Slasher (TV series)
Slasher is a Canadian anthology horror television series created by Aaron Martin. It premiered on Chiller on March 4, 2016 and on Super Channel on April 1, 2016. The licensing rights for the second season were acquired by Netflix in January 2017. The second season was released on October 17, 2017. On August 8, 2018, the series was renewed for a third season, which premiered on May 23, 2019.
Each season is centered around a masked killer with an unknown motive for killing their victims. The first season, retroactively subtitled The Executioner, was co-produced by Chiller and Super Channel, and centered on a mysterious figure billed as the Executioner who terrorizes the fictional town of Waterbury, Canada. The second season, subtitled Guilty Party, follows a group of former summer camp counselors who return to an isolated campground in order to retrieve the body of a murder they acted, before being targeted, one by one, by an unknown killer. The third season, Solstice, is centered on a group of neighbors who are targeted during the summer solstice period due to their complicity in not saving a murder victim who was killed one year earlier in front of their apartment complex.
Seasons
''The Executioner'' (2016)
Sarah Bennett and her husband Dylan move back to the town of her birth, fictitious Waterbury, Canada, into her childhood home, where both of her parents were murdered on the Halloween of 1988. Her mother was pregnant with Sarah at the time of the killing before the police arrests the killer who was holding the newborn baby. Sarah's return to Waterbury is greeted with the start of a series of copycat murders, all appearing to be at the hands of "The Executioner".''Guilty Party'' (2017)
In the dead of winter, a group of former summer camp counselors return to the resort in which they participated in the murder of Talvinder Gill and hid her body. However, the body has vanished from the secret spot they hid and eventually they are trapped in the resort and start being killed one by one by a person wearing a parka.''Solstice'' (2019)
Kit Jennings, a sex and drug addict, is murdered by someone using a "Druid" costume in front of an apartment complex during the summer solstice and the neighbors don't help him. Exactly one year later, a person using the same costume emerges and starts murdering every person who carries any kind of complicity in Jennings's murder.Cast and characters
Recurring cast members
''The Executioner''
Main
- Katie McGrath as Sarah Bennett, an art gallery owner who recently moved in to the house her parents were murdered in, in Waterbury, her place of birth
- Brandon Jay McLaren as Dylan Bennett, Sarah's husband and editor-in-chief of the local newspaper, the Waterbury Bulletin.
- Steve Byers as Cam Henry, a member of Waterbury's police force.
- Patrick Garrow as Tom Winston, the original Executioner who murdered Sarah's parents in 1988 and who advises Sarah on the new Executioner's murders in the present day.
- Dean McDermott as Iain Vaughn, Waterbury's police chief.
- Christopher Jacot as Robin Turner, who, after the death of his husband, Justin, must deal with the business mess he left behind.
- Mary Walsh as Verna McBride, Sarah and Dylan's neighbor, who passed judgment almost immediately on the two.
- Enuka Okuma as Lisa Ann Follows, a former criminal justice lawyer, now a New York-based journalist and talk show host.
- Erin Karpluk as Heather Peterson. She is deeply haunted by and obsessed with her daughter Ariel's disappearance, which occurred 5 years before the show begins. Karpluk has equated Heather to the Log Lady, in that much like the Twin Peaks character, Heather appears to have a sixth sense about Waterbury's residents and their dark secrets.
- Wendy Crewson as Brenda Merrit, Sarah's maternal grandmother, who returns to Waterbury to look after Sarah and Dylan.
Recurring and guest
- Mayko Nguyen as Alison Sutherland, the publisher of the Waterbury Bulletin and Dylan's boss.
- Rob Stewart as Alan Henry, Cam's father, a church pastor, and the survivor/witness of Sarah's parents' murder. He has made occasional visits to Tom Winston in prison to provide religious counsel. In a flashback of the night Sarah's parents were murdered, young Alan is portrayed by Jim Watson.
- Dylan Taylor as Bryan Ingram, Sarah's father.
- Mark Ghanimé as Justin Faysal, who with husband Robin purchased several properties in Waterbury, including the storefront location that serves as Sarah's art gallery.
- Jessica Sipos as June Henry, Cam's wife, who works as an EMT and shows jealousy over Cam's friendship with Sarah.
- Victoria Snow as Sonja Edwards, Brenda's former childhood friend and her intended victim in a prom night 1968 incident.
- Jefferson Brown as Trent McBride, Verna's nephew, June Henry's former EMT partner, and an enthusiastic hunter and taxidermist.
- Booth Savage as Ronald Edwards, the Mayor of Waterbury.
- Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Ariel Peterson, Heather's missing daughter.
- Aidan Wojtak as Jake Vaughn, Ariel's younger son.
- Sabrina Grdevich as Nancy Vaughn, Chief Vaughn's wife.
- Michael Vincent Dagostino as Benny Peterson, Heather's late husband and Ariel's father.
