Slaxx

Right before a new product launch, a killer pair of jeans eats all the staff at an upscale hipster store. The new girl has to stop the pants from getting out and killing more.

Here is a movie that had a nice over the top premise and manages to botch it in almost every way. First of all, it was shot way too drab and self-serious. The acting was all over the top goofy, and the attempts at a political message were way too heavy handed for what they were making. If you want to make a "Bad good" B movie you have to treat it seriously in presentation but lean into the goofiness, not do what this did and treat it goofy in presentation and lean into the seriousness. Tonally opposite of what it needed to be. Waste of a tremendous premise and a few cute scenes. BLEH.

Ok this movie is completely aware of what it is. A horror comedy! The script is wonderful. The satire of the current retail culture is spot on. The special effects are hilarious. I love the kills in this movie. I didn't think I would be entertained by a killer pair of jeans but I was completely wrong. This movie was the perfect fit.

I love a good horror comedy. The idea of watching a movie about a pair of killer pants doesn't sound stupid to me at all.

This movie was pretty dumb. If you're going to make a movie about something clearly dumb, there's gotta be something else to hook the audience more than just "Wouldn't it be funny if pants killed people?" The pants had the most character of anyone in the movie, and that's saying something. Every character is an uninteresting, bland caricature of a trope., the plot is limp, and there's not a single line of comedy in the movie. Watch something else.

First there were movies. Then there were bad movies. Then there were movies that were so bad, they were good again. Then there were movies that knew they were bad. And we knew they knew. And they knew we knew they knew. And this brings us to Slaxx.

It's not the first film to knowingly embrace it's own stupidity. Coming in not quite as juvenile as Thankskilling, while not as meta as Rubber, Slaxx attempts to maintain the surface veneer of a genuine horror movie. Except it's a horror movie about pants, which aren't scary, cause they're pants, and this is where it becomes a comedy. The humour mostly plays off the deadpan reactions to the ludicrous scenario, and for the most part it lands.

Seeing as it's a parody, it can't really be faulted for it's rote characters. The overly obvious final girl seems necessary for the genre exercise, though the insufferable influencer hits the valley girl stereotype a little too on the nose and ends up being even more annoying than intended. The store manager is similarly over the top and maybe needlessly cartoonish, though his blatant denial of the obvious is the source of some of the best laughs.

I feel neutral about the moral bend of the film. Obviously, something this goofy doesn't need to have any truly deep things to say, and "sweatshops are bad" is pretty surface level social commentary. However, it's peppered in sparingly enough to not detract from the main attraction, and like, sweatshops are bad. Even though we seemed to have abandoned the cause in the 90s since we don't want to have to pay more for our shoes, it doesn't make it any less awful. Maybe a movie about killer jeans will finally wake up the world to enact long overdue social change! (It won't)

Honestly, not that much more. But it still needs more credit than it's getting.

People are pointing out that this movie is fun, but pushes a tired message, and really, it does do that. The social message isn't really profound or incredible, and if you've seen a lot of films like this, then the message seems all the more cliche. However the movie focuses more on being funny than anything else. The message just gives the movie some necessary structure.

However, if you haven't seen films like this before, then this could be a hilarious and interesting movie for you at the same time rather than just "funny" or "whatever" as some of the veterans of the genre find it.

There are a few movies like this one already, but this one has some pretty great actors for what it is. And again, if you're new to the genre, this would be a great bizarre watch for you.