The Slayer
The Slayer is a 1982 American psychological horror film directed by J. S. Cardone. It is one of the 72 films on the Director of Public Prosecutions' video nasties list, later dropped without a successful prosecution.
A painter's nightmares kill people on an off-season island. Genuinely atmospheric and badly underrated.
Sign in to track what you have survived.
Genuinely atmospheric, badly underrated, and it prefigures A Nightmare on Elm Street by two years.
A painter has had the same dream since childhood. Her brother takes her to an off-season island to relax. Whatever is in the dream is now on the island, and she cannot stay awake.
J.S. Cardone shot it on Tybee Island in Georgia with real weather, and the location is the film: an empty resort, grey sea, permanent wind, a theatre with the roof gone.
The dream logic is handled seriously. The ending refuses to resolve which layer is real, which in 1982 was unusual.
The fork sequence is what got it listed. Dropped without prosecution.
Banned, seized, prosecuted
DPP 72 · listed, then dropped
Rate this film
No ratings yet. Score it on the five axes and yours will be the first.
Sign in to rate this and add it to your shelf.
Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Canada
Germany
UK
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, a plot detail, or working out which cut you are holding.
Adjacent
WATCHcultVisiting Hours
Michael Ironside stalking a hospital. A real cast, a real budget, and no business being on the list.
WATCHobscureUnhinged
Three women, a mansion, rain, and a twist. Shot in Oregon and stranger than its reputation.
WATCHcultNightmares in a Damaged Brain
Its distributor's executives went to prison over this one. The DPP case that ended in jail sentences.
WATCHcultNightmare Maker
Susan Tyrrell as the aunt, giving a performance far too committed for the film around it.
WATCHcanonThe Cabin in the Woods
A machine for explaining why every other film on this site is shaped the way it is.
WATCHcanonMisery
Kathy Bates won the Academy Award, and is still the only actor to win one for a Stephen King adaptation.
- Next in Psychological: Visiting Hours (1982) →
- Next in Slasher: Tenebrae (1982) →