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Slasher movies are a cornerstone of horror, and it’s been that way for decades now.
From Halloween to Friday the 13th to Scream, stories of killers stalking unwitting (mostly) young people are a staple of the genre, and despite dozens upon dozens of films playing with the same tropes, they haven’t gotten stale yet.
If you’re a slasher fan like us, you’re probably always on the hunt for places to catch more entries in the subgenre, whether you’re brushing up on the classics or looking for some recent key hits that you might have missed in theaters. Fortunately, Peacock has you covered. From recognized legends in slasher lore to new twists on old tales, here are the best slasher movies on Peacock as the summer starts to heat up.
For More About What to Watch on Peacock:
The Best Horror Movies on Peacock for July 2024
What’s New on Peacock in July 2024
A Viewer’s Guide to Jaws
What are some of the best slasher movies currently streaming on Peacock?
Freaky (2020)
What happens when you take Freaky Friday and combine it with slasher movie tropes? You get one of the best movies the genre has ever produced, that’s what. Starring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn as a teenage girl and the slasher she switches bodies with, respectively, Freaky is great for a lot of reasons, from a brilliant script to wonderful direction. The real showcase, though, is what happens when Newton gets to play a sadistic killer in a teen girl’s body and Vaughn gets to play a teenage girl trapped in the body of a wanted murder. The results are both delightful, and frightening.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Black Christmas (1974)
One of the godfathers of the slasher as we now know it, Black Christmas is much more than an important stop on the roadmap of a subgenre. Set at a sorority home in the days leading up to Christmas, Bob Clark’s classic film begins with lots of festive holiday atmosphere, then confidently turns everything toward the horrifying. The creepy phone calls, the unconventional murder weapons, and the genuine sense that we might never truly understand what went wrong with the killer all add to the sense of watching something truly creepy. It’s a legendary film for a reason.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
Don’t let the made-for-TV movie circumstances of this film fool you. Dark Night of the Scarecrow is some seriously creepy stuff from the early years of the slasher golden age. The story of a small town where a local man was murdered for a crime he didn’t commit, it’s one of those classic examples of a slasher where the title killer is out for a very particular kind of revenge. That this revenge involves scarecrows, pitchforks, and other farm implements certainly doesn’t hurt, and the sense of slow-building menace has made this film one of slasher cinema’s great underseen gems.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Chopping Mall (1986)
Most slashers follow human, or at least human-looking, villains as they stalk their prey, but in a very ’80s twist, Chopping Mall created a different kind of monster to pick off victims one by one. Set in a mall that’s just been upgraded with a brand-new high-tech security system, the film follows a group of young people who decide to stay late after work and make the mall their own private party den, at least until the robots that are the cornerstone of that new security system start going berserk. Funny, bloody, and a wonderful glimpse into a bygone era when malls reigned supreme, Chopping Mall is an ’80s movie blast.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Terrifier (2016)
While things didn’t really pick up steam on a grand scale for the Terrifier franchise until the sequel hit in 2022, 2016’s Terrifier remains a very worthy entry in the realm of over-the-top gorefests that aren’t afraid to have a little twisted fun. As you’re probably aware by now, Damien Leone’s film follows a killer clown named Art (David Howard Thornton) who menaces unsuspecting revelers one Halloween night, and carves them to pieces along the way. Art is a villain for the ages both in terms of his look and his behavior, and the practical gore effects are enough to test the stomach of even the most seasoned slasher fan.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Hell Night (1981)
One of Linda Blair’s best post-Exorcist films, Hell Night emerged in the golden age of slasher cinema and followed one of horror’s most fruitful plot paths. Like quite a few other horror films, including fellow slasher Terror Train, it’s the story of a hazing ritual gone wrong, but this time the action is moved to a spooky old house, where a group of college students can’t quite figure out if the strange happenings are the result of a killer, or something even spookier. It’s less high-profile than some of the other films that opened the slasher floodgates in the early ’80s, but still well worth a viewing, or two.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Pieces (1982)
After the initial post-Friday the 13th slasher boom, films in the subgenre started pushing the envelope just a little more to get noticed. Pieces isn’t the most extreme slasher you’ll find from this era of horror history, but it’s still one of the most entertaining. As the title suggests, the film follows a killer stalking a college campus in search of… well, pieces. Human pieces. It’s not always the most convincing slasher to come down the pike, but watch and you’ll see why it remains a cult favorite.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Prom Night (1980)
One of the most famous films from the early golden age of slashers, Prom Night had the advantage of staring Jamie Lee Curtis in one of her first post-Halloween horror roles, but it’s a film with more to offer than a recognizable and dynamic star. The film’s killer and his distinctive attire is truly effective, as is the way the film builds in the campier elements of the title night with the brutality of the death scenes. It’s not quite on Halloween‘s level, but it’s still one of the best of the era.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
It took seven years to get a sequel to Prom Night, which might explain why the sequel we eventually got isn’t really much of a sequel at all. Sure, they share a franchise, but Hello Mary Lou is vastly different from its predecessor, and arguably even more fun. This time around, things take a supernatural approach, with a killer who happens to be a vengeful ghost preying on unsuspecting teenagers as payback for a crime committed against her 30 years earlier. It sounds wild, because it is wild.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Sick (2022)
Co-created by Scream legend Kevin Williamson, Sick is one of those films that manages to do quite a lot with a simple premise. The film is simply about two friends who, in the midst of early COVID pandemic isolation, decide to escape their college campus and head out to a secluded lake house to ride out the quarantine. Everything seems fine when they get there, until a masked killer starts stalking them, and dark secrets start to come out. Part home invasion thriller, part riff on classic slasher tropes, it’s wicked fun.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Sleepaway Camp (1983)
If you’ve never seen Sleepaway Camp, you might at least know the film for its infamous ending, still one of the most-discussed plot developments in the entire slasher genre. But the film is about more than a twist ending, and even if you set that moment aside entirely, you’re left with a remarkably deft, darkly funny, truly brutal summer camp slasher film featuring some of the genre’s most memorable kills.
Watch it now on Peacock!
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
What else is there to say about this horror classic? It’s been nearly 50 years, and Tobe Hooper’s breakthrough film is still just as nerve-shattering and frightening as it was when the film first rolled through projectors in 1974. Even if you’ve seen it a dozen times, it’s always worth revisiting.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Tourist Trap (1979)
When it comes to the early years of slasher cinema, there’s weird, and then there’s Tourist Trap weird. Set in and around the title location, the film is a bizarre blend of House of Wax and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, following a group of unsuspecting tourists as they’re lured into the lair of a demented supernatural killer with an agenda that will make your skin crawl.
Watch it now on Peacock!
Of course, Peacock isn’t just the home to great slashers; check out all the many terrifying horror offerings streaming now!
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