Slasher

Universal won't be putting Wes Craven's "Shocker" into release Oct. 20 as scheduled unless the Classification and Rating Administration of the Motion Picture Association of America relents and grants the big-screen chiller an "R. " As things stood at the end of the week, "Shocker" was still being branded with an "X," in spite of three sets of last-minute cuts made in desperation by the filmmaker. "You can't survive with an X; it's suicide. You can't advertise or promote a film with an X," says the creator of the string of "Nightmare on Elm Street" horror films.

The man police described as "the bus stop slasher" has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a 62-year-old North Philadelphia woman last year. Common Pleas Judge Juanita Kidd Stout also sentenced Timothy Lucas, 25, to 10-20 years for the stabbing and wounding of a 21-year-old woman nine days after the Jan. 3, 1986, slaying. The term will begin if Lucas is paroled in the murder case. "The evidence was overwhelming," said Assistant District Attorney Roger King yesterday.

"Torment. " A thriller starring Taylor Gilbert, William Witt and Eve Brenner. Written and directed by Samson Aslanian and John Hopkins. Photographed by Stephen Carpenter. Music by Christopher Young. Running time: 85 minutes. A New World release. In area theaters. The makers of "Torment" have managed to muster up a fairly decent slasher flick, which is something like saying that science has come up with a painless way to die. Either way, it's unpleasant. Borrowing freely from "Wait Until Dark," "Halloween" and any number of Hitchcock chillers, "Torment" takes its theme from what was merely implied - hinted at - in other slasher movies, i.e., that the women who get bludgeoned to death deserve it because of their brazen, sexually liberated ways.

A man was shot and killed by police yesterday after he cut the throat of a woman, seriously injuring her. Police gave this account: About 12:30 p.m., John Poslosky, 28, of Blackwood, N.J., attacked the woman in a parking lot on the 700 block of Christian Street, then fled in his blue van. Officers picked up his trail on Christian at 11th, and chased him down to 16th, where the van hit several parked cars and flipped over. Poslosky apparently punched out the van's rear window and fled into a nearby lot, where he was confronted by police.

DAVID TOLEDO STAYED in a jail cell Thursday as lawyers clashed in court over whether the accused Mayfair tire-slasher's bail should be reduced from $270,000 to $26,000. His wife, Yvonne, called him "my wonderful husband. " His mother, Dorothy, 70, said he is a good son who calls her twice a day. Defense attorney William J. Brennan said the higher bail was "tantamount to ransom" and was "off the hook. " He said Toledo, 44, had no serious prior criminal record but did have strong family support in the courtroom and ties to his community.

Most Americans no doubt sympathize with Bob Dole's stinging indictment of the entertainment industry, though they will rightly question the timing of his crusade. For one thing, his sweeping denunciation comes in the aftermath of the Oscar for Forrest Gump, at a moment when Hollywood seems engaged in an obvious effort to offer more options in family-friendly entertainment. Moreover, his comments come in the questionable context of a presidential campaign. Meanwhile, he faces a "so what?"

The subtitle of "Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers" has none of the phony grandeur usually favored in the slasher genre, and it's an indication of the film's brisk efficiency. The movie chronicles the ill-advised release of homicidal madman Michael Myers from the state institution where he's been held since last we saw him, and his attempt to kill his 7-year-old niece. (She's the daughter of the character played in previous installments by Jamie Lee Curtis, who has since graduated to respectable films.

"Scream" is director Wes Craven's attempt to drive a stake through the heart of the modern slasher movie. As it happens, that particular monster may already be dead. The bogeymen of "Halloween," "Friday the 13th" and Craven's own "Nightmare on Elm Street" series have gone the way of all flesh-mutilators. Of course, as fans of slasher movies know, bogeymen are most dangerous when they appear to be dead. They inevitably arise for one final, campy attack. "Scream" is that last flurry of energy - mostly in the form of pitiless satire.

"Scream" should have been the slasher movie to end all slasher movies, but I guess we should know better. Slasher movies are proving as tough to get rid of as slashers themselves, and we all know how pesky they can be - kill them once, twice, three times, and they're still lurching to their feet, ready for another hatchet to the head. We know slashers better than they know themselves - that was the whole point of "Scream," a horror satire that poked fun at the tiresome rituals of the genre.