- Suzannah Hoffman as Marjorie Travers, a prostitute and drug addict.
- Alysa King as Rachel Ingram, Sarah's mother.
- Anthony Lemke as Dylan's lawyer.
- Shawn Ahmed as Sharma, an officer in Waterbury's police force.
''Guilty Party''
Main
- Leslie Hope as Judith Berry, a commune member, who self-harms whilst recovering from drug addiction.
- Lovell Adams-Gray as Peter Broome, a former counselor and Andi's ex-boyfriend. Five years ago, his affair with Talvinder resulted in his breakup with Andi.
- Jim Watson as Noah Jenkins, a former camp counselor. Five years ago, Talvinder manipulated him into doing things for her by pretending to have a romantic interest in him.
- Christopher Jacot as Antoine, one of the commune leaders, masseuse and yoga instructor. He is Renee's legal husband, though he is gay.
- Paulino Nunes as Mark Rankin, a commune member and former lawyer. He joined the resort after nearly being killed by the father of the victim's murderer he successfully defended.
- Ty Olsson as Benny Ironside/Glenn Morgan, a commune member and former prisoner. He joined the resort after killing his former lover and assuming his identity.
- Joanne Vannicola as Renée, one of the commune's leaders alongside her legal husband Antoine, though she is a lesbian.
- Sebastian Pigott as Owen "Wren" Turnbull, Judith's son and a former counselor. He had an unhealthy obsession with Talvinder.
- Madison Cheeatow as Keira, a commune member and former nurse, who joined the resort after accidentally killing a patient.
- Melinda Shankar as Talvinder Gill, a new, manipulative camp counselor. Her murder five years ago drives the events of Guilty Party. She played on the other counselors' kindness.
- Kaitlyn Leeb as Susan Lam, a former camp counselor, mother and wife. Five years ago, she despised Talvinder believing she was not genuine.
- Rebecca Liddiard as Andi Criss, a former camp counselor and Peter's ex-girlfriend. Five years ago, Peter had an affair with Talvinder, resulting in their breakup.
- Paula Brancati as Dawn Duguin, a former camp counselor. Five years ago, she and Talvinder were best friends until she stopped Dawn from having a relationship out of envy.
Recurring and guest
- Jefferson Brown as Gene, the outfitter and supply deliverer for the commune.
- Kyle Buchanan as Simon, Andi's current boyfriend. Her guilt about Talvinder's death causes tension in their relationship.
- Luke Humphrey as Glenn Morgan, a former drug dealer who was forced into a sexual relationship with Benny in prison. After expressing his hatred for him, he was murdered by Benny, who assumed his identity.
- Dean McDermott as Alan Haight, a man whose son died in a hit and run accident.
- Simu Liu as Luke, Susan's kind and oblivious husband.
- Sophia Walker as Megan McCalister, a hiker who approaches the commune in search of shelter from an imminent snowstorm.
- Jon McLaren as Ryan, a former counselor. He and Dawn were mutually interested in each other romantically until Talvinder manipulated him into thinking Dawn's stepfather raped her.
- Kimberly-Sue Murray as Janice, Gene's girlfriend who comes looking for him at the commune.
''Solstice''
Main
- Salvatore Antonio as Angel H. Lopez, a gay activist who has an affair with Joe. He lives in apartment 106.
- Lisa Berry as Detective Roberta Hanson, the detective in charge of investigating the Druid murders.
- Paula Brancati as Violet Lickers, Joe's wife, a vlogger who considers her blog to be journalism, and seems to care more about her blog than about her husband. She and her husband live in apartment 208.
- Gabriel Darku as Connor Rijkers, the superintendent of the apartment building, Jen's brother and Amber's stepson, who has a crush on Saadia. He and his family live in apartment 202.
- Erin Karpluk as Kaili Greenberg, a teacher at the local high school who is a hopeless romantic. She lives in apartment 112.
- Dean McDermott as Dan F. Olenski, Cassidy's father, an alcoholic Neo-Nazi white supremacist. He and his daughter live in apartment 108.
- Mercedes Morris as Jen Rijkers, a student at the local high school, Connor's sister, Amber's stepdaughter and Saadia's best friend.
- Ilan Muallem as Joe Lickers, Violet's bisexual husband, who has an affair with Angel, but has a hard time choosing who he wants to be with.
- Paulino Nunes as Frank G. Dixon, a violent, domineering family man, Kate's husband, Erica's father. He appears to have connections to the mob, and part of his business involves stealing cars. He and his family live in apartment 201.
- Baraka Rahmani as Saadia Jalalzai, a student at the local high school, a Muslim, and Jen's best friend. She has a reputation for being good. She and her parents live in apartment 102.
- Rosie Simon as Amy Chao, Xander's girlfriend, a professional gamer, who works beta testing video games. She is asexual. She and Xander live in apartment 216.
