This new workout is a scream.
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.
“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!”
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
“Corpse Pose Killer,” is a yoga-inspired class that promises, “You’ll leave breathless, sweaty, and feeling dead—but totally empowered.”
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.
