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Yet another low budget horror encountered by some strange mix of chance
and curiosity, Slaughter is a film I happily put on with no knowledge
of what to expect.

Following the young Faith as she flees the paranoid clutches of her
apparently unstable ex-boyfriend, Slaughter sees her leave the big city
to escape to the rural beauty of a farmhouse with friend Lola. The fear
of the life she left behind catching up to her combines with the
oddness of the neighbouring slaughterhouse farmer to create an
uncomfortable strangeness...

This one decides to start us off with some hand-held dark jump cut
shots of a girl being dragged across a farm and dumped in a lake before
introducing us to our main character. And that's fine, for now. After
some hideously clichéd caricatures are thrown at us, we move from the
city to the farm: a farm where the ladies are sure to do some heavy
work in skimpy clothing, of course. Already things are vacuous and
ghastly. Cue a shady farmer, some slight mystery, and our main
character's sudden development into the type of person who wanders
repeatedly into areas she shouldn't go. Let's have some more
vacuousness and ghastliness in the form of an utterly unnecessary
lesbian kiss, pandering to the brigade of eager males we obviously
should expect to find amidst our audience. The "slow building of
tension" is really just a lack of decent plot, as evidenced by the
film's apparent indecision in choosing its antagonist. Why not hold at
least two in waiting, just in case? We get to see just about every
over-used element of cheap horror cinema as the film drags on,
provoking our slow slip from our chairs as the eyelids begin to droop,
simultaneously welling with tears of despair and hope that this will
all soon end. But no, the slow beginning appears not to have consumed
enough of the running time to prevent a deliriously drawn out last act
of "twists": silly turns in plot making little sense, and even less
surprise. By the final resolution of the story, a painfully pathetic
attempt at finishing a woeful piece of unending rubbish, I was almost
weeping in agony. This was a truly testing experience; one which
demanded a tremendous amount of resilience and restraint to keep my
fingers separated from the eject button. Oh, and if the lack of
tension, characterisation, fear, plot, dialogue, interest, emotion, or
any form of artistic merit wasn't enough for you, the film flips
daintily from looking like a television programme to a video game to
something resembling a film, and back again and again and again.

With absolutely nothing, and I do mean nothing, to assuage the pain of
wasting however long that apparent infinity actually lasted, Slaughter
is, perhaps fittingly, pigshit. One of the very VERY worst films I've
ever had to sit through, it's just angering in its awfulness..

The After Dark Horrorfest is an annual horror festival that's run
independently here in the United States by After Dark Films - the
event's chief organizer. Sometimes this gathering is also referred to
as "8 Films to Die For" and judging by that phrase you can assume how
many films are released with the introduction of each new festival.
After Dark Films has been pretty successful in bringing fans some solid
titles to add to their collection. Naturally, there are a few that are
just plain awful, as with any independent or major-league release...so
whether it's the big-time or not, a bad movie is a bad movie.
Horrorfest 2007 brought us, in my opinion, probably the worst title yet
with Crazy Eights. I honestly thought the low point existed with this
film, that is, until I recently witnessed a cruel act upon humanity
known as Slaughter; a smack in the face by an iron gauntlet, forcing us
to lower the bar of standards so much that not even a rat could limbo
under it.

The story hones in on a young woman named Faith who resides in Atlanta;
having recently escaped an abusive relationship by the hands of her
aggressive ex-boyfriend. Faith is then introduced to Lola at a
nightclub and the two eventually agree to room together in the
outskirts of the city at her father's farm. Faith notices a strange
vibe after a short time on the premises when a shocking discovery
surfaces during the height of the film's climax.

With a title like Slaughter you'd almost expect something drastic or
chaotic to happen but you'll be so hard-pressed for a modicum of action
you'd have better luck waiting near your bedside window in hopes of
Peter Pan whisking you off to Neverland. In place of such whimsical
thoughts, you're swept into an hour and 35 minute vacuum, that as you
guessed, is comprised of nothing - but oh, maybe just some cheap
dialogue, run-of-the-mill acting, and a musical score that centers
around showcasing hipster radio hits (perhaps with the exception of one
song, which remarkably doesn't fit in with the rest at all). The
characters themselves stand around with blank and unintelligible stares
on their faces, the plot slows to a crawl almost immediately, and well
before anything exciting happens over an hour in, you're so fed up with
the aspect of boredom that you could simply care less what happens
next.

Slaughter emphasizes that it was based on true events, perhaps even as
real as the Tooth Fairy or a Hobbit; ludicrously gesturing for us to
believe that it holds any importance over the plot or outcome. Humans
have experienced the atrocities of real-world serial killers like
Richard Ramirez and Gary Heidnik - both of which were brought to
justice and dealt with. Did the producers of Slaughter honestly think
that some tame, mediocre endeavor would stun audiences compared to the
horrors that exist in our society? Get real!

One scene depicts an instance where a pair of pliers are used to
forcefully remove teeth but even this scene is done so borishly you
can't help but wonder why they chose the title "Slaughter" to represent
the film. I don't require brutality or a certain level of gore to
fulfill my movie-watching needs but it seems that the writers or
possibly even the director decided to mix both schools of thought when
it comes to subtlety and shock value; what I mean by this is that some
scenes have the potential to be extreme, the few that exist, but
instead the camera turns away just in time to save us from having to
view it. One could agree that if the acting is sub-standard, the
screenplay a carbon copy of 500 other horror films, the cinematography
and choice of lighting merely "ok", then why not move forward into an
area that horror hounds would find favorable?

I don't expect a movie of my choosing to be original in its
presentation because there are several titles I could list that were
either inspired, or came as a result of, existing films; they turned
out wonderfully. Slaughter is the reason why the phrase "money-making
exercise" was coined...it's simply that, and nothing more; an indelible
mark on canvas that cannot be blotted out or removed. I might be able
to bend the validity of a film like this if I weren't such a die hard
fan and just accepted that it was produced more for the casual viewer -
but Slaughter was showcased at a HORROR FESTIVAL. Casual fans don't go
to horror festivals, and if they do, they are in the minority. So what
exactly where they thinking?!

The creators of this film need to remove The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
DVD out of their units, tear down the posters of Gunner Hansen they
have signed and autographed on their walls, and think up something that
offers an air of refreshment - perhaps this will save them from being
labeled hacks..