10 Most Inventive Chase Sequences In Slasher Movies

The human race was created with an inherent fear of being chased.

Fight or flight is conditioned into our animal instincts to save us from danger, but now that we all live cushy lives in comparison, where we hunt for food in the supermarket and buy our overpriced shelter instead of building it ourselves, we have no need for this fear.

Consequently that ingrained, primal safety mode that hides inside all of us lays dormant, waiting to be activated.

So like all primal fears, horror movies capitalise on our distaste for being chased in a way that sends us back to our caveman roots, hiding behind our blankets with our hearts thumping wildly in our chests.

After a while though, watching the same formula of 'girl screams and runs away while scary man chases with a weapon' lost its terrifying edge.

So, it was up to filmmakers to reinvent the slasher trope in a way that still puts the fear of God into the audience in new and unpredictable ways. Enter these clever and inventive slasher movies...

In what can only be called one of the most iconic slasher movie chase sequences of all time, Helen's chase and subsequent death scene utilizes a ton of subversion to keep you on the edge of your seat.

On the surface, the scene seems to be your run-of-the-mill set-piece, with all the classic conventions of a slasher chase, but the movie uses them to lull the audience into believing they can predict exactly how the scene will play out... spoiler alert: they can't!

The scene cleverly subverts its own predictable beat-for-beat sequence in many ways. Firstly it sees two different characters, a police officer and Helen's own sister, get murdered by The Fisherman Killer - even though the sequence supposedly revolves around Helen. Secondly, the chase cleverly seems to end half way through, when Helen seemingly gets to safety inside her father's store, luring the audience into a false sense of security.

When the scene picks back up, everything is a bit more chaotic. Helen runs frantically through her father's store, getting jump-scared by The Fisherman and devastatingly finding her own sister's mutilated body. She manages to escape, smashing through a window after weaving her way through the foundations of the store.

In a moment of pure genius, Helen finds her freedom: a street full of parade goers. As she gets inches away from the crowd of people, she pauses. She's safe, or at least that's what the audience is led to believe.

In a shocking twist, The Fisherman appears and murders Helen, leaving the audience's expectations shot.