Screaming. Blood. Impalements. Meat hooks. Electric drills. Objectified sexy women. Crazy mother in wheelchair. Whaddya expect? It's a slasher movie. Well, actually, it's Slasher, a play about making a slasher movie, and Allison Moore's "horrifying comedy," which the Luna Theater Company is presenting at the Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 5, clearly struck me as funnier than it struck some others in the audience. A pretentious but desperate director (Chris Fluck) arrives in a Texas town (pause for a moment of homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

After the judge refused to lower the bail Thursday, the wife of accused tire-slasher David Toledo posted bail, and he was released from county jail. Toledo, 44, faces more than 40 misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief for slashing tires on his own block of Aldine Street and in other parts of the city's Holmesburg section. He also faces charges of making false accusations. After his arrest on April 25, neighbors expressed outage, with some frankly wishing him harm, saying they felt betrayed by a man who had angrily claimed to be one of the victims.

DAVID TOLEDO STAYED in a jail cell Thursday as lawyers clashed in court over whether the accused Mayfair tire-slasher's bail should be reduced from $270,000 to $26,000. His wife, Yvonne, called him "my wonderful husband. " His mother, Dorothy, 70, said he is a good son who calls her twice a day. Defense attorney William J. Brennan said the higher bail was "tantamount to ransom" and was "off the hook. " He said Toledo, 44, had no serious prior criminal record but did have strong family support in the courtroom and ties to his community.

The man who told reporters he felt "like butchering" the vandal who slashed tires in his Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood was charged this morning in the crime. David Toledo, 44, of Holmesburg, was arraigned on 49 counts of criminal mischief, seven counts of possession of an instrument of crime, and five counts of submitting false reports. Toledo, who police said slashed the tires on his own Jeep Cherokee to mislead investigators, had been among the most vocal in speaking out against the vandalism.

DESPITE THE ARREST of a 21-year-old Mayfair man on charges of slashing tires in Northeast Philadelphia, police Tuesday said residents shouldn't let their guard down yet - the person responsible for much of the recent vandalism may still be on the loose. "I think we have several copycats going on at the same time," said Capt. John McGinnis, commander of Northeast Detectives. Quincy Kramer, of Englewood Street near Rowland Avenue, is charged with criminal mischief and vandalism.

TIRES ON NINE cars were slashed over the weekend in Oxford Circle, hours after police released a surveillance video showing a man slashing tires in Mayfair last week. The latest acts of vandalism occurred about 1:35 a.m. Sunday on McKinley Street near Frontenac. Police responded to a report of a woman walking on McKinley and slashing tires of cars parked on the block. They found nine cars each with one tire slashed, but did not see the woman. On Sunday afternoon, Fred Chamberlain was on McKinley changing the rear passenger-side tire of his Toyota Corolla, which had been slashed.

Police have announced a break in the case of tire slashings that have plagued Northeast Philadelphia since October. Surveillance video from 9:30 p.m. Thursday shows a young man vandalizing two cars at the intersection of Cottman and Rowland Avenues. In the video, the man calmly approaches the first vehicle, spending little more than a second slashing the tire, and then proceeds across the street to do the same to another car. The two cars were vandalized in less than a minute.

Police today released a composite sketch of a man who slashed a woman repeatedly during a robbery Monday night in Rittenhouse Square. The 24-year-old victim was walking in the area of the 2000 block of Rittenhouse Square about 11 p.m. when a man grabbed her from behind, demanded her wallet and banged her head into a wall before slashing her with a knife, police said. The victim suffered a facial fracture and slash wounds to the head, neck, chest, arms and hands during the attack, said police, who did not provide details of her condition.

IT SEEMS AS if you can never open up the Daily News without finding some knucklehead who thrives at taking shots at the Philadelphia School District. Due to the current financial problems, the superintendent was depicted as a chainsaw-carrying slasher. This woman cannot catch a break, as she has just endured a bomb threat to district headquarters. In addition, after her salary trumped both the governor's and the mayor's, she appears to be a constant target for the naysayers. It's difficult for an organization to appear successful when the leader is constantly attacked and put down.

Scott Ross, the Port Richmond man convicted in April of fatally slashing a friend's throat with a two-foot, double-bladed knife, was sentenced yesterday to 10 to 20 years in prison. "I'm sorry for what I done," said Ross, 28, as he dissolved into sobs. "I hope they forgive me. I didn't mean to do it. " During a July 2, 2008, fight in Ross' rented home on Gaul Street near Westmoreland, he used the knife on buddy Michael Zgrezepski, slashing his throat and stabbing both legs and an arm. Zgrezepski, 21, bolted from the home and bled to death in Ross' driveway.

Screaming. Blood. Impalements. Meat hooks. Electric drills. Objectified sexy women. Crazy mother in wheelchair. Whaddya expect? It's a slasher movie. Well, actually, it's Slasher, a play about making a slasher movie, and Allison Moore's "horrifying comedy," which the Luna Theater Company is presenting at the Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 5, clearly struck me as funnier than it struck some others in the audience. A pretentious but desperate director (Chris Fluck) arrives in a Texas town (pause for a moment of homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)