The Slaughter

Can't say I was too impressed with Jay Lee's pretty unoriginal stab at cinematic bloodletting. A bunch of irritating teens and some twentysomethings rock up at at an old house which they have agreed to help renovate. Before too long, the renovators are getting murdered and possessed by demons resembling the offspring of the "Evil Dead" monsters. The problem is is it's been done too many times before in movies like the above-mentioned and "Night of the Demons", to name a few. Although there are a couple of decent gore effects, the acting is sincere but over-the-top and the dialog is of the cynical, smart ass variety. For its low budget, tech credits are acceptable and the sound mix is rich.

Don't buy this movie. Don't rent this movie. Don't borrow this movie. Don't watch this movie for free on television. Just don't watch this movie at all. Period. (But if you did buy it, mark it up and sell it to someone you don't like.)

What's so bad about "The Slaughter"? (1) The "acting". Is it possible to act without moving your lips?...No. But that doesn't stop the "actors". (2) The "horror". (See number 5.) (3) The "comedy". (Clowns are funnier...and clowns really aren't that funny.) (4) The "effects". It is amazing what $2.33 and silicone can't do. (5) The demon/witch women who had silicone boobs in the "ancient times".

You have been warned....

Dana (Jessica Ellis) and her boyfriend Tyler (Terry Erioski) own a cleaning company and they travel with his stepbrother Iggy (Zak Kilberg) to clean up an old house for the arrogant real state agent Carl (Brad Milne). They invite the promiscuous Heather (Laura Stein); her boyfriend Brandon (Travis Wood) and the pothead Razz (Billy Beck) that are their friends, to help them. They meet Carl and his secretary Alexandra (Jen Alex Gonzalez) in the house and when they clean the basement, there is a bad smell and they find a book made of flesh. Iggy translates the text and discovers that the place is a portal to an evil female demon that was summoned one hundred years ago. He also discovers that a sin would be capable to awake the She Demon (Adriana Esquivel) and the group decides to have no sex in the house. But it is too late since Heather and Brandon are alone in a bedroom. Now the She Demon is unleashed and they find that they are trapped in the house.

"The Slaughter" is a low-budget movie with flawed characters (Carl and Alexandra are unbearable; Brandon and Razz are douchebags); poor locations and special effects; and a screenplay that should be improved. The makeup and the camera work are good and in the end, considering the budget, this Z-movie is enjoyable and entertains. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Massacre" ("The Slaughter")

Caught this at the "Another Hole in the Head" festival in San Francisco. The director and cast appeared after the show talked about the film. Jay Lee, the director, stated that he wanted to create a horror/comedy to separate his film from all the other cheap horror films being made. Well, he almost did it.

Unfortunately, much of the humor is poorly timed or is over the top, and for every moment that works there's two or three that fall flat as the director does everything short of standing on screen shouting, "Look! Isn't this funny?" In spite of this I think the film does have potential, and Jay Lee can use this film as lessons learned for his next project. The main weakness was in the writing, but I liked the concept and the camera-work was good. Next time Jay Lee needs to let his script go through another draft review before he shoots.

After reading the previous comments, I knew this film was never going to be a classic, it didn't even look good enough to be a b-movie. However, I've always been a sucker for the old "demons run amok in a haunted house" scenario (a la Night of the Demons) so I decided to give it bash. After a fantastic opening scene for breast fans, it started on a very fast decline...

As expected, the script, acting and what passed for storyline were quite dreadful but the worst thing about it was that, quite obviously, the writer/director/teaboy had actually stopped believing in the horror element himself (and you can actually pinpoint the exact moment), gave up and tried to quickly turn it into a "Shaun of the Dead" style zombie comedy. The irony being that one of the worst straight actors in the film (all of them are pretty unlikeable characters) - the anti-establishment rich boy, turned out to have a decent line in comedy acting, both verbally and physically. If the director had noticed this from the start, he could have made an entirely different film. Instead, coupled with some quite amateurish splatter effects, it ended up being possibly the most non-committal horror film I think I've ever seen.