"Mauler" begin as so many good slashers do. Many years ago a young boy is involved in a traumatic event that ends up with his parents dead, and he is adopted by his religious grandmother. Flash forward to today, and a group of 20-somethings decide to try an "internet dare" where they spend the night in an abandoned house where something horrible happened in the past. Unfortunately, they choose this house and, despite what they think, the house is not abandoned...
"Mauler" is so disappointing. It started out great, making me think we were going to get a nice, retro slasher. Flashback with backstory of killer? Check. Group of attractive and incredibly annoying 20-somethings? Check. The group make stupid decisions? Check. Now, all that's left should be the easy part -- have your hulking villain dispatch each of the annoying kids in a gruesome fashion one by one until only the final girl remains.
But after the setup, "Mauler" just falls apart. The tone is all wrong -- it will go slasher and then try comedy that is painful to watch. We keep waiting for the slashing and it just never seems to come. We get the gang arguing about an absolutely idiotic plan, we get "comedy relief" policemen, and it's all wrong. It doesn't start to hit a groove until about 10 minutes before the end and even then, there's an out of the blue ending that will leave you shaking your head.
It is sad to see a low budget horror flick that started out to promising just not be able to deliver. I mean, it's not awful -- you could definitely do worse -- but I think the fact that it started out so promising makes it just seem so disappointing and hard to recommend.
