Slaughterhouse Rock

I recently watched Slaughterhouse Rock (1987) on Shudder. The storyline follows a man who experiences strange dreams about people who died at Alcatraz. He decides to visit the prison with his friend and becomes possessed by a demon. The spirit of a deceased female rock singer invades the man's dreams and tries to help him fight the demon in his head.

Directed by Dimitri Logothetis (Pretty Smart), the film stars Toni Basil (Five Easy Pieces), Nicholas Celozzi (Marked for Death), Donna Denton (Nashville), and Al Fleming (The Getaway).

This movie is a classic '80s horror flick with characters, circumstances, and a storyline typical of the era. The settings are well-chosen and help capture the imagination. The jail scenes are actually pretty good; unfortunately, the horror elements themselves are lacking, and the kills are very mediocre. The acting is adequate, and there's definitely some '80s horror hotties and nudity. The soundtrack is fantastic and maybe my favorite part of the movie.

In conclusion, Slaughterhouse Rock is a below-average addition to the horror genre that I would only recommend to '80s horror enthusiasts. I would score this film a 4/10 and recommend it with the appropriate expectations.

College student Alex Gardner (Nicholas Celozzi) is plagued by nightmares of a cellar-dwelling ghoul at Alcatraz. He dreams of cutting off his own hand, spitting up a worm, a ghoul ripping open his chest and being roasted over an open fire. After his friends see him levitating "6 feet" over his bed, a helpful, occult-obsessed teacher (Donna Denton) suggests that they sneak into Alcatraz to face his fears. Of course they go in the middle of the night when no one is around to help when things get out of hand!

The group become stranded, Alex's brother Richard (Tom Reilly) becomes possessed and starts killing everyone. Toni Basil of "Mickey" fame shows up as the helpful ghost of Sammy Mitchell, lead singer of the group "Bodybag". She teaches Alex how to levitate out of his body and does a rock music dance intercut with repeat nightmare footage to pad out the running time. All of the victims show up as wisecracking ghosts a la the Griffin Dunne character in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. The script is full of plot holes, cheesy dialogue and lame attempts at comedy. Good FX work and cool opening credits (both by Ernest D. Farino) are the only things gaining any merit. Basil and Devo ("Whip It") do some songs on the soundtrack.

Score: 2 out of 10

Just watched "Slaughterhouse Rock" and it´s really one hell of a strange horror film! A bit of "Nightmare on Elm Street" here, a bit of "Evil Dead" there and lots of other obscurities that leave you behind with the question what you have seen now during the last 90 minutes: construct the puzzle from particles such as a totally twisted plot, grotesque humor, a pesky hard rock soundtrack by 1980s synthie-poppers Devo, campy acting by a bunch of stereotype US-teeny actors and some guys who look like a horde of new wave zombies. Unfortunately, I saw a heavily cut version, so I can only guess about the gore. However, the violence must have been explicit enough, otherwise "Slaughterhouse Rock" wouldn´t have reached the status of a video nasty in Germany. A film that´s neither suspense-packed nor boring, neither good nor bad. A really strange work indeed! I´d give 5 out of 10...

I can't think of many horror movies that can get worse than this one,because this movie sucked big time.It's boring,bad acting,and does'nt really have a plot.And half of the movie does'nt make any sense.I like movies about prison,which is one reason I chose to see this film.I was very disappointed.This is one of the worst horror movies ever made.It was stupid!Do NOT see it,take it from me you'll hate it.

The storyline is absurd and lame,also sucking are performances and the dialogue, is hard to keep your Eyes open. I advise you to have a caffeine-propelled friend handy to wake you in time for a couple Gore-effects.Why they bring Alcatraz in?In this case,becomes increasingly difficult to swallow. All the while ,i wondered who this film aimed for?Chock full of lame subplots (such as the Cannibalism US Army-captain)This is low-grade in every aspect.BTW this Movie is banned in Germany!!