Definition of "slasher"

Realizing there was a fresh market for a style of movie that studios had written off as niche material, Scream’s gonzo profits ushered in a wave of subsequent slashers trying to capitalize on a new generation’s discovery of the subgenre, as Gen Xers and Gen Yers alike learned (or re-learned) the fundamental pleasures of a good old-fashioned murder spree by a crazed killer, supernatural or otherwise.

2017 October 27, Alex McLevy, “Making a Killing: The Brief Life and Bloody Death of the Post-Scream Slasher Revival”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 5 March 2018

[…] an overdoser, binge drinker, slasher, or sexually impulsive person, is found to act impulsively following some sort of change in a relationship.

1992, Melvin R Lansky, Fathers who Fail

With the success of the first film and the third one already in production, Warner Bros. is more likely to greet Harry Potter slashers with more takedown orders than tolerance.

2002 December 21, Christopher Noxon, “What to do about Harry Potter Porn?”, in The Vancouver Sun, page 96

The same aspects that made buddy shows attractive to relationship-oriented fans also made them attractive to slashers; the fact that these shows were set in an era of tight jeans and unbuttoned shirts, and of the loosening of formerly strict standards of acceptable male behavior, only provided additional evidence for homoerotic interpretation.

2006, Francesca Coppa, “Writing Bodies in Space: Media Fan Fiction as Theatrical Performance”, in Kristina Busse, editor, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, page 49

In other words denied their own voice by a conservative misogynist culture, the original female slashers and vidders needed male characters as surrogates to express their own identity and desires.

2014, Kathryn Hill, “'Easy to Associate Angsty Lyrics with Buffy': An Introduction to a Participatory Fan Culture: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Vidders, Popular Music and the Internet”, in Mary Kirby-Diaz, editor, Buffy and Angel Conquer the Internet: Essays on Online Fandom, page 182