10 Hidden Gem '80s Slasher Horror Movies

2. The Mutilator

Slaughter High
Ocean King Releasing

Buddy Cooper's The Mutilator - also known as Fall Break - is one of the great overlooked slashers of its time. Sure, it might be a personal guilty pleasure of your writer, but there really is a whole bunch to enjoy with this 1984 offering.

Setting the table for this feature, the opening sequence shows Big Ed returning home to celebrate his birthday after a day at work. There, his wife has baked a cake, and Ed Jr. is polishing his old man's guns as a birthday treat. Unfortunately, the youngster accidentally unloads one of these guns through his mother's chest, just as Big Ed enters the house.

From there, we get a mildly bizarre scene where Big Ed hugs the corpse of his wife and tries to get her to drink some bourbon, before The Mutilator jumps forward to Ed Jr. in college as he and his friends head out to the family's beach house.

Of course, Big Ed has spent the subsequent years stewing over his wife's death and detesting his own son. As such, he's waiting at this beach house to slaughter Ed Jr. and his pals. What follows are some nice kills, some decent gore, and the ridiculously cheesy-but-catchy Fall Break theme song.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.