Slashers

[Dolemite]

Rented this super-low budget horror movie a few days ago. If you like cheap-ass gore movies, you might dig this. Despite many problems and a completely unoriginal premise, I had some fun with it.

The plot rips off The Running Man, but adds a Japanese gameshow-like twist to it. Seems that the #1 gameshow in Japan is Slashers, a show where people are let loose in a deadly maze and are hunted by crazed Runing Man-style killers. If they survive until the time limit, they win cash. Hot, wet, stinky, cash. Anyway, for the first time, Slashers will be shown in America, with American contestants. You have your typical group of young victims that you'd see in any horror movie, with one notible (and stupid) exception- one girl has decided to protest the grisly show by entering it and being killed. Um, yeah, sound plan. Anyway, the hunters (called the Slashers, natch) are a goofy lot- there's a redneck clown with a chainsaw, a disfigured preacher, and a surgeon that looks like Dr. Fastus from Thrill Kill, except that he likes to rip his female victims tops off or force them to engage in lesbian sex scenes so that they can live a few minutes longer. Naturally, he's my favorite. They rip off a scene from SIlence of the Lambs where a girl (topless) is locked in a pitch black room and the Doctor is slowly stalking her while wearing nightvision goggles- actually weilding goggles, shit, the movie is so cheap- the nightvision "effect" is just a green filter.

Some interesting twists involve the fact that everyone (including the Slashers) wear electric neck collars- if they disobey the rules, they get shocked. One of the rules that that the collars enforce is protecting the cameraman- if you make a false move against him, you get zapped (nice job security!). Another rule- you're not allowed to move during a commercial break, even if a Slasher is about to kill you. There's a few funny scenes where someone has someone else at an advantage or disadvantage and suddenly a commercial break comes and they have to sit there, not budge, and wait. There's one part where a Slasher is outnumbered and during the commercial he tries to cut a deal with the contestants, talking about how he has a wife and kids at home.

Oh, and if a guy and a girl make it to a certain bed, The Slashers are not allowed to attack them while they're having sex on it.

Anyway, this has to be the lowest budget horror movie I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. I think I could have made a better looking movie with the spare change in my pocket. An old episode of "Dr. Who" seems bigger budget. The "maze" looks like someone decorated a laser-tag arena with cardboard boxes and plywood or something. There's a part where the Preacher chases the contestants into a little house. They lock him out, and he taunts them through the windows, and I'm just laughing because it looked like he could have just kicked through the wall with no effort. The gore is plentiful, though so badly done that it's pathetic. Someone is decapitated in one scene and it's SO obvious that they switched a plastic dummy for the live actor at the last second. There's another scene when someone is cut in half with a chainsaw and...well, it's just sad. Still, you don't usually see movies attempt this level of gore, so in that sense at least it was cool. Also, the overall look of the video suggests that it was shot with a digital video camera. It made it look even more amateurish, yet at the same time it was kinda neat as the picture was shockingly clear. Weird.

Some other cool things were style of the gameshow itself- the movie was American-made, yet they captured the spirit of a wacky Japanese game show perfectly. Dancing cheerleaders, rabid fans, a goofy theme song- the atmosphere is perfect. The female host of the show was even dressed as the Statue of Liberty to celebrate their first American broadcast. Plus, there's that doctor running around pulling girl's tops off. You really got the impression that, if this movie had had anything even remotely resembling a budget, that it could have been fairly cool. Oh, well.

Also, the way the movie was shot is worth mentioning- once the game show starts, the movie appears to have been shot in ONE TAKE. I don't really think it was shot in one take, but it's edited to appear that way. That's right, the camera follows the contestants, and if they seperate, the camrea just follows certain people until they bump into others, and then the camera will follow the new people. Odd technique, though it's different.

Well, overall, Slashers sucks completely, but it's still ends up being a sorta fun movie, as long as you go into it with the right mindset. The DVD has some cool deleted scenes as well (including the aforementioned forced lezbo scene- why was that not left in?!?). Worth a rent if you're in the mood for a horrible movie.

[Despair]

Excellent impressions Dolemite I read about it in Fango a while ago, and recently watched the commertial for it, on ANother Heaven dvd(great Japanese horror/cop movie by the way), and it looked very whacky

The shot to video look, combined with reality/gameshow setting was weird, and amount of gore shown in trailer was great. Good to hear about some of the funny things that happen in it, I will probably will rent it this weekend.

[Dolemite]

Hey, let me know what you think if you rent it.

[Doug Branches]

I remember reading about this over at Arrow's site...where did you find it DOLEMITE is it available for rent or did you buy it online or what

?

[Dolemite]

It was for rent at the Hollywood Video near my house (Blockbuster's rival chain, they kick ass). I've also seen it on sale at Tower Records for about $24.99, a price which it is nowhere near worth. I rented it.

[Kidnemo]

Heh, sounds pretty cool.

I should go rent it tonite (and not tell the g/f what movie I got) just to see the look of complete and total disdain on her face five minutes after it starts.

[Dolemite]

Oh, she'll have that look of distain the second the DVD boots up- as the DVD menu comes up, the goofy Slashers theme song plays ("SLA-SHERS! Super fine!").

[MrWhitefolks]

what, none of you read the badass review(w/pics) and the interview with the japanese lead over at jasonrivera.com ?

[Cheebs]

I bought this one and watched it last night. Entertaining! If you have any love at all for cheap gore, you'll have fun with this one. And you gotta' love the theme song. Priceless. Strangely enought, 60% of the gore is in the deleted scenes. And there are a lot of deleted scenes.

Originally posted by Dolemite
The "maze" looks like someone decorated a laser-tag arena with cardboard boxes and plywood or something.

There's a good reason it looks like that. I watched the "making of" extra on the DVD, and the whole set is a paintball arena, largely unaltered. They basically went in, scrubbed the paint splatters off, and used it like that. Another interesting fun fact is that due to legal arguments over the script/money/rights/etc., the whole thing was forced into a deadline of slightly more than a month. That's a month to cast, shoot, edit, mix, and everything else. Explains a lot and actually makes the accomplishment somewhat impressive.

[Dolemite]

Oh, I admit, what they accomplished was impressive when you take into account the budget and time constrictions. Like I said above, if they actually had a budget, you get the feeling that they could have made a great movie.