Slaughterhouse

This little piece of junk is so much fun, you can't imagine !! Very violent, grim and demented…but covered with black humor and cheerfully twisted characters. 'Slaughterhouse' is set in a quite little American town (of course) called Lakeside. A large chain of abattoirs makes it impossible for modest slaughterhouses to survive. The old butcher Lester Bacon is declared bankrupt and along with his seriously retarded son Buddy, he plans vengeance to all parties involved. 'Slaughterhouse' is very amusing, just because it's so light-headed! This Buddy-character is really great! A big, brainless fatso who can't talk but grunts all the time due to spending his entire youth between pigs. He carries a giant axe throughout the whole movie and butchers people without thinking! Lovely!! Clearly inspired by the notorious Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this Rick Roessler one-man-showed is one of the better slashers produced in the 80's. Best sequence is probably when Buddy joyrides with the car of the deputy and chases his mistress like the lunatic he is! Love this crap!!

Whilst not being the best slasher film around, Slaughterhouse is worth a watch as it has its fair share of splatter and a good atmosphere. There are some good deaths and cheesy moments, such as when the cop bleeds to death from having his hand chopped off. There's also a great scene where a man gets pulped in some sort of meat grinder. The slaughterhouse itself is a great setting for a slasher film, you can almost smell the atmosphere of death surrounding it. People say the ending was rather abrupt, although I think it was cool because it doesn't provide you with the typical Hollywood "happy ending" everyone expects.

Overall, this is an average slasher. It has its good moments but it also has its boring moments. It's worth adding to your collection if you're a fan of the genre.

Lester Bacon (Don Barrett) and his grunting, meat-cleaver wielding son Buddy (Joe Barton) aren't very happy about the foreclosure of their abattoir and decide to use their slaughterhouse equipment and butchering skills to deal with the swine responsible. The meat-hooks become even more crowded with bodies after a group of teens visit the old meat-packing factory during a thunderstorm for a dare.

With its all-pervading aura of death and decay and its hulking mentally challenged killer (mentored by his demented father), Slaughterhouse is clearly aiming for a Texas Chain Saw Massacre vibe, but at the same time it also caters for the audience of the day, delivering inane teenage characters, predictable jump scares, some reasonable splatter, a few pig-related puns (Lester is described as 'pig-headed' and calls his son 'hog-wild'), and a couple of typically cheesy '80s scenes in which the youngsters act all wild and wacky, their zany antics accompanied by a tacky pop/rock soundtrack.

The result is a fun slice of stalk 'n' slash, a spirited blend of mean-spirited nastiness and tongue-in-cheek silliness that ticks all of the genre boxes with the notable exception of gratuitous female nudity. The suspenseful rain-drenched finalé is particularly well handled by one-time-only director Rick Roessler.

Don Barrett is certainly one of the funniest actors in history. Just about every word that comes out of this man's mouth is a perverse joke. As for the plot, it was a typical slasher that had pretty good acting, great music, and a sadistic killer in Buddy. The opening credits scene was absolutely beautiful. It'll probably reassure all the vegans out there that they're doing the right thing, though it didn't bother me one bit. ***1/2out of****This film has to be one of my personal favorites and is worth a couple of looks. It certainly deserved the DVD treatment that it got.

This was directed by Rick Roessler, his one and only attempt to make a flick. Made in 1987 it surely looks like it was made earlier. It even looked like a drive-in flick.

The acting was okay, no big names here. Joe B. Barton (Buddy) was also seen in Blood Diner made in the same year. Don Barret (Lester) was seen in two more flicks. maybe the one who made it was Sherry Leigh who did stunts for a lot of B-flicks.

The story is very simple, an abandoned slaughterhouse is the ideal place to party for some youngsters but naturally it turns out awry. Not only that, the place is for sale but the owners don't want to sell it and are out for some revenge. The killings aren't gory but they do have some red stuff. But it's low on killings, only in the beginning and the end, in between it's blah blah. Easy to see it was low budget. Just have a look at the end, it stops with a freeze, up to you to guess what is going to happen. Some say it's a slasher, for me it isn't. It was clearly made out of that era and nothing is added to name it a slasher, no points of view or whatsoever.

Pure fun to watch if you can dig low budgets, otherwise leave it on the shelves.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5