Teleportation in Slasher Movies?

[kingmyth]

I've never understood why they make the killers teleport to find the characters quickly.

Example 1.

Even if his victim (usually it's a good guy running from a baddie) just ran five miles to get away from him and up two flights of stairs to hide in a closet with one entrance; when he flicks on the light, the other guy will be right behind him, without a sign of sweat or fatigue.

Example 2.

Variations of Offscreen Teleportation exist, for instance the telescope version. In this, Character A actually sees Character B a good distance away (usually involving looking through binoculars or a telescope), then looks away or loses sight of him. When Character A looks back a second later, Character B is right in front of him. Another variation is when Character A is running away from Character B, who makes almost no onscreen effort to chase him. Character A travels a conspicuously long route to a hiding place or equivalent, only to find or even collide with Character B when he gets there. "Sneaky" doesn't explain the speed he'd have to move at.

Characters like Jason Voorhees & Michael Myers have teleported to get to their victims. Whats up with these killers with Teleportation?.

[t hedge coke]

Slashers tend to work by fear/surprise/emotion more than by narrative logic. What's important is not causal logic, but how it makes the audience feel in the moment.

Leatherface dances, has fits, gets distracted in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre simply because otherwise the actor was too fast for his fleeing costar. Now, there, it adds character, because he's insanely fast when it's good and shocking and he's lackadaisical when that's more plot-servicey and visually entertaining. Other times it's not as rewarding.

For almost every Halloween movie, what's important about Michael Meyers is that he's the bogeyman and he doesn't really make sense. That whole driving around thing in the first movie, barely noticeable sometimes because his mask blends so well, the pranks and art installations he makes. Michael just does stuff because it's good for us, the audience. A later film tries to explain it all with some cod-Norse silliness that doesn't stick, and the first Rob Zombie film tries to humanize him and make Loomis' "he's the devil" stuff look silly and self-serving, but the second one goes back to Michael as the bogeyman, almost literally there.

It's the same reason most people in action movies die the second a bullet touches them, quietly and with little rupture to their body. That doesn't happen in life, it's not causally sound. But it's good for the audience, because otherwise, those giant shoot-em ups would be brutal as hell and no amount of one-liners could make it "all ok."

Causality takes a backseat in most genres.

[kingmyth]

Slashers tend to work by fear/surprise/emotion more than by narrative logic. What's important is not causal logic, but how it makes the audience feel in the moment.

Leatherface dances, has fits, gets distracted in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre simply because otherwise the actor was too fast for his fleeing costar. Now, there, it adds character, because he's insanely fast when it's good and shocking and he's lackadaisical when that's more plot-servicey and visually entertaining. Other times it's not as rewarding.

For almost every Halloween movie, what's important about Michael Meyers is that he's the bogeyman and he doesn't really make sense. That whole driving around thing in the first movie, barely noticeable sometimes because his mask blends so well, the pranks and art installations he makes. Michael just does stuff because it's good for us, the audience. A later film tries to explain it all with some cod-Norse silliness that doesn't stick, and the first Rob Zombie film tries to humanize him and make Loomis' "he's the devil" stuff look silly and self-serving, but the second one goes back to Michael as the bogeyman, almost literally there.

It's the same reason most people in action movies die the second a bullet touches them, quietly and with little rupture to their body. That doesn't happen in life, it's not causally sound. But it's good for the audience, because otherwise, those giant shoot-em ups would be brutal as hell and no amount of one-liners could make it "all ok."

Causality takes a backseat in most genres.

So it's to spook the audience, but the teleportation is such a common slasher cliche, Even though Creepshow 2 is not a slasher movie The Hitchhiker also has that teleportation.

[t hedge coke]

So it's to spook the audience, but the teleportation is such a common slasher cliche, Even though Creepshow 2 is not a slasher movie The Hitchhiker also has that teleportation.

It's like guns with a zillion bullets. It's a cliche, but it's one that still works for a big enough core audience.

And, when you change it up, like the recent explain-nothing-make-him-survivalist Friday the 13th, and make the killer really fast or give him secret tunnels or something, people will just complain about that.

[Arvandor]

Some CAN teleport. Freddy and Pinhead for example.

[Michael24]

Slasher movies are kind of like nightmares brought to life (so to speak). I mean, how often have you had bad dreams where, no matter what you do or where you go, you can't seem to escape the "thing" that's after you? Slasher movies should have a bit of that surreal, dream-like quality to them. The Elm Street movies do it perfectly, but then again they are actually about dreams and nightmares. But with others, such as Friday the 13th or Halloween, it may not make much sense logically when you think about it (although there is the whole bogeyman concept for Michael Myers, as t hedge pointed out), but it does the job being scary like it's supposed to.