I always often wonder about films that slip[ though the cracks here at The Horror Review, and sometimes, when they do, I get a bit pissed off that the producers of these films never read the site requirements. This would of been the case with this film, We would of probably turned this film, if the director did not contact me by other means. But as fate would have it; Slayer actually has an impressive marketing campaign, and one hell of an excellent trailer. The film has also won an impressive amount of awards on the festival circuit. So I agreed to check it out. Did I mention the entire film was shot for just seven hundred dollars?
Here’s the thing, We sometimes get independent films shot for thousands of dollars and they look like pure shit, plain and simple. Slayer looked pretty dam good for a film that was shot for seven hundred dollars. It just goes to show that it’s not about how much money you have, but what you do with it that counts. Slayer in this respect puts a lot of those bigger budget independent films to shame. Slayer was well directed and edited half way decent as well. It had it’s minor flaws, but overall on the film making aspect of the film was pretty decent.
One of the problems I ram across while watching Slayer though was the pacing of the story. It was a film that kind of jumped around here and their and it never was made clear as to what was going on. The story sound simple when you read the back of the DVD cover, but that story is only part of what you get when you watch the film.
Speaking of the plot, I might as well give you the reader a brief synopsis about what the film was about. The film starts off with this kid who’s walking on the side of the road in what appears to be the middle of nowhere. He’s on his cell phone when out of the woods comes two guys; one chasing the other. Well one guy kills the other guy, and this guy whom we simple know as young college student Eric Carlson witnesses this murder. Eric then runs away from the scene, but then somehow manages to grow a set of balls and investigate what’s going on. He soon finds himself in the hands of a vampire hunting clan, Slayer’s if you will. However these vampire hunters are actually vampires themselves, and enlist Eric as one of their helpers. They put him on clean up crew. Well here is where the film kind of gets crazy. The clan of Slayers starts fighting with other clans, and there a scene that involves some little girl and there is a lot of old School Nintendo and Super Nintendo playing vampires. Pretty much the end of this film comes with a big climatic fight scene in the middle of a big field, with very few survivors.
Here’s the deal, this film had decent acting, and just about everything else was decent with this film. The story is what kind of threw me off, and the character development was a bit weak. In theory I think their were too many characters in this film to truly get a feel for one character as a lead. The movie really never lets you know who the lead is, although we kind of know that it’s Eric, but it doesn’t feel that way. The production value is simple, which mainly consists of running around in the woods and shooting inside a house and what appears to be an apartment building. Where I do give the film a lot of credit on is the special effects and the stunt work. The film has some great fight scenes that were very well choreographed. My hats off to the cast and crew on these great scenes. Also the special effects are one of a kind. Never in my life would I have ever expected an indie film such as this to have the effects it did. Did I mention that they even used CGI in this film, and let me tell ya folks. It looked pretty dam good.
Overall, Slayer is a pretty decent independent horror film, it has it flaws with the plot but delivers on some many other things. I can’t say it’s a masterpiece but it’s not bad nor it is great. It’s a fun film to watch full of great fight scenes, video game humor and great special effects. Fans of vampire films will especially appreciate this one.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
