Barry S. Sapolsky and Fred Molitor

In the 1970s, gore films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre set the stage for a subgenre of horror-the slasher film. Halloween, Friday the 13th, and other slasher films featured a group of teenagers being murdered, one by one, by a seemingly unstoppable stalker.

Slasher films have been widely criticized not only because of their violence, but also on the grounds that their violence is directed primarily against women. In addition it has been argued that slasher films link violence with sex. For example, a teenage girl may be shown naked or partially clothed before she is attacked. Researchers Barry S. Sapolsky of Florida State University, and Fred Molitor of California State University summarize three studies of slasher films that measured the number of scenes of violence against women, violence against men, and scenes...