Customer Reviews

Slashers

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was really expecting a crappy film, and I actually found a very well executed B-Film. With almost no budget the director has created a really nice looking film. Plus the actors tend to do a decent job (some of the leads fall flat at times, but considering that the film had almost no shooting time, it's understandble). The director really succeded in making the film seem like one continuous shot, and really captures the TV show feel. Plus with his budget he created some really nice gore effects (some look a bit fake, but in the long run, are way better than most films with the same budget).
I would totally recommend this film. Great gore, decent acting, and a real great example of a low budget film succeding. See this movie.

This is simply one of the greatest independent films I have ever watched (and I have seen more than my share, trust me). Like Daniel Minahan's brilliant 2001 film SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS, Maurice Deveraux's SLASHERS plays like you are watching an episode of a reality TV show. The fact that it's shot on video only adds to the effect of watching it on your television at home. However, this is where the similarities end, because SLASHERS is a straight-up horror flick that is tailor made for fans who want something new and exciting. The gore is endless and cartoonish, the scares and suspense are well-executed, and the acting is first rate (particularly Sarah Crowder's performance as one of the lead characters). Sometimes it feels like you're in a haunted house attraction, only the threat of death is real. To top it all off, SLASHERS is filmed as one continuous shot (like Hitchcock's ROPE and Josh Becker's RUNNING TIME), using all manner of tricks to fool you ... Given the conditions Deveraux filmed under (and the extremely small budget), all this makes the film an even greater cinematic achievement. I was falling asleep when I put this movie on, but was wide awake for its entire 99-minute running time! I really got into it. A truly incredible and original film indeed.

The DVD release is also excellent, featuring animated menus, full length commentary, an hour-long documentary, and more. (And no, I don't work for the people who made this movie).

"Slashers" is Canadian B-movie with grade-A entertainment value. It is an excellent game show/reality show satire that follows in the footsteps of such campy cult classics as Death Race 2000 and The Running Man and manages to live up to if not outdo both even without the star power of Arnie or Sly. The premise is a combination of those two films with a dash of Battle Royale for that upbeat Asian flavor. Six American contestants appear on a Japanese game show where they are trapped in a maze with three cartoonish-but-brutal murderers (Slashers). If any of them can survive, they can split the millions in prize money amongst themselves. The only rule: there are no rules. Excepting of course, not interfering with the cameraman and remaining stationary during the requisite commercial breaks -even if there's a knife-wielding maniac sitting on top of you at the time. The film is mesmerizing, insanely entertaining, and will likely leave you begging for more. What it lacks in production values and quality acting it more than makes up for with sheer enthusiastic carnage and conceptual brilliance. Independent no-budget horror does not get a whole lot better.

The cast of characters is an interesting bunch. The perky Japanese hostess and her team of pep girls (complete with human skull pom-poms) are hard not to like. Then there's the contestants who include an aspiring actress hoping for fame, a deranged fanboy, a girl hoping to make a political point, a super badazs loner-type, a suicidal athlete/hottie, and some dude who is only there on a dare. Not a bad mix. The masked Slashers featured are the psychotic Preacherman, the redneck Chainsaw Charlie, and the all-time master known as The Doctor. Others are shown in the show's opening credits and the DVD's deleted scenes (both of which are awesome in and of themselves).

What makes this film really stand out stylistically is the fact that it is all shot with a single hand-held camera. Sure, it's a bit of a fad a this point with The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield and all the rest, but the game show aspect really adds a new wrinkle. For instance, we see one Slasher break character during one of the commercial freezes when he realizes that his life is in danger from one of the contestants and try to cut a deal which both humanizes the faceless butcher and thickens the plot considerably. The way that the film is shot along with the savvy direction and tricks to hide the camera cuts are all well done and really pull you into the story as it unfolds. Plus, the "Love Room" rocks. The deleted scenes have some girl/girl!

The acting is quite bad at times and is the only thing about this movie that I didn't love, but that is easily overlooked all things considered. The sheer psychotic glee of the Slashers is pure black comedy. The Doctor takes a liking to one of the female contestants and skips many opportunities to butcher her, opting instead to repeatedly cut her clothing off and taunt her with mercy if she will show off her goodies. God bless 'im. The way the characters dissect the show's workings is brilliant as well, skewering the reality genre even as the Slashers skewer them. When one man notes that sex appeal will keep you alive longer, one hot number inquires what her chances are. When she gets her answer, she pulls her shirt off to improve her odds. Another is actually fawning over one of the Slashers even as he murders his fellows, a fan of the artist.

The raw stupidity of reality stars is truly something to behold. How many girls do you suppose went on "Rock of Love" or the like just to meet a rock star or hopefully earn some ill-gotten television fame? And let's admit it, "Survivor" is distinctly lacking in serial killers. Time to make things interesting, guys. I wonder how long it will be before society gets so jaded with this brand of entertainment that they have to literally legalize murder for the sake of keeping idiots unwilling to part with the comfort-food entertainment of the reality television scourge entertained. Films like "Slashers" may indeed prove to be prophetic in decades to come. But right now, it is just damn fine entertainment. Get it while it's still fictional!

4 1/2 stars rounded up for having a budget smaller than a Hollywood set's catering bill.

SOMEONE said in these reviews the acting was bad, but it's really amazing how well the acting was. Great story about a Japanese game show where six people are hunted and killed by three slashers. You'll have fun watching this movie, as it's shot in the point of view of a gameshow. And, it's full of hot Japanses girls!

