The Slaughter

Caught this at the "Another Hole in the Head" festival in San Francisco. The director and cast appeared after the show talked about the film. Jay Lee, the director, stated that he wanted to create a horror/comedy to separate his film from all the other cheap horror films being made. Well, he almost did it.

Unfortunately, much of the humor is poorly timed or is over the top, and for every moment that works there's two or three that fall flat as the director does everything short of standing on screen shouting, "Look! Isn't this funny?" In spite of this I think the film does have potential, and Jay Lee can use this film as lessons learned for his next project. The main weakness was in the writing, but I liked the concept and the camera-work was good. Next time Jay Lee needs to let his script go through another draft review before he shoots.

I'll say this, "The Slaughter" starts out great. The opening scene with a bevy of the most beautiful witches (or witch worshipers, or whatever they are) that have probably ever graced the screen this side of porn getting naked, seductively self-mutilating themselves (!!) and calling to life the demon-woman pictured on the DVD cover is up there with the phantasmagoria of Ken Russell in his prime. It's very MTV but also effective...all double exposures and reaching hands, muted, digitized images and an eerie score. I was already prepared to accept I'd gotten my $1 rental money's worth for taking a gamble on an unknown DVD with a neato cover. Had it gone on in this way I was prepared to call this the most original fear film to have come out in decades, but it couldn't keep it up.

Cut to a bunch of beautiful, stupid young people "required" to be in a haunted house for one of the lamest reasons ever (they're cleaning it) and we're back on the same ol' territory as any run-of-the mill haunted house flick. The good news is that this is a dumb movie about idiotic people made by people who appear to be quite smart. The characters are oddly likable because it's clear the actors are talented and were having a ball (I particularly enjoyed the brain-fried stoner and the slutty girl). Unfortunately, the tone of the film goes from being scary-with-some-humor to out and out ridiculous and it descends into "student film" territory. I wish we were having as much fun as the people making the movie seemed to have been...either let us in on the joke or let us laugh AT you, but when people in a movie on a screen are laughing at themselves it seldom is fun for an audience.

The script has some fun one-liners and fast-paced dialog, the effects, though incredibly cheap, are fun, the gore is gratuitous and gloppy and the make-up on the demon-woman is really, really nice. The actors are all beautiful and fun to watch, the attack scenes (when they come--you have to wait a good 50 minutes! Sheesh!) are satisfying. Too bad the witch just never really DOES anything, too bad there's just no plot at all and too bad we've seen most of this before a million times. The speed-monster-metal score is a nice touch, though it doesn't really suit the material that well.

Oh, who am I fooling--this movie blows! It really is something only a slightly-feeble-minded 12 year old could truly enjoy, but as a dirt-cheap rental before Halloween I found it was actually amusing enough. Next!

Can't say I was too impressed with Jay Lee's pretty unoriginal stab at cinematic bloodletting. A bunch of irritating teens and some twentysomethings rock up at at an old house which they have agreed to help renovate. Before too long, the renovators are getting murdered and possessed by demons resembling the offspring of the "Evil Dead" monsters. The problem is is it's been done too many times before in movies like the above-mentioned and "Night of the Demons", to name a few. Although there are a couple of decent gore effects, the acting is sincere but over-the-top and the dialog is of the cynical, smart ass variety. For its low budget, tech credits are acceptable and the sound mix is rich.

Dana (Jessica Ellis) and her boyfriend Tyler (Terry Erioski) own a cleaning company and they travel with his stepbrother Iggy (Zak Kilberg) to clean up an old house for the arrogant real state agent Carl (Brad Milne). They invite the promiscuous Heather (Laura Stein); her boyfriend Brandon (Travis Wood) and the pothead Razz (Billy Beck) that are their friends, to help them. They meet Carl and his secretary Alexandra (Jen Alex Gonzalez) in the house and when they clean the basement, there is a bad smell and they find a book made of flesh. Iggy translates the text and discovers that the place is a portal to an evil female demon that was summoned one hundred years ago. He also discovers that a sin would be capable to awake the She Demon (Adriana Esquivel) and the group decides to have no sex in the house. But it is too late since Heather and Brandon are alone in a bedroom. Now the She Demon is unleashed and they find that they are trapped in the house.

"The Slaughter" is a low-budget movie with flawed characters (Carl and Alexandra are unbearable; Brandon and Razz are douchebags); poor locations and special effects; and a screenplay that should be improved. The makeup and the camera work are good and in the end, considering the budget, this Z-movie is enjoyable and entertains. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Massacre" ("The Slaughter")

I went into this with high hopes, and came out shocked at how hackneyed and lame this movie felt. Mr. Lee has tried to pass off a humorless and derivative piece of zombie schlock as ultra-hip satirical horror-comedy, and the resulting mess is a series of sight gags and boredom. The FX may be decent, but the unimaginative direction and writing illuminates a heavy dependence on latex and fake blood. I was told the acting was excellent, and while I think that's a bit generous, for the most part the performances were good, and some were very good indeed. I have to give the actors credit, because the dialog was laughable (and not intentionally) more often than not, yet they managed to deliver their lines with a surprising degree of sincerity, so at least the director is capable of working with his players, or just knows how to cast appropriately. But in the end, the movie just becomes tiresome.

Definitely NOT an "Evil Dead" for the new generation, nor any generation.