Peur blanche

This film, directed by Greg Huson, is about a group of teenagers (oh joy) who go away for the weekend to a disused ski-resort that apparently one of the teenager's fathers is planning to buy.

In echoes of such campsite slashers as Friday the 13th it seems that this deserted ski-resort is not deserted, a strange skier in black seems to glide around the slopes.

It's a shame this movie started off so badly as the last twenty minutes are pretty good fare for a teen-slasher. Much of this movie was bad, badly directed, badly acted and badly scripted.

Kimberley (played by Lindsey McKeon from 'Saved By The Bell: The New Class' "fame") put in one of the better, but still poor, performances but often seemed like she was forcing the words. However, she was playing a character that was trying to be seen as someone to detest, which she managed to pull off for a small while so credit for that. Of course, one may think that is due to the script, but no...There is so much useless dialogue and so much

lack of useful dialogue that it's hard to actually understand what's going on. At times it seemed like the actors were improvising. It all makes sense eventually, but you do have to look for your answers.

Except for one thing that is, towards the beginning of the film on their way to the resort, the teens stop off at a service station. After a girlie chat in the bathroom the girls run into a European guy named Christophe (Brad Hawkins). After talking with him for a couple of minutes they invite him along. One question - why?! How many women are there out there who would do that? I'm sure even the girls out there that act like Kimberley does in this film wouldn't do that. But anyway, I digress a tad.

Another problem with the film is the way they introduce the characters. Almost all the other characters in the film suddenly just make an appearance and then come back much later. Also the acting abilities of these extra characters (especially a pervy Sheriff) was highly questionable. For the short time that they are on screen though it doesn't really matter.

The directing for most of 'Shredder' was sub-par but, having said that, there were a couple of quite well done ski-chase scenes. They were fast paced and aesthetically good. I must also mention that there were some good scenery shots of the snowy mountains. Huson adopted an MTV-style approach to the direction which was mostly an annoyance. It seemed that there were (towards the beginning) many filler scenes which served no purpose to the script just so punk-pop music could be played on the soundtrack. Whether this is his style I don't know having not seen his only other film as a director, 'Decaf', and according to it's IMDb page, no one else has either.

The make-up quality was inconsistent. Sometimes the make-up is quite good, fairly realistic looking and quite gory but othertimes it is extremely fake looking and poorly done. The quality of the make-up generally improves later in the film, so maybe two different guys were doing the effects? Thankfully though, apart from a quick and unfortunately cartoony image at the end no CGI was used.

What's most important is the actual film though and like I mentioned previously, the ending helped salvage it. The first hour of the film is where most of the problems I've mentioned can be found. The last twenty minutes on the other hand seemed fairly well thought out. Admittedly there were a few consistency problems and the lack of previous and current interaction between the teenagers and the other characters in the film harmed the quality somewhat but I still have to give some credit where it's due. If the film had been given an extra 10-15 minutes, or hadn't used so much filler, it could have been improved. It's the lack of understanding that begins through the non-development of the characters and ideas that's the problem. A little more character interaction and some extra dialogue would have made everything much more plausible and coherent. Another thing that shamed the ending was the quick array of plot twists that were tried. None really worked well and unfortunately it made things a little sloppy. There were some good suspense scenes and a few moments that might increase your heart-rate but this film isn't really scary. Also, despite being a small gore content, most of the killings are either off-screen or a camera turn which flicks back to the finished result.

Will I watch this again? Yes, probably. I wouldn't say it's worth checking out (I definately wouldn't go out of your way) but there are much worse films out there. At least the last twenty minutes somewhat helped to salvage the film, though not entirely fixing the mess the first hour made the film definately upped it's rating from me in that time. If you see it and like the sound of it then you should check it out. Think 'Friday the 13th' with less of a story and set at a ski-resort and your getting close here. I'd say 5.5/10

Starring the seriously underused/underrated Lindsey McKeon this is a highly colour by numbers slasher with a couple of redeeming features.

For a start the setting is great, set high up the mountains where all the snowboarders/skiers dwell. Next is the cast, better than you'd expected considering what type of film it is. And finally though they are deep into the film it does have some quite neat ideas! Blending the excellent Out Cold (2001) with one of a billion generic slashers pays off with bits of comedy thrown into break free of the predictable tedium of the genre.

You won't even easily predict the identity of the killer, I was astounded when it turned out not to be Reverend Green in the kitchen with the rolling pin! Flabbergasted I tell you.

Better than you'd might think but still instantly forgettable.

Now I'm a huge fan of low-buck cheesy slashfests, but really, can we have some sort of oh, I dunno, a PLOT????? Wow. Teens decide to go "shredding" at an abandoned ski lodge (conveniently located miles from any help and decidedly spooky looking) where there was.........A MURDER years ago! And someone's looking for revenge on our young, goodlooking, rich and horny teenagers....can you FEEL the suspense? We have the requisite "party girl", the "snobby girl", the "good girl", the "handsome stranger guy", the "nice hero guy", the "dorky crazy guy" and the "quiet loner type", but that's not all! We have the "angry locals" and the "doofy sheriff", and of course our "masked killer" who uses a variety of instruments to do the deeds. I swear they had a copy of "The Idiot's Guide to making a Slasher Flick" on set at all times because this thing is sooooooo predictable. It's wretched in every way possible. It deserves the shredder. I intend to write the producers and ask for a refund of my rental fee, 'cause that's three bucks and I'll NEVER get the 90 minutes of my life I wasted by watching this back.

A group of 'teens' go up to the mountains to go boarding. But someone doesn't like that they're there illegally, trespassing on private property, and breaking the safety rules to boot. So they're stalked and killed one by one. The intentional humor falls flat, yet luckily the unintentional humor saves this film from being totally unwatchable, but only barely. The 'teens' are horrible actors and whiny people and their death scenes are a hoot. Would I ever watch it again? Nope, but I had fun seeing it the first time, well perhaps not fun, but I wasn't hating my life. The beer helped. What din't help was the cardinal sin of Slasher films: showing a shower scene with NO nudity.

Eye Candy: Holly Towne as Robyn shows her mosquito bites

My Grade: D+

Coming up with a generic plot is often compared to shuffling a pack of cards in order to come up with a slightly different plot each time . Unfortunately by the end of the 20th century the pack of cards entitled " Bunch of teenagers get stalked and killed " had been shuffled to death and what the post modernist humour of SCREAM did was bury the pack once and for all . Guess how the producers of SHREDDER ( A made for video movie released in 2002 ) take a new approach ? That`s right they make the teenagers snowboarders !

Just to explain the reason why teenagers get bumped off in these type of movies is to introduce a subtest of proteastant ethics . Horny teenagers both slappers and studs who have sex just for the fun of it must be horribly murdered as retribution for being promiscuous while the gutsy virgin must survive the film as reward for keeping her honour , but unless I`m missing something there`s not one honourable virgin ( Well female ones ) in this movie or any sympathetic character at all . In fact if I bumped into any of these characters in real life I`d be hard pressed not to put an ice pick through their heads . Oh and there`s a scene at the end that can be described as cheating . I won`t spoil it for you but you`ll know the scene when you see it .

If there`s any film producers out there thinking of making yet another movie about horny teenagers getting sliced and diced can you please consider another career option