The Slaughter

Practise makes perfect, or so they say.

Two years before combining tits and zombies for his enjoyably silly comedy/horror Zombie Strippers, director Jay Lee practised his technique on straight-to-DVD splatter-fest The Slaughter. With basic plot elements borrowed from The Evil Dead and Night of the Demons, Lee's first attempt at trashy T&A terror isn't exactly original, and suffers badly from budgetary limitations that result in iffy CGI, terrible sound (on my DVD, at least), cheap editing effects and generally poor production values. Fortunately, the graphic gore and gratuitous nudity go a long way to help matters, making this a fairly entertaining ride despite its technical flaws.

The film starts with a trashy credits sequence featuring several topless hotties getting drenched with blood as they perform a ceremony to summon a she-demon, which they intend to control for their own nefarious uses. Of course their plans go tits-up, they wind up dead, and the demon, trapped between dimensions, opts to lay dormant until she is able to put into motion the wheels that will enable her to break free and finally rule our world (or something like that!).

This opportunity arises 60 years later, when a house is built upon the land where the demon lurks: the evil being is able to commence the ritual that will release her from her inter-dimensional prison by killing a child. However, this action results in the house being unoccupied for decades, and the creature is unable to continue—at least, that is, until a money-hungry businessman purchases the property for redevelopment. He hires a team of students to clean up the place before putting it back on the market, and once again provides the monster with everything she needs to complete her plan...ie., good-looking victims with high sex-drives!

After the impressively sleazy opening, I found The Slaughter to be incredibly dull for at least half an hour, and even contemplated switching the film off; I am, however, made of sterner stuff than that, and soldiered on to the end. And I'm glad I did, for things eventually get a lot better: the gore gets gorier, the nudity gets more 'nudie', and there's even a good jump-scare or two to keep viewers on their toes.

Fans of splatter, in particular, are advised to continue watching (either that, or fast-forward!): eventually, we are treated to some great (and some not-so-great) effects, including a nasty broken leg, some gut-puking, face removal via flying brick, a squished head, throat slashing, decapitation, and dismemberment. Some of these moments are admittedly achieved through the use of some pretty dire digital trickery, but on the whole, it's impressive stuff.

The film's fun finalé sees the demon's victims rising from the dead to try and kill the remaining two survivors, a set-up which allows for some amusing banter about how to despatch a zombie, and even more mindless violence.

Not quite as good as Zombie Strippers, but an admirable effort nonetheless, The Slaughter is recommended to those who like their movies cheap, bloody and loaded with—yes, you guessed it—tits and zombies!

This movie starts out as a potential cult film, then quickly proceeds to take a Kamakazi dive into suck. Every film festival that gave this movie an award should have its license revoked for incompetence. The "acting", and I used the term "acting" sarcastically, will give you a headache. A porno has better acting...and better lighting, and better story. The actors had absolutely no chemistry and were too clueless to know when they were suppose to be scared. The director/writer was probably too busy dreaming up fx gimics that haven't been used since the invention of sound. A note to any "filmmakers", if you don't have the budget to make a real horror movie, then at least do yourself a favor and make it a horror comedy. That way people can at least get a laugh out of the campy entertainment value. My roommates made me do laundry and dishes for a week, and I'm officially banned from bringing home anymore horror flicks.

I went into this with high hopes, and came out shocked at how hackneyed and lame this movie felt. Mr. Lee has tried to pass off a humorless and derivative piece of zombie schlock as ultra-hip satirical horror-comedy, and the resulting mess is a series of sight gags and boredom. The FX may be decent, but the unimaginative direction and writing illuminates a heavy dependence on latex and fake blood. I was told the acting was excellent, and while I think that's a bit generous, for the most part the performances were good, and some were very good indeed. I have to give the actors credit, because the dialog was laughable (and not intentionally) more often than not, yet they managed to deliver their lines with a surprising degree of sincerity, so at least the director is capable of working with his players, or just knows how to cast appropriately. But in the end, the movie just becomes tiresome.

Definitely NOT an "Evil Dead" for the new generation, nor any generation.

Can't say I was too impressed with Jay Lee's pretty unoriginal stab at cinematic bloodletting. A bunch of irritating teens and some twentysomethings rock up at at an old house which they have agreed to help renovate. Before too long, the renovators are getting murdered and possessed by demons resembling the offspring of the "Evil Dead" monsters. The problem is is it's been done too many times before in movies like the above-mentioned and "Night of the Demons", to name a few. Although there are a couple of decent gore effects, the acting is sincere but over-the-top and the dialog is of the cynical, smart ass variety. For its low budget, tech credits are acceptable and the sound mix is rich.

After reading the previous comments, I knew this film was never going to be a classic, it didn't even look good enough to be a b-movie. However, I've always been a sucker for the old "demons run amok in a haunted house" scenario (a la Night of the Demons) so I decided to give it bash. After a fantastic opening scene for breast fans, it started on a very fast decline...

As expected, the script, acting and what passed for storyline were quite dreadful but the worst thing about it was that, quite obviously, the writer/director/teaboy had actually stopped believing in the horror element himself (and you can actually pinpoint the exact moment), gave up and tried to quickly turn it into a "Shaun of the Dead" style zombie comedy. The irony being that one of the worst straight actors in the film (all of them are pretty unlikeable characters) - the anti-establishment rich boy, turned out to have a decent line in comedy acting, both verbally and physically. If the director had noticed this from the start, he could have made an entirely different film. Instead, coupled with some quite amateurish splatter effects, it ended up being possibly the most non-committal horror film I think I've ever seen.