‘Slashercise' workouts at LA studio involve stabbing movements, plastic chainsaws and serial killers videos
Killer Fitness, located in Burbank, California, offers health nuts and horror fans the chance to run for their lives — it's not exercise, it's 'Slashercise.'
Strength is built and endurance is tested during hour-long classes where participants jump, kick, and punch against a giant screen that features looped footage of movie monsters, crazed killers and villains like Freddy Kruger.
Advertisement
'Horror movies are a form of adrenaline-pumping escapism and so is exercise,' co-owner Vanessa Decker told The Los Angeles Times, 'I don't know, it just works!'
3 Killer Fitness in Los Angeles offers horror-themed 'Slashercise' workouts.
Instagram/slashercise
Decker and her partner Ama Lea are also artistic collaborators who bonded over their shared love of camp and macabre, co-creating the 2024 film 'Slashercise.'
A montage of slasher sequences and workout routines, the film follows a serial killer, cheekily named Meathead, who attacks fitness instructors at an LA gym.
Advertisement
A hit among horror lovers, fans of the film were clamoring to have a real-life slasher-esque experience.
Decker and Lea delivered, opening Killer Fitness in May of 2025 with 'Slashercise' as their signature class.
The hour-long sessions focus on core work and is an homage to the retro, repetitive style of '80s workout videos from icons like Jane Fonda, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Richard Simmons.
Advertisement
Strength training is spookily supplemented with horror-themed props like plastic chainsaws and fake knives.
A move to master? 'The Final Girl,' named for the horror archetype of the lone female survivor who confronts the killer and lives to tell the tale.
3 Slashercise includes props like plastic chainsaws and fake knives, really selling the horror theme.
As Decker notes, chain gyms can be bright, annoying, and deterring to potential clients. Despite the dark undertones of Killer Fitness, she wanted to create a space that feels as welcoming as it does wonderfully weird.
Advertisement
'Working out can be daunting, so we just want it to feel inviting. There's goat yoga, so why not a gym for horror fans?'
However, Decker and Lea bill Killer Fitness as more than a gym, advertising the slasher inspired space as an immersive universe. The decor is decidedly '80s, with plenty of neon and fake blood to go around.
'Where every sweat session is a scene, and you're the star. Whether you're here for the nostalgia, the fitness, or just the chance to scream your lungs out between reps — we've got a spot for you,' they said.
Among the other offerings at Killer Fitness are 'TERRORTwist,' a dance workout with cardio choreography pulled directly from cult favorites like Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,' 'Little Shop of Horrors,' and 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'
'Flexorcism' is Killer Fitness's version of a pilates class, billed as 'die-namic.'
3 Classes include 'TERRORTwist,' a dance workout with cardio choreography pulled directly from cult favorites like Michael Jackson's 'Thriller.' There's also 'horror yoga' and 'flexorcism.'
Instagram/slashercise
'Corpse Pose Killer,' is a yoga-inspired class that promises, 'You'll leave breathless, sweaty, and feeling dead—but totally empowered.'
Advertisement
While the classes are marketed to horror fans, the workouts are designed for anyone looking to build strength, endurance and confidence and all instructors are certified by the American Council on Exercise.
'We're here for everybody and all body types,' said Lea, who also designs the shop's workout wear 'That's so important to us.'
Fitness fans can document their post workout glow in Killer Fitness's vintage photo booth and outfit themselves in apparel to die for from the team's on site store.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
6 hours ago
- Associated Press
Movie Review: Why did 17 kids vanish at 2:17 a.m.? Zach Cregger's 'Weapons' delves into the mystery
An enduring image from the new movie 'Weapons' comes early: The sight of elementary school students running out of their homes and onto the suburban grass, moving like flying birds with their arms out, to a song by George Harrison. Except this is happening at night — at 2:17 a.m., to be precise — and there's no glee from the kids. Just running. And the Harrison song being played isn't the cheerful 'Here Comes the Sun.' It's 'Beware the Darkness.' Welcome back to another outing by director-writer Zach Cregger, a modern thriller master. 'Weapons' is his sophomore effort and it's more ambitious than his first, 'Barbarian. ' It's told in chapters from the perspective of various interweaving characters — like a horror version of Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Magnolia' — and explores the ripple effects from a tragic event. But it often lags and slackens on its way to a gruesome end, with a reliance on sorcery that seems like a cop out. 'This is a true story,' says a child narrator at the start of the movie, only for that technique to disappear shortly afterward. 'A lot of people die in a lot of weird ways.' Indeed: There's some fork stabbings, an assault with a vegetable peeler and one victim takes so many headbutts that his skull caves in. The event at the movie's heart is the disappearance of 17 third graders from a single class in the middle of the night in the leafy town of Maybrook, Illinois. Ring cameras catch them opening their front doors and rushing out, not to be seen again. Only one child from the class showed up the next day at school. Everyone is baffled and frustrated. Did the kids plan it together? Were they sent a coded message via a video game or social media? Why was one child from the class seemingly spared? And does the teacher know more than what she letting on? Julia Garner, who plays the teacher, offers us a fascinating, spiky character, prone to pity parties and self-righteous outbursts. She's also seductive and manipulative and growing reliant on booze to cope with the suspicions leveled at her. At one point, someone scrawls the word 'witch' on her Toyota. The town will soon know what that word really means. Garner — who is doing double duty this summer as the Silver Surfer in 'Fantastic Four: First Steps,' wow, quite a range — is warned to stay away from the case but refuses, doing her own stakeouts and trying to speak to the only surviving classmate. 