Holloween Special - The Ultimate Slasher

[Shin Mefilas]

As a little something for Halloween I decided to talk about who I feel was the ultimate slasher.

 

Now I know what your thinking, Jason Voorhees. He by far the most popular and has the highest body count. But I feel that body count dose not really as big a badge of honour as some think. Many slashers primary  targets are teens, young adults with little or no skills that would allow them to deal with such an encounter which is mad even more unfair by the many advantages the killer has over them. Also as we all know popularity doesn't make the greatest.

 

So who do I think was the Ultimate? That would be Matt Cordell - The Maniac Cop

 

Matt Cordell was one of New Yorks finest. A hulk of a man, Matt was a good hearted as well as well respected by his fellow police, although there were rumours that he had violent streak and little regard for police protocol.  He was often described as a "Super Cop". Eventfully Cordell's darker side got the better of him and he was arrested and charged with 'People's Rights Violations'. After that he was incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Things only got worse from there, being a cop in prison meant Matt was marked the moment he set foot in the door, being a dirty cop who roughed up crooks meant he's life was automatically in danger and if that was not bad enough Sing Sing housed quite a few criminals he had put away himself. The man may has well have been given a death sentence. Matt was attacked and mutilated by the Sing Sing inmates and the prison doctor declared him dead despite the fact Cordell showed very faint signs of life but was braindead. Upon hearing of his fate his wife and fellow police officer Sally Cordell attempted suicide but only succeeded in breaking and losing some of the use of her leg. It would later be uncovers that in reality Cordell was on the trail of the corrupt mayor and an number of police officials and would not walk away, so he was framed for the crimes he was accused of and its possible the rumours him being violent were also unfounded as well.

Some time later a rash of murders began sweeping with eye witness accounts and evidence pointing to the killer being a cop. Panic began sweeping the streets a citizens  lost faith in the police force and in some cases officers were killed by people feared they were  what the papers called the "Manic Cop". However Detectives Frank McCrae, who had been the first to suspect that cop was involved, came to know the truth, Matt Cordell was back and after revenge. 

There has always been a lot of mystery surrounding Cordell. First and for most is alive or dead! During his first outing none was sure. Cordell had apparently survived his attack but been left braindead so one would think this was just a case of him somehow merely being in a comma and wakening up. However a number of facts did not at up to this theory. A survivor of Cordell's attacks stated that he his hands felt unnaturally cold and another clamed they shot Cordell multiple times yet it seem to have no effect. He also displayed super human strength as he is able to break peoples neck just by squeezing and throws others around like ragdolls with little effort. Later appearances clearly lean towards him being some form of undead his face visibly a more decaying quality but how he came back is never explained. While he is resurrected by voodoo in the third film there is no evidence to suggest this was how he came back before.

So know you know a little of his backstory why do I think he's the ultimate slasher? Well to put it simple this Maniac Cop has all the traits of many other hulking slashes to the highest degree combined with a unique set of skills and traits unique to himself.

In terms of raw power, Cordell easily rivals the undead juggernaut Jason Vorhees. While not prone to quite the same levels of brutality as Jason, Cordell  has easily snapped necks, hung people with their own belts all by himself, brutally slammed a women into a wall until she died, sent a man hurtling through the air with just one hand and thrown another with enough force to make them fly through multiple precinct cubicals without his momentum slowing!  In terms of durability and regeneration Cordell may actually be superior to the Crystal Lake Killer as he apparently feels no pain at all, can absorb gunshots while barely flinching, being set on fire and stopping a chainsaw with his bare hand.  He also appears to be able to heal the damage rapidly and perfectly. The best example being when he was shot in multiple times at point blank range, twice in the face, yet didn't react and never displayed any kind of gunfire damage to his face later on. The largest amount of damage he suffered was being driven into a large steal pipe at high speed, impaled, and then crashing to a river. On the whole Cordell dose not possess any kind exploitable weakness which put him in stark contrasted to many of his fellow slashers. The only real way to beat him is to give him what he wants.

When it comes to killing what Cordell lacks in quantity he makes up for in quality. In his first outing he killed 21 people on screen. To give that context Jason only killed 10 people in his first film and  his highest score was 24. Michael Myers killed seven on his first day out and best score being 20. Leatherface's best was 14 and Freddy's was 13. By comparison Cordell has easily one of the highest kill counts in a single outing, with his total number being 33 in Maniac Cop 2. This is only beaten by Pinhead who slaughtered 69 people in Hellrasier 3 and the Djinn from Wishmaster with has 43 and in both cases we are talking about being with reality warping powers. 

But what really makes Cordell dangerous is that combines this incredible power this great willpower, intellect and his training as a police officer. Cordell will often make full use of his police officer uniform to put people into a vulnerable position before he strikes, he is also very stealthy and fast often only being seen because he wants to be. Cordell's goal is to get revenge on the system and people who wrong him and he goes about it with a scary level of efficiency.  He deliberately turns public opinion against the police and insight panic, finds and frames a suitable cop for his crimes,  manipulates his wife into giving him information from inside the police station, is able to break into several police stations unnoticed and slaughters the occupants and  was able to set up a mass prison breakout.  Cordell is also fully trained in the use of fire arms and makes ready use of them, infact the mans a pretty dame good shot.

In terms of weapons he has his trusty Night Stick which happens to contain a hidden blade, handcuffs, a revolver, a shotgun, a machinegun and his very own police care.

 

And I hope this explains why I consider Matt Cordell is the ultimate slasher. So to end off I'll leave you with some videos of the Maniac Cop doing his thing

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Godzilla (2017)