This is one of the worst movies I have seen this year and that is why I like. The premise is one of the best I have seen and it has a good plot. The movie is about a Japanese game show where a group of six or seven people go into an arena with three serial killers and try to survive. The survivors win ten million dollars that they split, plus two million for every killer they kill. The game show is the world's most watched T.V. show and in the movie it is making its first appearance in America. The acting is not horrible but it is far from good. There are a few good actors in this movie but there also bad and mediocre actors as well. The death scenes are B-rate but are very good for the budget that the producer was on. Unless you are a fan of B-rate movies, don't buy this movie. If you are a fan of B-movies, go buy this movie because you will be laughing your head off. "Supercool"

As far as cheesy 'B' horror flicks go, this is definitely one of the better ones. True, the video quality looks home movie like, the special effects are pretty basic, and the acting somewhat high school drama club, but the creepiness of the story concept more than adequitely makes up for all of these trivial shortcomings. Watching our happless victims navigate the terror maze in this flick reminded me of all of the fun house mazes at Knott's Scary Farm on Halloween, only in this one the gouls who jump out at you can, and will, kill you if you don't kill them first. I found this movie to be a lot of fun. Anyone who can appreciate low brow entertainment and can enjoy horror movies for their own merits will enjoy this one a lot.

Others didn't seem to leave much detail about this movie, so I will try my best to clue you in...

This movie is one of those movies where you ask yourself "What the heck is this?", than after a little while, you kinda get into it. This movie is based off of the reality shows we all know, and love (unless you are like me and can't stand them).

Basically, Slashers is a reality show from China. In this episode, they have 6 American contestants on the show. If they can stay alive for the next 90 minutes, they win $12 million. Problem with that is, there are three killers with weapons chasing them around and killing them. The contestants can only use pieces of a chair, or anything else they can find as a weapon to protect themselves. Also, they can't even hide since they wear tracking devices around their necks. Not an easy game to survive.

This movie is filmed like a game show to give you the feel that you are actually watching this on public television. The blood effects are so fake, you would swear they were using cherry Kool-Aid. This is not a movie to take seriously at all. It's one of those fun blood and guts films. For a low budget film, they sure did an excellent job.

Slashers (Maurice Devereaux, 2001)

I'm somewhat amused, and mighty impressed, by Maurice Devereaux, the writer and director of Slashers. It's a film that, when you're watching it in 2008, seems to make perfect sense, given the recent explosion of reality television and the importation of strange Japanese game shows for insomniacs to chuckle at. But Slashers was released in 2001. Survivor and Big Brother were just getting off the ground, and no one thought to come up with MXC for another two years. This is visionary work, it is.

That said, it's also gimmicky, predictable, and silly, but in a way that's so cheesy you can't not watch. The story: a Japanese reality-TV/game show imports its first all-American cast. The show features a number of contestants (six, here) trying to survive a number of serial killers (three, here) while running through a series of rooms which contain obstacles. Obstacles, that is, besides the three psychotic weapon-wielding nutcases who have a much better idea of the set's layout, and knowledge of secret tunnels and the like. The serial killers-- Chainsaw Charlie, Preacherman (both played by Neil Napier in his first screen appearance), and Doctor Ripper (Chrisopher Piggins, who usually works behind the scenes as a soundman), are the real stars of the show; the contestants are really just there so the crowd can watch the serial killers doing their stuff. This group of contestants, though, are a pretty plucky bunch. Devon (Tony Curtis Blondell) and Brenda (Sofia de Madeiros) are the aggressive ones, who become the de facto leaders of the bunch. Rick Fisher (Jerry Spiro) is the class clown. Rebecca Galley (Carolina Pla) is the planner. Megan Lowry (Sarah Crowder) and Michael Gibbons (Kieran Keller) seem like the odd men out at first, but Megan's reason for being there is revealed quickly, while Michael's comes later. Don't worry. It all makes sense eventually.

As long as you don't expect great cinema, this is a whole lot of fun. It's predictable, in that it hits all the right tropes at all the right times (why on Earth would they split up?), and the second they get into the set, the stereotypes become obvious; you know who the final girl is within a few minutes of the beginning of the movie. Still, it's hard to deny this flick is chock-full of atmosphere; while Devereaux has made, in essence, a very derivative and mundane slasher flick, he's playing off one set of cliches against another, the reality TV satire-- a genre that hadn't even been invented yet. (Daniel Minahan's slightly better-known Series 7: The Contenders is another example of the genre.) It's a dumb, silly, turn-your-brain-off good time that never tries to hide the fact that it was made by a bunch of inspired amateurs who were just out to have a good time. Deathless cinema it ain't, but fun cinema it certainly is. ***

Not just this movie but in ANY slasher (pun intended) flick NO one is going be still while being killed, beheaded, etc. They would squirm, fight back, scream bloody murder and move not just 'let' it happen perfectly still.

Other than that, this was an original, entertaining and fresh movie in recent years. I saw it upon it's initial release and watched it several times I even made my (ex) girl friend watch it and she liked it. Some complain about the acting but it's supposed to be a reality show where they 'aren't' acting-It's real. How many people do you know that use proper grammar, don't stutter, know the correct word they intended to use or even use the word correctly at all? Not many--

Low budget production that has uneven acting and a clever premise that never really takes off. Satirizing how far reality/game shows will go is a promising idea, but they needed a bigger budget, better acting and special f/x and a tighter script to successfully pull it off, though there are some good moments here and there.

The film starts off promisingly, but then starts to drag, taking too long to get to the slashing. Let's face it, that's what we're watching a film called Slashers for, right? The second half picks up somewhat, but a little better editing might have helped. See Series 7: The Contenders for a film in the same vein that I think does a better job.

Be sure to check out the "making of" feature in the special features section. It's fascinating, better than the movie actually. Maurice Devereaux seems like a really dedicated filmmaker, so much so that, though I wasn't crazy about this flick, I will check out some of his others.