After Dark Horror fest is suppose to be a compilation of the scariest movies there are. It suppose to give the audience a never ending feeling of fear, mistrust, or repugnance. Unfortunately, in my case I have not seen a movie in this series that have appeal this feelings, I had a laugh with the Nightmare Man last year, and the year before I was not impress with Reincarnation, so when they offer me this time around the option to do one of the movies from this year‘s edition, I had already lost faith in this series, nonetheless I gave it a try, and I have to say that this time around Horror fest managed to somewhat catch my attention with Slaughter.
First of all, I got to say that of all horror fest movies I have seen this one is the best. This does not mean that Slaughter is a classic of horror genre, but at least it will catch you attention for a good 80 minutes. The story without a doubt is very basic and in one dimension. The first scene opens with an interesting sequences that suggest to the audience a completely different thing of what it is actually about to happen. The characters are appealing to the audience and are easy to relate to, and the storyline gives the audience passages of surprising and shocking scenes and a good dose of mystery.
Each actor in the movie did an acceptable job performing its part, out of all of them the most impressive ones were Lucy Holt, she really understood her character. Lola is one of the reasons this movie does not lose its audience at the middle of the movie and Amy Shields supports her perfectly with her role as Faith. Which says a lot about the casting director, since they found the perfect actresses, since not only their skills were impressing, but their looks also play a key role in the movie. Technically the movie is also superior to last year’s features. The image is more clear and the settings are much better worked this time than previous movies. The sound and music also goes according to the movie and adds somehow emotions to it. However the movie lacks impact. There are parts of the movie where the story somehow loses its momentum, also seems that the director decided to work more the psychological than the visual element, for a movie called Slaughter it seems that it does not have enough blood in it, the characters are not that original, and finally it is easily to predict loosing interest at the ending.
Summarizing, Slaughter gives you some kind of hope, it is not a most seen horror flick, but at least it causes some anxiety in the audience, it was a good choice for a Horror fest. This one unlike previous ones will not make you laugh as much, it will show you some scenes of pure distress and it has a good suggestive ending for a horror movie. It is said that this movie is based in true events which also adds some more value to it, since it manages to entertain and disturb the audience keeping each situations real and possible, something rare in horror movies based in true stories. Keeping in mind of the kind of movie this is I would recommend this movie for fans of the horror fest series, horror in general or fans of movies like Inside, and hostel.
Review By Milo
Release Date: March 31, 2009
