Slaughterhouse, l'abattoir de l'angoisse

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!!

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.

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.

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!

"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.