Slaughterhouse

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.

"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.

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 film was good. That's really what I can say about it. Some of the parts (look for one part with a man being ground up, for instance) were a little over the top gory... but who doesn't like a little gross out, now and then? The acting wasn't anything to be raved upon but was good enough to be overlooked. Overall, this movie was really great to me (though, many others would disagree) so I'm giving it a 9 out of 10. WARNING : The beginning is NOT for the squeamish!

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.