5 best slasher films like Mia Goth's Pearl

Slasher films like Pearl (Images via IMDB)

Pearl is a 2022 slasher film that was released on Friday, September 16, 2022. The movie stars Mia Goth, who co-wrote the script with director Ti West.

In a prequel to the 1970s slasher film X, Pearl explores the story of some teenagers who gather to shoot a porn film but fall prey to a mysterious killer. This one delves into a serial killer's origins and is heavily character-driven, following Pearl on her path to violence.

For a long time, slasher films have been an important part of the horror genre. The trope of a stalker following and attacking a specific group of people never gets old, but it is evolving quickly.

From Psycho, Peeping Tom to I Know What You Did Last Summer, there were a plethora of slasher films released in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Though the number of slasher films has decreased in recent years, their story lines have made up for the decline.

The Prowler, The Halloween & 3 more slasher films like Pearl

1) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare of Elm Street (Image via IMDB)

A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the greatest horror franchises of all time. A Nightmare on Elm Street was preserved by the United States National Film Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance, a rare feat for a horror film.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a supernatural slasher film that, unlike most modern slasher films, does not feature a serial killer. It stars Freddy Krueger, the killer from the characters' dreams who begins to haunt them in real life.

2) Hush (2016)

Hush is a slasher film/survival drama hybrid. Although several films use the same trope as Hush, with one of the characters trapped in a closed space with a terrifying killer, Hush redefined it with some brilliant sound design techniques and a fantastic performance from the lead.

Hush follows Maddie Young, a solitary deaf and mute writer who chooses to live alone in the woods. When a mysterious killer appears outside Young's home, she is forced to fight for her life. Hush, starring Kate Siegel, is now available on Netflix.

3) The Prowler (1981)

The Prowler, like Pearl, is more interested in the killer's origins than in the lives of his victims. Despite receiving mixed reviews upon its initial release, the film eventually became recognized as a cult classic.

The Prowler follows a war veteran who becomes a heinous killer after his girlfriend dumps him. He murders a series of victims in violent ways, beginning with his ex-girlfriend and her new lover. The Prowler's explicit depiction of violence at the time earned the film a lot of acclaim.

4) Halloween (1978)

Halloween, like Pearl, actively tells the origin story of a killer. Unlike The Prowler, Pearl and Halloween both deal with childhood violence.

The plot revolves around a six-year-old boy who murders his adolescent sister and is imprisoned. He escapes from prison fifteen years later and hunts down other victims in the most disturbing ways possible. The film set the standard for most horror films because it was one of the first in the genre to be released.

5) Scream (1996)

When too many slasher films degraded the genre's quality, it took a film directed by Wes Craven, the man responsible for Halloween, which set the standard for all modern horror, to resurrect it. Scream is the most memorable slasher film of a generation, combining all of the genre's cliches to create the most stereotypical horror slasher film ever made.

Scream cleverly satirizes the slasher genre by following a group of teenagers who are haunted by a masked killer. The mask worn by the killer in Scream has become part of pop culture and is now used in comedies as well.

Pearl is a prequel to the relatively successful film X. Pearl premiered on Saturday, September 3, 2022, at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, and was released in the United States on Friday, September 16, 2022.

Edited by Vinay Agrawal