With summer in full swing, check out these sun-drenched slashers

This weekend marks the Summer Solstice, which is the official start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest day of the year. The season has a long relationship with horror, be it folk horror movies like Midsommar and Picnic at Hanging Rock, or sleepovers that involve late night scary movie marathons, which can serve as a gateway to the genre.

Summer is also the perfect time to watch an old-fashioned slasher movie with a campground, masked killer, mayhem, and murder. There are plenty to choose from. Here are five recommendations, including where to stream them.

The Burning (1981)

The early 1980s were the heyday for slasher movies, with the Friday the 13th franchise, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the Halloween saga still churning out sequels. Outside of those well-known names, however, there were a lot of gems. This includes 1981's The Burning. This cult classic has a disfigured killer named Cropsy. He returns to a campground to seek revenge against the teens who accidently burned him in years prior.

Cropsy was initially a caretaker at the camp, and the teens play a cruel prank on him by leaving a skull with burning candles in his room. The joke goes horribly wrong when Cropsy knocks it over, ignites a can of gasoline, and is then engulfed in flames. The movie has some gruesome kills and impressive special effects by Tom Savini.

Watch the burning for free on Tubi.

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

In the 1980s, there was Camp Crystal Lake, Jason's stalking ground, but there was also Camp Arawak, the site of the 1983 cult film Sleepaway Camp. The movie follows a shy and mostly mute teenager named Angela (Felissa Rose), who survived a boating accident as a kid and hasn't been quite right since then. This movie has a lot of great one-liners, and like The Burning, it features some impressive and memorable kills.

Yes, the movie's ending still remains somewhat problematic because of its depiction of trans people, but since then, the LGBTQ community has sort of reclaimed this movie as their own. Complicated ending aside, Sleepaway Camp is a heck of a lot of fun. None of the sequels managed to capture the feel of this first movie, but what sequel ever really does?

Sleepaway Camp is currently streaming on Tubi and Pluto TV for free.

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

I Know What You Did Last Summer is peak 90s in terms of its casting. The movie stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillippe, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The 90s superstars play teens who accidently hit a man with their car and then cover it up. A year later, their dark secret resurfaces as a fisherman with a hook stalks and murders them. This is really a perfect summer slasher to watch because it takes place in a small seaside town during the July 4th holiday. This movie spawned some sequels, but the original remains the best.

Stream I Know What You Did Last Summer on Pluto TV for free.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Tober Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a masterpiece. This movie has so many shots in it that have been analyzed ad nauseum and a heck of a final girl in Sally (Marilyn Burns). Even more than 50 years later, this movie feels like a waking nightmare, from the moment the hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) interacts with the teens, cuts his hand, and then smears his blood on their van, to the way Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) chases down and murders his victims.

This film also has one of the best final sequences in any contemporary horror movie, when Leatherface dances and twirls manically, his chainsaw roaring under the blazing Texas sun. This movie is about as close to perfect as any horror movie can be.

Watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for free on Tubi and Pluto TV.

Friday the 13th (1980)

Of course, the initial Friday the 13th had to be on this list. These movies are the ultimate summer slasher franchise. After you watch the first movie, why not just have a marathon? It's also a good way to prepare for the Crystal Lake prequel series debuting this October on Peacock, which will follow a younger Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini). However, before anyone ever dreamed up a prequel series, there was Betsy Palmer's iconic performance as an angry mother seeking vengeance against camp counselors after her son Jason drowned as a boy.

Friday the 13th is currently streaming on Paramount+.

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