The Sadist (2015)
** (out of 4)
Low-budget horror film has some campers and hunters coming under attack by an escaped mental patient (Tom Savini) who was a special ops soldier before his breakdown. Now the former soldier is on a killing spree.
When you see that a movie is a slasher and that it features Savini and it's called THE SADIST then you're expectations pretty much go sky high. Unfortunately THE SADIST isn't a very good movie but at the same time it's certainly a lot better than a lot of the indie productions out there.
There's really nothing overly original here as we have a maniac running wild in the woods and killing people. That's basically everything that happens during the short running time. I will say that on a technical level the film is well-made and I'd also argue that the wood settings were extremely good and added a lot to the picture. Some of the performances weren't too bad either and it's always fun watching Savini work.
With that said, the biggest issue I had with the film is that it really lacks any real punch. If you're hoping to see gore then you'll really be disappointed as a lot of the death scenes are off camera and what ones are on screen just don't have much of the red stuff. Nudity? Forget it. Now, you could be saying does a horror film need gore and nudity? In my opinion, slashers like this do need one or both.
THE SADIST will appeal to fans of Savini but most will probably want to skip it.