'We are the only ones left,' she says. Cregger being Cregger, there are lots of misdirections, paranoia and an almost existential sense of humor, usually mocking horror movie conventions (and, in this case, 'the movie 'Willow.') In 'Weapons,' he also nicely shows the quiet resilience of kids and their ability to face daily horrors and keep going, trying to help those they love despite creepy awfulness. The upset parents are represented by Josh Brolin's broken father, whose son was one of the 17 who fled. He sleeps in his son's room, wracked by guilt that he couldn't protect someone so dear. He soon will join forces with the teacher to uncover the secret of what made the children run. They will also collide into a local drug user/low-level criminal, played superbly by Austin Abrams, who's bumbling, comic relief is welcome. Amy Madigan is unrecognizable and utterly mesmerizing as an oddball aunt of the surviving boy, a splendid Cary Christopher. 'Weapons' is best before the final third when we learn of an outside force that may have triggered all this misery. Cregger seemed to be on more solid footing mocking suburban life, showing the savagery below the mowed grass pleasantries, the quiet desperation inside marriages and the corruption of small town police departments. If 'Barbarian' came out of left field three years ago and heralded an exciting new voice in filmmaking, 'Weapons' doesn't disappoint but it doesn't have the advantage of surprise. It will, at the very least, make you feel a little dread when the clock hits 2:17 a.m. 'Weapons,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release hitting theaters Friday, is rated R for 'strong bloody violence and grisly images, language throughout, some sexual content and drug use.' Running time: 128 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
'Fantastic Four' Star Julia Garner's Movie ‘Weapons' Rated 100 Percent on Rotten Tomatoes
The Silver Surfer, or in this case, Shalla-Bal, continues to make waves on the big screen. Julia Garner, who starred as the character in Fantastic Four: First Steps, has put on a follow-up performance that's earning early rave reviews in the upcoming film Weapons, which also features Josh Brolin and Benedict Wong. Julia Garner's New Movie, 'Weapons,' Debuts on August 8, but Early Reviews Are In While Garner's encore performance to her role as Shalla-Bal in Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn't officially hit theaters until August 8, the early viewings of the film have brought rave reviews from critics. Popular movie review site Rotten Tomatoes has 14 critic reviews currently for Weapons, and they've all given the thumbs up on the film. It currently boasts a 100 percent rating with just over one week until its official debut. Weapons is a thriller that features every child but one from the same class mysteriously vanishing on the same night at the same time. Garner, who also starred in the hit series Ozark, plays the role of Justine Gandy, an educator who finds herself at the center of the outrage, confusion and an intense media circus. Julia Garner Receives High Marks for Her Performance in 'Weapons' Along with the reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, other sites have also given their feedback on the film, particularly Garner's performance. Griffin Schiller of Awards Watch gave Weapons an 'A' rating and praised Garner in the process, stating that she gives a "remarkably honest and powerful performance." "Garner carries an inherent intensity balanced by an unassuming, delicate stature, and Cregger expertly utilizes this duality to craft a nuanced portrait of a flawed, passive person who recognizes the strength they have within themselves and channels that into being a force for good," Schiller wrote. "While initially her grief turned guilt causes her to turn to the bottle, that love becomes a motivator to do something, she owes it to her kids, as she takes the initiative looking in places the police won't and challenging the abnormalities that have been afforded one too many excuses. Justine's transformation is indicative of the kind of public servant she's been all along, however instead of remaining stifled by the broken system in place, she (rightfully) oversteps allowing Garner to turn in a remarkably honest and powerful performance." Reactions to 'Weapons' Earning High Marks on Rotten Tomatoes The early praise for Weapons was met with a mixture of reactions from moviegoers and fans. Some weren't surprised at all by the critics' reviews of Garner's new film, while others remain in "wait and see" mode, not yet fully on board. "We knew it was gonna be an all timer," replied one follower on X. "It is going to be best horror movie of this year after sinners or maybe better than sinners," read another bold comment. "Read the script last night and I could not stop reading. This movie is going to be incredible," chimed in another reader. "Pretty small sample, but hopefully a good early indicator!" read another response. While it's still early on, the coming days and the movie's first weekend in theaters will be telling, but Weapons is off to a great start.'Fantastic Four' Star Julia Garner's Movie 'Weapons' Rated 100 Percent on Rotten Tomatoes first appeared on Men's Journal on Aug 1, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
11 hours ago
- New York Times
A Plane Heist Goes Outrageously Awry in This Brisk Spy Thriller
SHEEPDOGS, by Elliot Ackerman At the outset of Elliot Ackerman's lively thriller 'Sheepdogs,' a mysterious benefactor offers the two protagonists a million dollars to 'repossess' (that is, steal) a private jet from an airfield in Uganda and fly it to France. It's a strange proposal, scant on detail. But the men, both military veterans, accept at once. After all, 'war is a racket,' as the Marine general Smedley D. Butler wrote (in a line adopted for the novel's epigraph), and they aren't going to miss this rare chance to cash in. Before taking the job, the protagonists — one American, the other Afghan — had found themselves stranded on the margins of civilian life. Sqwerl, a former Marine and C.I.A. paramilitary, disclosed classified information to the press in the wake of a disastrous raid in Now Zad, Afghanistan. (His name is a phonetic rendition of 'squirrel' — 'because Marines can't spell.') In retaliation, the C.I.A. fired and sued Sqwerl, winning the right to garnish his earnings for years to come. Cheese, Sqwerl's partner and a onetime ace for the Afghan Air Force, fled Kabul immediately before the Taliban secured the capital in 2021. He and his pregnant wife now live as refugees in a tiny apartment on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, surviving on Cheese's meager wages as a gas station clerk. Predictably, the scheme to steal the plane goes awry. A determined assassin, it turns out, has Sqwerl in his sights. More threatening still is Uncle Tony, a shadowy C.I.A. operative who hasn't forgiven Sqwerl for talking out of turn. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
