Adults playing teens in '80s slasher films.

[Matt H.]

I've been watching slasher flicks lately and I'm finding it really amusing how, in alot of them, the teen characters are played by actors in their late 20's and early 30's. Until around the late '90s, they never really used actual teens in the roles, did they? I wonder if it's because producers back then didn't trust young actors to commit to a movie, or maybe there was a lack of young talent in Hollywood, or maybe it was just safer to get more experienced actors? Did teenagers just look older back then? My reason for the topic, is I'm wondering what '80s slashers actually cast teenage actors as opposed to adults? Are there many examples?

[Alex K.]

Slaughter High would be the ultimate example of this. Everyone in that film is at least in their 30's and I think Caroline Munro was pushing 40 at the time. The filmmakers painted themselves in a corner with the premise.

[Matt H.]

It's funny you mention SLAUGHTER HIGH. I'm currently watching APRIL FOOL'S DAY (which was the original title of SLAUGHTER) and it's really what inspired me to start this thread; the characters are supposed to be college kids, but they're all in their mid-30s.

[Paul L]

SLEEPAWAY CAMP has a young cast, which makes the violence in that film and the sense of threat all the more impactful, imo. It's most definitely the 'odd one out' in the 1980s slasher cycle, however.

[Matt H.]

It would've been amazing if someone did a GOONIES-style slasher, where the victims are 12 year olds. I suppose it would be hard to pull off without being tasteless and too grim. I know there's a short film called THE LEGEND OF BEAVER DAM that involves a serial killer knocking off boy scouts, but I haven't seen it.

[sukebanboy]

Corey in FRIDAY 13TH part 4...

[Matt H.]

Haha, that must've been why I was thinking of a slasher GOONIES!

[Paul L]

It would've been amazing if someone did a GOONIES-style slasher, where the victims are 12 year olds.

Some of Angela's victims in SLEEPAWAY CAMP are about that age, I think: the children who throw sand at her and are hacked to bits whilst camping. Most of the main cast members were a few years older though, as I recall - between 14/15 and 20. Still much younger than most 'teenagers' in slasher films of the period, however.

[Matt H.]

Some of Angela's victims in SLEEPAWAY CAMP are about that age, I think: the children who throw sand at her and are hacked to bits whilst camping. Most of the main cast members were a few years older though, as I recall - between 14/15 and 20. Still much younger than most 'teenagers' in slasher films of the period, however.

The only little kids who die (offscreen) are the ones found murdered in their sleeping bags, but you're right, I can't think of another slasher with younger victims than this one.

[Paul L]

The only little kids who die (offscreen) are the ones seen murdered in their sleeping bags,

Yep, those are the ones I was thinking about: we don't see them killed, but someone stumbles across their bodies after the fact, as I recall. (It's been a year or two since I last watched the film, but I think that's the basic scenario.)

BLOODY BIRTHDAY and THE DEVIL TIMES FIVE have children as the perpertrators, don't they? However, both of those remind me more of the 'bad seed' films of the 1950s (and early 1970s - such as THE OTHER) than slasher pictures. (Is that a false dualism? I can certainly believe there's a lineage between THE BAD SEED and some of the 1980s slasher films.) There's also the use of a child actor as a killer in Scavolini's NIGHTMARE, I guess.