slaughter

Movie: Slaughter Year: 2009 Studio: After Dark Films Director: Stewart Hopewell Language: English Length: 93 Minutes Sub-Genre: Serial Killer

Plot: When a North Carolina teenager moves to a pig farm on the outskirts of Atlanta to escape an abusive boyfriend, she begins to realize that her new home is even more dangerous than the one she moved from.

Review: I value a good story arc and character development in any genre, including horror. But “Slaughter” is a rare example of a horror film that actually takes these elements too far. Indeed, much of the film seems more like a drama than a horror film. Yet, as one might hope from any film that spends so much time developing its subplots, “Slaughter” rewards the patient viewer with a wild, 35-minute grand finale. It borders on the absurd, but after the 53-minute drama that precedes it, I think horror fans will find the film’s over-the-top ending sequence refreshing.

To be fair, “Slaughter” opens with a curtain-raiser that definitely gets your attention: We see irritatingly, intermittently blurry close-up shots of a young woman who is bound at the wrists and ankles and being dragged onto a lakeside dock. Then we see her captor anchor a cinder block to her legs and then push it into the lake, pulling the woman in with it. That’s how “Slaughter” opens. Then the chronology backs up and starts at the beginning to show us how the submerged woman got in such a predicament.

It turns out that the woman from the beginning of the movie is our protagonist, a girl named Faith (Amy Shiels). This character earns our pity because she is apparently fleeing an ex-boyfriend whom she fears. At one point we see scars from slashes on her back, and with her anxiety and nightmares involving her ex, Jimmy (Vance Daniels), we get the picture that he is emotionally unstable and a genuine threat to her life. Here again we have another horror movie character who already has suffering in her life and doesn’t deserve the forthcoming horrors. Unfortunately, this Faith character is also somewhat aloof and withdrawn, so she doesn’t have much charisma to make her likable to us. We feel sorry for her on a human level, but that’s about it. This is particularly puzzling since writer-director Stewart Hopewell went to such great lengths to develop this character for us.

Soon Faith meets Lola, played by Lucy Holt, and she is Faith’s opposite in almost every way. Naturally, they become fast friends. But not long after moving onto Lola’s father’s pig farm, Faith begins to suspect that Lola’s father does some unsavory things in his slaughter house that go beyond just killing pigs.

Now, if you’re bored reading this review so far, I agree. I’m bored writing it. As noted above, up to this point, “Slaughter” is a drama which depicts two young women finding comfort from their broken backgrounds through their newfound friendship.

But the reason I’m rating “Slaughter” a 6 out of 10 and calling it a “Rental” is due to the way it unfolds once the story catches us up to what we saw in the beginning, with Faith getting dropped in the lake. This finale begins at about the 55-minute mark, and this movie doesn’t stop delivering onscreen madness until the end. In some ways, “Slaughter” approaches “pushing the envelope” with some of its dealings with children and other unsettling occurrences. And though it doesn’t show everything graphically or explicitly, I still got the point and was squirming on my couch over some of the awful fates that befall Faith.

If you want to try something funny with someone who has a good sense of humor, find a chick-flick or drama lover and don’t show that person the introduction to this movie. Start off with Faith’s move to Atlanta. Then watch your friend’s reaction when things start to unravel with this movie’s grand finale. This film will be especially entertaining for those who have a phobia of dentistry. Good times. But seriously, if you can’t tolerate a slow-burn in order to get a good pay-off, then “Slaughter” isn’t for you. But if story and character development are up your alley, like they are for me, then “Slaughter” is worth the investment of your time.

To hear horror movie reviews from Jay of the Dead and his cohorts, listen to Horror Metropolis.

[Note: This review is 2 of 8 of the Horror Metropolis 2-DVD, 8-horror movie give-away contest.]

Reviewer: Jay of the Dead Date: 05/29/2012 Rating: 6/10 Recommendation: Rental

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