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Sunday, January 20, 2008

"The Slaughter" review

The Slaughter (2006)

Director: Jay Lee
Writer: Jay Lee

Jessica Custodio ... Dana (as Jessica Ellis)
Zak Kilberg... Iggy
Terry Erioski ... Tyler
Laura Bach ... Heather (as Laura Stein)
Jen Alex Gonzalez ... Alexandra
Brad Milne ... Carl Stevens
Adriana Esquivel ... She Demon
Carmit Levité... Julia Carter
Cheyenne Ault ... Denise Carter
Eva Derrek ... Madam Izriah
Penny Drake ... Madame Eliza
Elana Blank ... Witch

If there was a B-movie university, and there should be, “The Slaughter” would be a prime learning tool. It is a textbook example of a horror flick for B-movie 101 class. Keep your cast in one setting to drive down costs? Check. Have a cheap monster pick off the cast one by one? Check. Throw some blood and breasts at the screen to see if something interesting happens? Check. “The Slaughter” has rolled off the B-movie assembly line to fill that gaping hole on the video store shelf. Because if it’s one thing the world needs, it’s more straight to video horror movies.

“The Slaughter” begins as so many other B-movies before it with a bunch of teens heading to an abandoned house. This time the cast is at the spooky house to clean the insides for a smarmy businessman. While dusting the place, they stumble upon an old book which may hold the key to making this movie interesting. The resident dork of the group translates the book just in time to tell them that they’re all going to die. A topless witch ceremony from many moons ago has scarred the house for eternity. If certain rituals are performed, like getting laid, the evil demons in the house will do their B-movie duty and slice and dice anyone with the audacity to be alive. The group has unleashed the Slaughter.“The Slaughter” starts off with a great gratuitous nudity scene. The opening scene has the witches performing a spell together and then ripping off their cloaks to reveal their witchy breasts. Topless conjuring was an integral part of ancient spell casting ceremonies and I appreciated the filmmaker’s attention to historical accuracy.

Unfortunately, I found the first five minutes to be the highlight of “The Slaughter”. I have seen this movie many, many times before. One might even say too many times before. There is not a shred of originality or innovation in “The Slaughter”. It is yet another B-flick that exists only in the faint hope that guys like me will get into seeing some more blood and guts scenes. You know how this movie is going to unfold every step of the way. The monster gets released, people get killed, blood spurts out of their organs and the movie ends.

“The Slaughter” is a fair B-flick with topless witches and plenty of blood. It won’t thrill you with its B-movie 101 storyline but if you’re not too picky you might get into it.
SCORE: 2 out of 4 slaughters

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:31 PM

    Sounds pretty decent. Might check it out one day if there's nothing else aching to be seen.

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  2. Anonymous9:04 AM

    For 95% of the movie it is routine and quite boring. Unfortunately the last 15 minutes of the movie become not only laughable but near impossible to sit through and quite frankly I felt embarassed for both Jessica Ellis and Zak Kilberg

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  3. Oh, I don't know. If you can make it through 95% of the movie I think you can power through the rest. Not that I would defend this movie too much mind you but I don't know if any part is better or worse. Except for the topless witch party, (which was pure B-movie genius), the rest is pretty standard. We can only hope that Jessica and Zak will survive the aftermath of the B-movie Slaughter.

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