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"The Slaughter" DVD
Anytime you can fire
up a movie and catch "Cthulhu Fhtagn R'lyeh" in the
first two minutes, man, you know you're in for something.
Lovecraft movies--indeed,
anything connected with Lovecraft--run the full gamut from great
and terrific titles like "Re-Animator" and spiral all
the way down to godawful and horrific titles like Ulli Lommel's
slow death that was "H.P. Lovecraft's The Tomb", now
officially the low-water mark of Lovecraft filmmaking, forever
taking "Dagon" off my chopping block.
And indeed, this one
will be no different, spending its first three minutes on a bunch
of naked chicks chanting and stabbing something frantically with
big old curvy knives and fast-cutting clips of facial reactions
and murder whilst raising a demon up from the ground.
Said demon will then
run amok in a most predictable but surprisingly rousing fashion
and later rip to shreds a coterie of college students who have
taken on the job of cleaning an abandoned house.
For the first time
in a long time, "Re-animator" is actually at risk as
the top of the Lovecraft heap. They are going to run positively
amok with this. I'm not sure how the woman who originally owned
the house died...but that coat rack looks to be lodged someplace
extremely unpleasant. I rewound and frame advanced this bit like
four times, and I believe it's entirely possible that she may
well have died with a smile on her face, if you follow my meaning.
Which might well distract you from the small goof that takes place
as someone actually walks past the window in the background.
It's like somebody
just looked at Jay Lee and said, "Three words, Lee--Over.
The. TOP. Got it? Over the fucking top. We want an insane movie
for insane people who are going to scream their black little hearts
out with glee." And indeed, Lee provided. This is insane,
and over the top, and everything else.
Better yet, "The
Slaughter" will actually manage to be funny on several occasions.
In fact, watching it puts me very much in mind of a certain early
Sam Raimi film that became a cult classic.
Now, I don't make comparisons
like this lightly...but I believe very firmly that "The Slaughter"
could be considered the "Evil Dead" of its era. I have
no problem with being quoted on that either--watch it and see
for yourself. See if you spot the shades of Raimi going on here.
The ending features
an actual comparison of the various types of zombies, although
it's only a Romero classical versus Snyder revision zombie battle,
and ignores the Fulci zombies, the Re-Animator zombies and the
Return of the Living Dead zombies. Among the sheer hordes of other
types of zombies out there and there are a LOT.
That and a really kickass
twist ending. You're gonna love it.
The special features
include English and Spanish subtitles, along with deleted scenes
and outtakes, plus trailers for "The Slaughter", "H.P.
Lovecraft's The Tomb", "Acts of Death", "Holla",
"Curse of Alcatraz", and "Hardrock".
All in all, wow. I'm
actually pretty impressed by this, and see a lot of solid things
in it. Especially for something so clearly low-budget and shot
with just basically the one set of the house. A serious competitor
to the throne of top Lovecraft, we might just be we're looking
at a brand-new Raimi in the making here.
The
Slaughter
****
DVD
Directed by Jay Lee
Written by Jay Lee
Starring Jessica Ellis, Zak Kilberg, Billy Beck, Terry Erioski
Produced by Calvin Green, Judy T. Marcelline, Michael J. Zampino
96 mins
R
2007
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