The New Underground Slasher Movies: Crowdfunding, Streaming, and Fan Blogs.

Back in the 1980s, the rise of VHS home formats, and their press coverage through fanzines like Fangoria created an underground of horror films and fans. As scholars like Joan Hawkins have shown, fans were able to be discerning, making possible a niche “cult” experience. Today, another technological revolution is making another "underground" horror tradition possible (alike the rise of YouTube creators discussed previously). This highly creative subculture of horror movies is now streaming online and discussed by fan blogs and YouTube videos.

To learn about this new phenomenon, in 2025 I interviewed the California indie directors, Paul Ragsdale and Angelica De Alba, now posted on YouTube. Their films standout within the movement of filmmakers now working under-the-radar using digital platforms; the highly original movies Streets of Vengeance (2016), Slashlorette Party (2020), and Murdercise (2023).

Their films demonstrate a model of working entirely outside the powerful studios and distribution of the Hollywood film industry. This begins with crowdfunding, primarily using IndieGoGo – the budgets raised increased significantly every film. Promotion is directly with their fans via Facebook and a flow of during-production Instagram posts, and they distribute their films through smaller-scale platforms like Tubi and Flex.  

This new cycle of horror filmmaking succeed completely indepdentently of the trade press, originating in "old media," like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, or newspapers like the New York Times. Instead, they receive strong support from an energized online fanbase; dedicated fan blogs, including Reddit pages, Horror Society, Morbidly Beautiful, and Horror Nerd – as well as several YouTube horror channels. This distinction itself builds their reputations online as "authentic" and "grassroots" in ways which connect with their audience.

Exploitation Adult Influences  

In my interview, Ragsdale and De Alba explained their shoestring approach to filmmaking, grounded in the traditions of "exploitation" cinema. They follow the reported-advice of Robert Rodriguez, the director of the contemporary cult classics, Grindhouse (2007), Planet Terror (2007), and Machete (2010): “write about something you have or have access to… or could get access to.”

As De Alba explained to me, this economical approach - producing the indie aesthetics their fans crave- was, in a part, a result of their upbringing, in which they “learned how to stretch a dollar" so that when it comes to making films, they “try to do everything for free – whether it’s asking a friend, or can we shoot at a friend’s house.”

They reject the production norms of the “mainstream” of slasher franchise, typified by Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), Halloween (2007), and A24’s MaXXXine (2024). Instead, their films are drawn from America's "exploitation" movies, like those broadcast on TV in the movie marathonsframed of Up All Night (USA, 1989-1998), framed ironically by the hosts, the glamorous icon Rhonda Shear and off-beat comedian Gilbert Gottfried.

Their inspirations are drawn from a wide variety of non-slasher genres and filmmakers. The excessively violent, comical spectacles have been recognized by their fans as borrowed from Troma films like The Toxic Avenger (1984). By going against the grain of the mainstream slasher/horror tradition in this way, their films offer a subcultural appeal to their audiences (comparable to online creators in other genres, including news media).

Underground Intertextuality

Ragsdale and De Alab’s films in fact establish their own "insular intertextuality," in which their own films become a new slasher “universe.” Their slasher world is built from a regular, developing ensemble cast, including friends, non-professional actors and several female stars of adult entertainment – like Sophie Dee, Krystal Shay, and the Joanna Angel – allowing them to benefit from their digital substantial followings on X, OnlyFans, and Instagram.

Several cast members have become familiar faces of the their film world. Nina Lanee Kent is a natural as a streetwise, urban girl, Jessa Flux is the joyously vivacious model, adult video-era star, Ginger Lynn appears as a stern, matriarchal figure, and Drew Marvick is the goofy strong man, whose unexpected monologues boarder on the surreal.

Audience familiarity with this regular cast, and awareness of their other roles, generates an ironic way viewing.

To their dedicated fans, their films are enjoyed as horror but also ironically, alike that of established comic franchises, Wayans Brothers’ Scary Movie films and the historic, British film series, Carry On (which were similarly titillating, with risqué exhibition of women’s bodies and “saucy” narrative moments).

It was very interesting that the single most meaningful film to them is Martin Scoresese’s Taxi Driver (1976), which culminated in a violent spectacle when character Travis Bickle eliminated pimps in a dingy New York apartment building. Knowing this, it's powerful closure is evident in many of their movies; in Murdercise with Pheobe’s chainsawing, in Streets of Vengeance when Mila's squad attack The Sword, or in Slashlorette Party, when Bree dramatically takes to the axe, dressed in her feminine, bridal-looking, white costume. As Ragsdale very insightfully explained, these vengeful gory scenes are the "cathartic" moments for their audience.

If you'd like to learn more about this, you can read it in my chapter:

“The ‘Digital Underground’ of Low-Budget, Retro-Slashers: Angelica De Alba and Paul Ragsdale’s Streets of Vengeance (2016), Slashlorette Party (2020) and Murdercise (2023)," published in Wickham Clayton's edited collection Style and Form in the Slasher Film II: Beyond Hollywood.