- Joanne Vannicola as Amber Ciotti, the mentally ill, widowed stepmother of Connor and Jen. She became mentally ill after suffering a psychotic break after the suicide of her wife Justine.
- Jim Watson as Xander Lemmon, Amy's boyfriend, who runs the local coffee shop. He takes pride in his products, which are supposedly above average quality.
Recurring and guest
- Rebecca Amzallag as Beth, a teacher at the local high school who is a friend of Kaili Greenberg.
- Robert Cormier as Kit Jennings, a bisexual, hypersexual drug addict who was murdered a year before the events of the series. The others who lived in the apartment building were complicit in his murder. He lived in apartment 104.
- Ishan Davé as Detective Pujit Singh, Detective Hanson's younger, less experienced partner, helping investigate the Druid murders.
- Genevieve DeGraves as Cassidy E. Olenski, Dan Olenski's daughter, who has had sex with many people, including Kit Jennings.
- Tiio Horn as Coroner Lucie Cooper, the coroner for the local police department, who performs autopsies on the victims of the Druid.
- Jefferson Brown as Wyatt, Noelle Samuels' jealous ex-boyfriend.
- Patrice Goodman as Justine Rijkers, Connor and Jen's mother, Amber's wife, who was shunned by the residents of the apartment building following a post she made implying Kit deserved to die.
- Marie Ward as Kate Dixon, Frank's wife, who is abused by him.
- Dalal Badr as Farishta Jalalzai, Saadia's mother.
- Saad Siddiqui as Azlan Jalalzai, Saadia's father.
- Romy Weltman as Erica Dixon, Frank and Kate's daughter.
- Paniz Zade as Noelle Samuels, Kit Jennings' girlfriend, at the time of his murder.
- Landon Norris as Charlie, a student at the local high school who takes pleasure in antagonizing Jen and Saadia, the latter to the point of sexual harassment.
Production
Development
Slasher was created by Aaron Martin, who was inspired after his work on the first season of the medical series Saving Hope, specifically his writing of two episodes in which "people got chopped up." He wrote the first episode of the series as a spec script, aiming to offer it to prospective studios and show a writing style that was different from his previous work. Though the script did not receive immediate interest, Shaftesbury Films optioned it in late 2014 with an eight-episode order and started pitching around to networks. Canadian premium network Super Channel ordered the project after getting interested by Slashers fixed-end format. The now-defunct American network Chiller, which specializes in the horror thriller genre, joined production shortly after; Slasher became Chiller's first and only foray into original scripted series content.In May 2017, Shaftesbury Films confirmed that the series wasn't returning to Super Channel or Chiller for a second season. However, streaming service Netflix acquired the rights to the second season. The second season was released via Netflix on October 17, 2017.
In August 2018, it was announced that production commenced for the third season of Slasher. On October 23, 2018, Adam MacDonald was announced as the third season's director. On April 24, 2019, it was announced that Aaron Martin had stepped down as the showrunner and Ian Carpenter would serve as the primary showrunner and one of executive producers of the third season.
Writing
Slasher employs a season-long anthology format, with an overarching mystery storyline that will be resolved upon the season's conclusion. Series creator Aaron Martin was inspired by the format of American Horror Story, stating that, should Slasher have subsequent seasons, the American Horror Story style of self-contained storylines would be used along with, ideally, the reliance on as many actors from previous seasons as possible to portray brand new roles.Martin aims to tell "a modern-day monster story" in Slasher, combining three of his favorite genres: the contemporary murder mystery, the works of Agatha Christie, one of Martin's favorite crime writers, and the classic slasher films which he grew up with. In terms of the latter, Martin has specifically cited the influences of Halloween and It Follows in Slashers use of a mysterious singular embodiment that is responsible for a series of killings. Not wanting to have the show's killer be "a mythological creature", Martin also uses elements of the traditional whodunit in Slasher: the characters, many of whom have mysterious backgrounds and their own reasons for possibly being the killer are featured, explored, and eliminated from consideration, one by one either through death or the natural deductive process, until the "all too human" killer and their motivations are revealed.
Filming
Production on Slashers 8-episode first season was announced on July 28, 2015, with filming taking place between then and October 2015. Three Northern Ontario municipalities — the cities of Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie and the town of Parry Sound — would stand in for the show's fictitious location, the town of Waterbury. Unlike most television series that film their episodes in order, under the direction of Craig David Wallace, the series was shot as if it were a "super-sized" movie. Scenes from multiple episodes were filmed simultaneously, with the availability of locations and cast being factored in. The out-of-order schedule allowed the actors to acknowledge their characters's fates, especially those who had to film their death scenes one day but returned later to film earlier scenes if necessary. As an example, Martin cited Mark Ghanimé's first day on set, when his character, Justin Faysal, was laid out in a casket for a scene early in Slashers third episode. Justin's death, which took place in the second episode, would be filmed later on.On May 1, 2017, Slasher began filming a second season in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada.