Slasher

Directed by John Grissmer, Slasher follows Mark Soper’s Todd as he escapes from a mental institution 10 years after being framed for murder by his twin brother, Terry – with the movie detailing the violence that ensues after Terry embarks on a killing spree. It’s a fun premise that’s employed to mostly lackluster effect by John Grissmer, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Richard Lamden, delivers a perpetually inept horror flick that contains little in the way of compelling, competent elemnts – with the picture instead boasting (or suffering from) a decidedly campy vibe that’s reflected primarily in its performances and dialogue. (There is, for example and in terms of the latter, an absolutely remarkable sequence in which Terry/Todd’s mother, Louise Lasser’s Maddy, begs a telephone operator for help.) And although the movie is, even at 82 minutes, rife with sluggish, padded-out interludes, Slasher has, at the very least, been packed with an assortment of gleefully larger-than-life bursts of gore that prevent the viewer from checking out completely – which does, in the end, cement the film’s place as a hopelessly erratic piece of work that would undoubtedly benefit from a screening alongside as large and rowdy a crowd as possible.

** out of ****

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