Following the successes of Halloween (1978) and Friday the Thirteenth (1980), the teen slasher became a dominant genre of early 1980s North American horror cinema. While multiple European filmmakers have imitated the narrative and stylistic conventions of the genre, however, relatively few Nordic examples exist. This paper investigates three Swedish teen slashers with the purpose of exploring how they relate to their North American antecedents. The films selected are The Bleeder (1983), Drowning Ghost (2004) and Death Academy (2005). The North American teen slasher has often been investigated in terms of subjects such as gender and sexuality. This paper suggests that Swedish filmmakers have employed, and in some cases transformed, the conventions of the genre in order to engage more specifically Nordic issues, such as welfare state politics and the ideals of social justice and economic equality associated with it. Indeed, they all seems to suggest a collapse of the welfare state ideal and a splintering of social cohesion and trust, while offering different interpretations of - and possible paths beyond - this particular crisis. By exploring these Swedish examples of the teen slasher, this paper can hopefully contribute to an understanding of the genre as a transcultural phenomenon.