A strange thought struck me out of nowhere today. I was thinking about The Terminator, and how it was in many ways not typical science fiction. And then I realized: It’s actually almost as much a slasher movie as it is an SF movie. Or possibly a “monster movie”, those and slasher movies have blurry genre boundaries.

Think about it. A relentless, unstoppable killer slays his way through a bunch of people, mostly young. Although most are killed with guns (uncommon for slasher movies), one has his heart ripped out in an extended sequence complete with slasher style “I’m making a surprised face at this unexpected and incredibly painful bodily mutilation”. In another scene, a young couple has sex, the boyfriend leaves the room and is killed outside, the girl doesn’t notice, and is herself killed moments later. The final survivor who must defeat the killer is a woman whose boyfriend just sacrificed himself to try to save her.

There are a few things that don’t match up with slasher movie conventions, of course. The use of guns is one, another obviously notable one is the “final girl”’s lack of virginity. In fact, her having sex is a key plot point. On the other hand, the killer could be said to be punishing her for having sex, just as is common in slasher movies, after all, his goal is to prevent her son from being born.

That’s today’s unstructured random thought. Carry on.