October has gone, and it’s taken scary movies with it. However, that doesn’t stop people from talking about them and their titular slashers. A survey of Miami High students posed the question ‘Which slasher do you find attractive?’ Even though society might think that people who find these characters attractive are weird, I was able to get 103 responses. 

The top 3 results 

    The slasher that they found the most attractive was Billy Loomis; he’s one of the two ghost-face killers from the movie Scream. He got a total of 44 votes, beating all of the slashers by a surprising amount. In 2nd place was Patrick Bateman, the main character of the 2000 movie American Psycho, with 19 votes. Finally, in 3rd place was the ever-popular Michael Myers from Halloween which has 13 movies in its franchise. 13 students voted for him. 

   In the research phase of this project, I believed that Michael Myers was going to get the most votes, because he’s the most recognizable of all the slashers, and because around the time this poll was going around, the newest Halloween movie, titled Halloween Ends, came out in theaters. In contrast, Billy Loomis starred in the first Scream movie, a movie that came out in 1996, when most people who took this poll weren’t even born yet.

Why each of them is attractive (from the poll)
    Everyone that participated in this poll was given the option to give a reason as to why they found that character attractive. Many said, “because he’s hot” while others went into extreme detail. Billy Loomis had the most votes so there where many reasons why people picked them.  

   One of the voters said, “I think he’s a very attractive man, because he was a great boyfriend and respectful.” This refers to how in the first Scream movie, Billy takes care of and respects his girlfriend’s choices. Another voter said, “Because, he doesn’t look scary.”  

   So, it seems that when it comes to Billy Loomis voters, there are two schools of thought, those who watched the movie and enjoyed his personality, and those who compared him to the other killers in this list and picked him because he looked the most ‘normal’.   

    Patrick Bateman voters seemed to like his indifference in the movie American Psycho, many quoting this specific line: “I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion…” which is quite concerning because this is what makes him kill. 

    However, some voted for him because of his proportional face and his skin care routine. Others also voted for him because of the actor who was played him Christian Bale, who also starred in The Dark Knight as Batman.  

    The most popular reason seems to be an image about how Michael Myers would act in a relationship which ignores all of the Halloween movies as seen by this quote “Because he fun and chill”, and the other is their exposure to the Halloween movies themselves, as seen by this quote, “My boyfriend is a big fan of the movies, so I’m always listening to him talk about it. I guess it’s kind of rubbed off on me.” 

    Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise was a peculiar option. His voters left responses along the lines of “He’s so strategic in the way he kills. However, he’s bald.”  

   Brahms Hellshire voters explained as if he was an actual person that they’ve met, saying, “His voice is so cute and he’s tall” and others only liking his hair. 

    Stu Matcher, who is the second Ghostface from the movie Scream, was an unpopular option. However, those who picked him said it was because of his smile and because “He looks like a kindhearted person on the inside and he looks pretty.” 

    Hannibal Lecter voters only liked him because of his voice and because of his ‘cooking’.  

    Bubba or Leatherface only had one voter out of the 103 people who participated in this poll. This voter, voted for Bubba because of the gruesome way he kills people, which had nothing to do with his looks, only for his skill. 

 My opinion on the slashers  

   As a slasher fan, I also find many of them attractive, and I have my personal favorites.  Brahms Heelshire is my overall favorite. He’s from the movie The Boy where he’s forced to live in the walls by his parents. The neglect received by his parents makes him very sympathetic, a sympathy that I can’t find with any of the other slashers.  

   Jason Voorhees is in second place for me. Like Brahms, he was pushed away from society because of his deformities, which caused his death at a young age. His sympathetic backstory and his build make him a great choice. Stu Matcher is my third favorite only because of his personality throughout the movie Scream. Even while he’s on the brink of death, he’s still saying jokes to cheer on himself and others around him.    

   Bubba, even though he’s similar to Brahms and Jason Voorhees, he’s lower on my personal list because of the whole cannibalism, killing people thing. Yes, he has a sympathetic backstory and a mask, but his ‘diet’ makes me think twice about him.  

     Billy Loomis, I’m very apathetic toward this slasher because of how realistic he is. His whole story is wanting to get revenge on his girlfriend’s family because her mother is the reason of his parents’ break up. The whole situation is very realistic which makes me more scared of him as a character, but he’s too boring to be interested in.  

    Michael Myers, even though I’m apathetic toward Billy Loomis, Michael Myers is lower on my list because of how boring all 13 of his movies are.  Most of the Halloween movies are suspense movies, where you’re supposed to only see Michael Myers in the background, which doesn’t provide any great shots of his character, making him overall boring.  

     Hannibal Lecter, this slasher is this low on the list because of him being a cannibal. I have this same problem with Bubba but he’s higher up because of the sympathy for his life story and his personality. However, with Hannibal there isn’t much sympathy in his backstory and because of his dry personality overall. Patrick Bateman is at the bottom of my list because of how perfect he looks, his Ideology towards life, and because of how realistic the movie is with everything. Patrick Bateman, being a white man in 1989 with a good job, gives him a sense of immunity when it comes to many forms of crime. Patrick Bateman is too realistic of a character especially for the year the movie is set in. Because of this Patrick Bateman is too scary for me to find attractive.

List of Slasher movies/shows and where to watch 

1. Halloween (Michael Myers) – Amazon Instant Video 
2. Scream 1 (Billy Loomis and Stu Matcher) – Paramount + 
3. The Boy (Brahms Heelshire) – Netflix  
4. American Psycho (Patrick Bateman) – HBO +
5. Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter) – Hulu
6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Leatherface/Bubba) – Netflix