Slasher Horrorscripts 🔪

.png image credit https://pngegg.com

A Rust-based CLI tool that displays high-quality ANSI art of horror movie icons in your terminal. Inspired by pokemon-colorscripts, but built for fans of the macabre.

(Foot terminal with custom Kanagawa theme shown)

✨ Features

• Blazing Fast: Written in pure Rust with embedded assets (single binary, no runtime dependencies).

• High Fidelity: Uses a custom image-to-ANSI engine (px2ansi-rs) for crisp pixel-perfect rendering.

• Self-Contained: No external image files needed at runtime; everything is baked into the executable.

• Randomizer: Get a different slasher every time you open your terminal.

📦 Installation

Option 1: Install via Cargo (Recommended)

Get the default slashers (Jason, Freddy, etc.) immediately.

cargo install slasher-horrorscripts

Option 2: Build From Source (For Customization)

Choose this if you want to add your own characters or modify the art.

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/saylesss88/slasher-horrorscripts.git
cd slasher-horrorscripts
cargo install --path .

Option 3: Nix

nix run github:saylesss88/slasher-horrorscripts
# If that doesn't work try:
nix run --no-write-lock-file github:saylesss88/slasher-horrorscripts

Flake input:

slasher-horrorscripts.url = "github:saylesss88/slasher-horrorscripts";

environment.systemPackages:

{ inputs, pkgs, ... }: {
inputs.slasher-horrorscripts.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.default
}

2. Generate Assets:

This step converts the raw PNG sprites in assets/images into optimized ANSI text files.

cargo run --bin convert
# Or once installed simply
convert

3. Build & Install

cargo build --release
cp target/release/slasher-horrorscripts ~/.local/bin/

Usage

Run the tool directly from your terminal:

# Show a random slasher
slasher-horrorscripts

# Show a specific character
slasher-horrorscripts --name jason

# List all available characters
slasher-horrorscripts --list

# List a random slasher with a fetch of system info
slasher-horrorscripts --fetch

# Fetch only with a simple box next to it (WIP)
slasher-horrorscripts --fetch-only

Add to Shell Startup

To see a random horror icon every time you launch your terminal, add this to your shell config (.bashrc, .zshrc, or config.fish):

# Display a random slasher on startup
slasher-horrorscripts
# Random slasher w/ fetch
slasher-horrorscripts --fetch

🎨 Adding New Characters

Want to add Pinhead, or any other character?

1. Find a pixel art sprite (PNG/JPG).

• Tip: 8-bit or 16-bit sprites with transparent backgrounds work best.

2. Save the image to assets/images/ (e.g., swampthing.png).

3. Run the converter:

cargo run --bin convert

4. Rebuild the binary:

cargo build --release

🔧 Technical Details

This project uses a custom rendering engine, px2ansi-rs, to handle image processing.

• Engine: px2ansi-rs handles the RGB-to-ANSI escape sequence conversion.

• Resizing: Images are automatically resized to a terminal-friendly height (40 rows) during the conversion step to ensure consistent presentation.

• Embedding: The rust-embed crate compiles the generated ANSI text files directly into the final binary, making it portable and easy to distribute.

📜 License

MIT License - Hack away!