Slashers have been a horror mainstay since the 1970s, and the subgenre clearly has plenty of life left in it. Scream VI has performed strongly at the box office, grossing over $140m to become the year's second highest-grossing horror movie horror so far after M3GAN.

This is nothing new for the franchise: out of the ten highest-grossing slashers ever, a full four of them are Scream movies. The rest of the top ten is made up of remakes and reboots of the original classic slasher films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. Most of these movies are far from the best that the genre has to offer, but they packed enough of a thrill to draw big audiences.

10 'Friday the 13th' (2009)

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Gross: $91 m

Marcus Nispel directed this reboot of the 1980 film of the same name. Nispel's version follows a group of young adults who venture into the abandoned campsite at Crystal Lake and fall victim to Jason's brutal attacks. Jared Padalecki leads the cast as Clay Miller, a young man searching for his missing sister. Derek Mears plays Jason Voorhees, the hockey-masked killer lurking in the woods.

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It's a bloody homage to the original franchise, which redesigns Jason to be leaner and faster. Padalecki's performance as the determined and resourceful Clay adds a human element to the film, making the audience invested in his quest to find his sister.

9 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (2003)

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Gross: $107 m

Another reboot by Nispel, 2003's Texas Chainsaw Massacre stars Jessica Biel as Erin, a young woman on a road trip with her friends who become stranded in a rural Texas town. The friends end up crossing paths with a family of deranged cannibals, led by the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski).

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The film has its moments, but it can't compete with the 1974 original. That movie had a lot of depth under the brutality, with themes around disillusionment with authority reflecting the sentiment of Watergate-era America. By contrast, the 2003 version offers up gore galore but not much more. Nevertheless, its success inspired countless other horror remakes in the 2000s and 2010s.

8 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (2010)

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Gross: $115 m

Yet another remake, 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street centers on Nancy (Rooney Mara) and her friends, who must confront their deepest fears and face Freddy Krueger in order to stay alive. Jackie Earle Haley is the iconic villain, a sadistic and vengeful spirit who haunts his victims' dreams.

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Over the course of the franchise, Freddy had become more comical, especially with his quips and one-liners. This movie does a good job of returning him to his menacing roots. Director Samuel Bayer also revels in the dreamscape concept from Wes Craven's original film, which he takes to another level with CGI that Craven didn't have access to in

7 'Freddy vs. Jason' (2003)

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Gross: $116 m

Freddy vs. Jason brings together two of horror's most iconic villains. Oddly enough, the main character is Freddy (Robert Englund), who has become powerless in the dream world, and so enlists Jason (Ken Kirzinger) to create fear in the real world. Freddy hopes this will help him regain his strength. However, Jason's killing spree becomes too much for Freddy to control, leading to an epic battle between the two killers.

Director Ronnie Yu has said that he drew inspiration for the film from the classic Japanese kaiju movies like Godzilla and King Kong, which also had crossovers that brought together monsters from various films. He adds that the movie was meant to be entertaining rather than scary. "[The audience] wanted to see Freddy fight Jason," he explains, "almost like a WWE wrestling match."

6 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' (1997)

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Gross: $125 m

One of the defining slashers of the '90s, I Know What You Did Last Summer stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as Julie James, a young woman who, along with her friends, accidentally hits a pedestrian while driving home from a party. They decide to dispose of the body and make a pact to never speak of it again. However, a year later, they begin to receive ominous messages and are stalked by a mysterious figure in a raincoat wielding a hook.

The film was rushed in order to cash in on the success of Scream, but it more than holds its own. It's a suspenseful tale of guilt and revenge, with Hewitt delivering a convincing performance as the tortured Julie. Not to mention, its closing shot ranks among the best of any horror movie that decade.

5 'Scream VI' (2023)

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Image via Dimension Films

Gross: $140m

In the latest Scream, the survivors from the previous films leave the small town of Woodsboro to start afresh in New York City. However, the masked murderer comes back to haunt them. After a series of killings where a ghost face mask is left at the scene, the main characters start digging deeper to stop the murderer before he finds them.

The lead characters hold up, especially Jenna Ortega. It's also great to see Courteney Cox and Hayden Panettiere reprising their roles from earlier installments. However, the absence of original star Neve Campbell is a big weakness, especially for a movie that's so self-referential.

4 'Scream 3' (2000)

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Gross: $161 m

The third Scream stars Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, a young woman who is once again targeted by the Ghostface killer. This time, the murderer is going after the cast and crew of the movie Stab 3, a film based on the events of the previous films.

Scream 3 is even more comedic than the first two, and pulls off the film-within-a-film concept especially well. While most of it is not that memorable, it's noteworthy for being one of the first substantial roles for Emily Mortimer, helping to launch her to greater success.

3 'Scream 2' (1997)

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Gross: $172 m

Scream 2 takes place two years after the events of the first film, with Sidney now attending college and trying to move on from the traumatic events of her past. However, when a series of murders occur on campus, she finds herself once again at the center of a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Campbell delivers a strong performance as the resilient Sidney. Courteney Cox and David Arquette also put in solid performances, reprising their roles from the first installment. While not as entertaining as its predecessor, Scream 2 is a smart and self-aware horror movie that deconstructs the conventions of the genre while still delivering plenty of scares and tension.

2 'Scream' (1996)

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Gross: $173 m

With Scream, Wes Craven subverted the slasher tropes he helped create back in 1984 with the first A Nightmare on Elm Street. The film has a simple premise: a mask-wearing killer pursues high school student Sidney (Neve Campbell) and her friends. However, Scream shook up the subgenre by having lead characters who had watched a lot of slasher films.

They are familiar with the slasher clichés and use this knowledge to their advantage, resulting in some great meta moments. In the process, Scream morphs into a self-aware parody of the genre, full of tongue-in-cheek comments and references. Fortunately, it still delivers enough frights to justify the "horror" in comedy-horror.

1 'Halloween' (2018)

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Gross: $259 m

2018's Halloween focuses on Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), a survivor of the original Halloween massacre who has spent the last forty years preparing for the inevitable return of Michael Myers. When Myers escapes from custody and returns to Haddonfield, Laurie must confront her greatest fear and protect herself and her family from the psychotic killer.

It's a revisionist sequel that ignores all the previous Halloween movies, except for John Carpenter's original. Director David Gordon Green is a devotee of that movie, referring to it as "sacred ground." He pays tribute to it with all kinds of references and Easter eggs, while also adding some of his own touches, especially the way he tweaks the two main characters. Myers is even more violent and brutal than before (after all, he's got 40 years in confinement to make up for) while Laurie has also become stronger and more ruthless because of their first run-in. The result is a worthy addition to the franchise, which paved the way for two sequels, also starring Curtis.

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