Slaughtered
Review by Theron Neel
Brain Damage Films distributes all kinds of horror films―some good, some not so good. I just finished watching Slaughtered, the new movie from writer/director Anthony Doublin, and I just have to ask, “Brain Damage, what were you thinking?”
Slaughtered has a good premise: A photographer for one of those “naked dead girl” websites decides to actually kill his models before photographing them. Hey, you save the modeling fees and makeup costs, right? But this good plot is ruined in its execution. I guess it’s more correct to say the plot is executed. That’s right, Slaughtered is slaughtered (sorry, I couldn’t help myself!).
This film looks like it was made by a high school student and his buddies in the backyard of his parents’ house while they were gone on vacation. The sound is bad, the cinematography is woeful, and the acting…well, let’s just say it’s below par. Don’t even start me on the editing. All the scenes end by fading to black, like someone just turned off the home video camera. The best performance comes from Rebecca McCuen, who plays the sister of one of the dead models. She doesn’t handle her lines all that well, but she’s quite good conveying fear. The problem is she’s only in the film for about five minutes.
But who am I kidding…this movie is an exploitation movie hiding in a horror movie’s clothing. Rather than advancing the plot, Doublin kills minute after minute by training his camera on women as they undress. Over and over again. I know, this doesn’t sound so bad, but I never knew naked women could be so boring. And Doublin makes them so. After they’re undressed, we see them tied up and killed but the effects are so amateurish, it’s really not worth the trouble. Don’t get me wrong; I love a good exploitation flick, but Slaughtered is a bad nudie flick, it’s a bad gore flick, and it’s a bad…well, it’s just bad. Even the continuity is bad. At one point, a detective character uses the name of the photog’s website, but she gets it wrong. And this is when she’s trying to get information to solve the case―a major turning point in the plot. If the filmmakers didn’t bother to correct this, it’s sad. If they didn’t even notice, that’s sadder.
What surprises me is that director Anthony Doublin has a pretty impressive background. He handled makeup effects on Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator and From Beyond, two of my favorite movies of all time. And the makeup effects were awesome in those flicks. So, I don’t know where it all went bad for Doublin…but go bad it did. Maybe it’s because he had more budget to work with on the Stuart Gordon films. Slaughtered looks like it was made for about $500.
I am usually able to find some redeeming quality about the films I watch, no matter how bad they may be. I hate to just trash movies, because I know most movies are somebody’s dream come true. But Slaughtered has left me with nothing. I guess the score isn’t too bad. And Rebecca McCuen acts scared pretty well.
Let me just say this: If you want to see naked girls, buy a porn flick. If you want to be bored seeing naked girls, buy Slaughtered.
Oh, and Brain Damage Films? For shame…
Slaughtered will be released by Brain Damage Films in early 2008.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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