Slaughterhouse, l'abattoir de l'angoisse

The main story concerning two all-mod-cons (for 1987 anyway) small town businessmen and a gruff sheriff trying to underhandedly usurp an old school sausage factory owner, Lester Bacon (Don Barrett), and his psychotically wayward son, Buddy (Joe Barton), is pure EC horror comic pulp resulting inevitably as it does in gruesome murder.

Wrapped around this is a fun quartet of teens in a Jeep who while away their time making rubber mask music videos in the slaughterhouse when they're not drowning their French fries in ketchup or cutting a rug to cheesy synth bands at the local Bacon disco dance.

Both these strands are married up quite successfully with likable and reprehensible characters alike meeting grisly fates in the piggy execution chamber via Buddy's big cleaver.

But Buddy's kind of a problem as he's played more for laughs than menace and comes over way too sweet and cuddly for a Leatherface wannabe. Clearly this was the intention of writer/director Rick Roessler from the opening sequence, but it seriously devalues any threats of suspense and tension that might be brewing and leaves an unsatisfying taste in the mouth. Buddy's Pop is cartoonish in tone too but Don Barrett makes a fair old go of it in the eye rolling/teeth gnashing department, so some kudos is due there.

The last third however, does make up for these shortcomings somewhat with an atmospheric climax in the meat plant chamber of horrors where most of the cast are quite harshly dispatched in brutal fashion before the freeze frame cliff-hanger brings us to an unexpected full stop.

Keeping the murderous pig farmers in the shadows would have added a much needed air of mystery and surprise and may have pushed it toward the realm of 'minor classic' and, possibly, a higher rating. But it's still a pretty decent, fun slasher that's well worth a look.

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!!

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

"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" wields an enormous influence over this rural horror comedy; on the whole, "Slaughterhouse" manages to be a reasonably interesting and effectively atmospheric production. The characters are often inane, and the performances aren't so hot for the most part, but that's very much par for the course. *Some* of the characters are pretty damn memorable, especially the homicidal antagonists. There's a fair amount of gore, although the body count may not be high enough to suit some tastes. Writer / director Rick Roessler gives us a taste of what's to come with his pre-credit sequence, then goes through a little bit of set-up, eventually delivering respectable bloody mayhem for 80s horror lovers.

Don Barrett plays Lester Bacon, a demented old farmer about to lose his slaughterhouse to foreclosure. He lives with a massive, mentally impaired son named Buddy (Joe B. Barton), who grunts instead of talks, and who is very handy with assorted killing implements. Buddy also gets along much better with pigs than with people. Lester finds that Buddy has a taste for murder, but implores him to save it for those who deserve it, namely those that are trying to take his business away from him. Soon enough, he starts to enjoy the experience.

Barrett is a delight, and Barton is quite fun to watch, especially in one scene where Buddy goes on a joyride after slaughtering a deputy. The movie gets better as it goes along, culminating in what is actually a solid finale, as four friends that had been filming their own "horror" footage head right into danger by utilizing the slaughterhouse at night. The sequence in which sheriffs' daughter Liz(zie) Borden (Sherry Leigh) is pure TCSM type material.

The fun factor of this rollicking "Do It Yourself" feature is high. The filmmakers seem to be enjoying themselves, so the fans should too.

Seven out of 10.

This bizarre B-movie oddity has a couple of things going for it. First of all there's the splatter, this movie really is pretty messed up. People get crushed, chopped up and grounded, all in a day's work. Then there's the Bacon (clever writing there) family itself, which reminds me a lot of "Texas Chain Saw Massacre". Sure, there are only two people in it, but those two are really awesome. Don Barrett is great as the insane father who's out for revenge and also tortures some random people on the side, and Joe B. Barton is actually pretty menacing as the son who does all the dirty work and for some reason makes pig noises. The people who play the teens aren't really any good, but if they were they would probably be in another movie. They're just there to get killed anyway, and they do a good job of that. Because this movie is really short the pace is pretty fast, and the bodies pile up quickly, which leads to a pretty inspired finale. The ending may be disappointing to some, and can probably be best explained by budget cuts, but really I kinda like it. It definitely makes this movie stand out from the others. "Slaughterhouse" is a lot better than what I gave it credit for.