Sweatshop

I really wouldn't say that Sweatshop came as a disappointment. In fact it was the complete opposite.

Overall it isn't a good film. Its a movie that has poor acting and poor characters that you hate right from the beginning, but it feels very deliberate. The best thing about Sweatshop is that the most annoying characters are killed in phenomenal ways which gives you a strong sense of satisfaction!

The last 15 minutes of the movie is where it really kicks in.

Go and see Sweatshop if you are a fan of practical gore effects, because there aren't many movies out there that demonstrate gore as well as Sweatshop does!

It's not particularly suspenseful. It is woefully written. You don't even slightly care if the characters live to fight another day and several of them you are quite pleased to see die. The monster is reasonably scary but wasted in such a poor effort writing/acting wise. If gore is your thing this might be for you but if you like being scared by a clever horror film it's most definitely not.

What we have here is a cheap horror movie with terrible dialogue who's only saving grace is its bad guys and quite impressive gore scenes.

The movie starts with a naked goth chick being killed. Then for 20 minutes you just watch the rest of the non acting cast spout the terrible, unfunny dialogue and dance. I'm not even joking there is a 5 minute scene of three of these idiots just dancing. The set up of this movie is a little dated. I don't know if it is supposed to be set in the late 90's but judging by all the cheesy goth attire and the fact they're going to a secret rave it should be.

When we finally get to the meat of the film what we actually get is a lot of meat. The gore scenes in this movie are actually very impressive and if like me you were just constantly annoyed by the pathetic characters, you'll enjoy seeing them smashed by a giant hammer in ever more inventive ways. The main bad guy 'The Beast' is also a pretty imposing figure. Both the gore and 'The Beast' are what made me score this movie any points.

I wouldn't seek this movie out. Just wait until it's on the horror channel and watch for free, you'll enjoy it more that way.

In the intro, some naked girl finds herself in some abandoned plant. A cop arrives. But there's someone else at the plant. Both of them don't end up well.

Then a dreadful bunch of goth punks arrive to organize a party with lights and a dj at that same plant for some reason. The dialogue that ensues among all these people is mostly sex-related talk. Soon enough they meet two female ghouls with creepy teeth...and then the killer--some big welder dude who carries an anvil on handle with him. And then the killings start. Somehow the party still materializes, and then the killer crashes it.

You kinda want Sweatshop to be a nice horror B-movie. Unfortunately, it's not. It's a struggling C-movie. What this movie has to do with a sweatshop, no one knows. Colored lights are annoying, the darkness is annoying, the characters are mostly lame, the voice recording and synchronization are off most of the time, the music is terrible. A party with electronic dance music is one thing. Another is some electronic industrial noise thing that no one makes let alone listens to. I take that back since apparently the songs here are from bands that do that kind of stuff. But, man, it's just not enjoyable. The sound effect are also dreadful, mostly the same 80s inspired synthesizer sound. This movie is proof that multitasking just doesn't work. The director is involved in every aspect of the movie--not a good idea.

But that's the bad stuff. On the good side, we have the likable Peyton Wetzel and the hot Julin in the most enjoyable performances. These two are trying their best here. Then there's the fantastic gore, violence, and original death scenes. They're really good. The villain is also exceptional and has potential to turn this into a franchise. Overall, despite plenty of annoyances, the horror aspects nearly save this movie and the lovely Julin is a treat to see. I'm being more generous than necessary but the violence and gore make this movie worth a look.

Sweatshop starts off with a young naked woman trying to escape an unknown killer in an industrial building, only for a cop to come in and accidentally blast her death. Quite an opening! The rest of the plot sees a group of punks/Goths stage a rave in the same building, but killers lurk inside. I bought this on DVD for £1 and it was quite a bargain, I remember thinking Wow after my first viewing. Fast forward several years and I have just watched it for a second time, sadly I felt a lot less impressed. This is a B-movie so it goes without saying that the acting is not going to be of a high level, and it's not. Generally speaking it is reasonable but there a few of those awkward silences between characters, etc. If, like me, you find Goth chicks attractive then you get your monies worth here. There are several scenes of sex and nudity, on the flip side much of the dialogue consists of sex talk (in particular oral sex), this does become a bit tedious. After the initial death the movie does drag for the next 20 minutes or so, it is one of those slasher movies that progressively gets more violent as it goes on but may test the patience of some viewers. The killer is a hulking man who wears a welding masks and is called The Beast, however he also has a pair of female accomplices who look like nightmarish vampires. This is never explained and to be honest I would have preferred to have just had The Beast alone, thus avoiding slightly confusing thoughts (are these women of supernatural origin, etc?). Negatives aside what Sweatshop does is provide much splatter. Beast wields a huge foundry hammer and uses it to literally smash some of his victims to pieces. He also indulges in some torture porn too, one victim has her fingers cut off one by one. Given the low budget the graphic special effects are impressive, if you don't like nasty gore movies then this most certainly is not for you! The closing credits are cool, each cast member is shown with three photos, the third ones being of their corpses (or what's left of them!). For splatter fans only.