan's boss.
- Rob Stewart as Alan Henry, Cam's father, a church pastor, and the survivor/witness of Sarah's parents' murder. He has made occasional visits to Tom Winston in prison to provide religious counsel.
- Jefferson Brown as Trent McBride, Verna's nephew, June Henry's former EMT partner, and an enthusiastic hunter and taxidermist.
- Mark Ghanimé as Justin Faysal, who with husband Robin purchased several properties in Waterbury, including the storefront location that serves as Sarah's art gallery.
- Dylan Taylor as Bryan Ingram, Sarah's father
- Alysa King as Rachel Ingram, Sarah's mother
- Victoria Snow as Sonja Edwards, Brenda's former childhood friend and her intended victim in a prom night 1968 incident.
- Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Ariel Peterson, Heather's missing daughter
- Shawn Ahmed as Sharma, an officer in Waterbury's police force
- Booth Savage as Ronald Edwards, the Mayor of Waterbury
- Susannah Hoffman as Marjorie Travers, a prostitute and drug addict
Season 2: Guilty Party
Main
- Leslie Hope as Judith Berry, a commune member, who has had a drug addiction, has a collection of rocks, and occasionally cuts herself.
- Lovell Adams-Gray as Peter Broome / Burrow, a former counselor, and Andi's ex-boyfriend.
- Jim Watson as Noah Jenkins, a former camp counselor. Five years ago, Talvinder manipulated Noah into doing things for her by making it look like she wanted to be his girlfriend.
- Paula Brancati as Dawn Duguin, a former camp counselor. Five years ago, Dawn and Talvinder were friends, but Talvinder stopped Dawn from having a relationship with Ryan, causing Dawn to hate her.
- Christopher Jacot as Antoine, a masseuse and yoga instructor, and Renee's legal husband, though he is gay.
- Paulino Nunes as Mark Rankin: A former lawyer, who came to the commune after nearly being killed by the father of the victim of a man he successfully defended.
- Ty Olsson as Benny Ironside / Glenn Morgan, a former prisoner.
- Joanne Vannicola as Renée, one of the commune's leaders alongside her legal husband Antoine, though she is a lesbian.
- Sebastian Pigott as Owen "Wren" Turnbull, Judith's son. He was a counselor at Camp Motega five years ago. He had an unhealthy obsession with Talvinder.
- Madison Cheeatow as Keira, a former nurse at the commune, who came after she accidentally killed a patient.
Recurring
- Melinda Shankar as Talvinder Gill, a new camp counselor whose murder drives the events of Guilty Party. A manipulative girl, she played on the other counselors kindness.
- Kaitlyn Leeb as Susan Lam, a mother and wife, and once Andi and Dawn's friend.
- Rebecca Liddiard as Andi Criss, Peter's ex-girlfriend.
- Dean McDermott as Alan Haight, a man whose son died in a hit and run accident.
- Rebecca Amzallag as Stephanie, a woman Mark was having an affair with before arriving at the commune.
- Jefferson Brown as Gene, the outfitter and supply deliverer for the commune.
- Kyle Buchanan as Simon, Andi's current boyfriend.
- Simu Liu as Luke, Susan's kind and somewhat oblivious husband.
- Sophia Walker as Megan, a hiker.
- Kimberly-Sue Murray as Janice, Gene's girlfriend.
- Luke Humphrey as Glenn Morgan / R. G., a former drug dealer, and incarcerated at the same prison as Benny.
- Jon McLaren as Ryan, a counselor at Camp Motega five years ago.
Episodes
Season 1: The Executioner (2016)
Season 2: Guilty Party (2017)
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 now-defunct American network Chiller, which specializes in the horror/thriller genre, would join in production sometime after Super Channel; Slasher would be Chiller's first (and only) 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).
On May 1, 2017, Slasher began filming a second season in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada. Shaftesbury Films confirmed that the series will not be returning to Super Channel or Chiller for a second season. However, Netflix acquired the rights to the second season. The second season was released via Netflix on October 17, 2017.
Reception
Slasher has received positive reviews. 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
International broadcast
On May 25, 2016, the entire first season of Slasher became available to stream instantly on Netflix US. On October 17, 2017, the full second season of Slasher became available to stream on Netflix in various countries. Season Two began airing in the United Kingdom via Pick-TV.
References
External links
- Official website
- Slasher on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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