15 January 2012

REEKER
(2005,US)
[review by Luisito Joaquín González Martín]

    A disparate group of strangers find themselves isolated in the dessert and plagued by visions of people dying. They also find themselves menaced by a killer that they can't see, but only smell ...

    A novel twist on the slasher, but is it enough to lift this film out of the ordinairy?

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!).

(Added: 15 January 2012)

OPEN HOUSE
(1987,US)
[reviews by JA Kerswell]

    Somebody is killing off the female estate agents in LA. Who could it be? And why are they so pissed? Could they have seen the finished film?

    Not the slasher movie's finest hour. Putting it mildly

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 15 January 2012)

THE WARD
(2010,US)
[review by Luisito Joaquín González Martín]

    Kristen (Amber Heard) finds herself consigned to an asylum with other teenagers after burning down a farmhouse. However, soon the girls start to disappear one-by-one and it's a race against time to uncover what's going on before she looses her mind - and maybe even her life ...

    Whilst this won't win him any new fans it has enough Carpenter hallmarks to be worth a look.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!).

(Added: 9 October 2011)

THE FREEWAY MANIAC
(1989,US)
[reviews by JA Kerswell]

    Aspiring starlet runs into randy mechanics and then an escaped lunatic. Luckily for her, she puts the killer back in the asylum, but unluckily for her he re-escapes and hotfoots it after her to her latest filmset (leaving bodies and considerable amounts of cheese in his wake) ...

    A schizophrenic late 80s slasher with its tongue firmly in its cheek (or is it?).

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 9 October 2011)

SAVAGE WEEKEND
(1979,US)
[review by Christopher O'Neill]

    Several couples head to the country for some r&r and the watch a boat being built. After a spot of hide-the-sausage they are stalked a dispatched by someone on a horror mask ...

    This proto-slasher was origianlly lensed in 1976, but sat on the shelf until the height of the slasher movie boom in the early 1980s.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!).

(Added: 25 June 2011)

GHOSTKEEPER
(1981,Can.)
[reviews by JA Kerswell]

    Three holidaymakers ignore local advice and go off-piste, only to discover a seemingly abandonned hotel. Taking refuge from the heavy snow they soon realise they are not alone ...

    Perhaps the most obscure of all the tax shelter Canadian slashers from the Golden Era of the slasher movie. It veers away from the subgenre sometimes, but there's enough knifeplay for it to belong on this site..

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 25 June 2011)

THEY'RE PLAYING WITH FIRE
(1984,US)
[review by Erik Thelfall]

    A student is seduced by his sexy teacher, but is unaware that she is using him as a, er, tool to get her hands on the real prize - her husband's inheritance. Soon things go wrong and people start to die, as bodies (and bras) hit the floor ...

    Sybill Danning and her pert co-stars appear in this cheesy mish-mash of erotic nonsense and slasher movie shenanigans. Erik Threlfall keeps abreast of the situation.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!).

(Added: 2 May 2011)

MOON STALKER
(1989,US)
[reviews by JA Kerswell]

    Microwave envy is the catalyst for a murder spree, as a psychopathic son is let loose to terrorize campers and counselors at a winter training camp. Who will survive and more importantly how do you get blood out of chunky knitwear?

    The end of the 1980s brought us this little seen, but unfairly neglected slice of slasher trash. It won't win any awards, but it's a fun (snow) ride.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 2 May 2011)

MADHOUSE
(1981,US/Italy)
[review by Jenny Spencer]

    A young teacher is haunted by memories of her cruel sister, who is now horrifically disfigured and resides in an institution for the criminally insane - or does she? Soon, people around the teacher begin dying in horrible ways ...

    This Italian production was filmed in the US, and owes much more to the North American slasher movie than it does to its Italian cousin the giallo. The film's gruesome special effects meant that MADHOUSE became infamous in the UK as one of the fabled 'video nasties'.

Click on the film's title to explore more.

(Added: 5 February 2011)

THE RED LIGHT GIRLS
(1974,Italy)
[reviews by JA Kerswell]

    Prostitutes in Rome ply their trade amongst the ruins, but one of them falls prey to a mysterious killer. The police investigate and try and to pry information from the hookers, who mistrust them ...

    A resolutely thrill free thriller. Directed by trash auteur Rino Di Silvestro it's a jumbled mess from beginning to end, and changes in tone and genre from scene to scene. Still, there a few pickings for fans of Eurotrash.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 5 February 2011)

THE BURNING
(1981,US)
[reviews by JA Kerswell]

    Retrospective: this is the second of my retrospectives of key slashers - and this one is a whopper! It includes a new review, extensive information on pre-production, production, promotion, promotional artwork, censorship, five cast interviews, the Legend of Cropsy and much, much more!

    THE BURNING has been often dismissed as just another FRIDAY THE 13TH clone (although, as the retrospective shows, its genesis preceded that film), or somewhat overshadowed by its 'video nasty' tag. However, despite its faults, this tale of revenge at the end of shears by a crispy villain in a fedora (three years ahead of Freddy) is still a rollicking good slasher time in its own right.

Click on the film's title to explore more.

(Added: 5 December 2010)

DEAD HUNT
(2007,US)
[reviews by Joseph Henson]

    A group of online friends from a horror movie forum meet in person for the first time. Only, someone in the group takes their love of slasher movies one step too far and begins to whittle the group down one-by-one ...

    The last movie by Don Dohler, this offers fascinating - and slightly uncomfortable parallels - to many of our own lives. Well, the online chat bit, not the slasher murders - hopefully!

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 5 December 2010)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME
(1981,Can.)
[reviews by JA Kerswell]

    Retrospective: this is the first of the major slasher films that I take a fresh look at - with bells on! Way back in 1998, when I started the site, some of the early reviews left a little to be desired - and this was one of them.

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME is loved and loathed in equal measures (I'm in the former camp, naturally). It's the effortlessly fun tale of the snobbish Top Ten at Crawford Academy, who meet grisly ends before Virginia's 18th birthday party. Adding to a new review, I also look at the pre-production and production of the movie. Plus, its censorship woes and promotion (including loads of artwork). Then there's the critical reception and a what-became-of-the-Crawford-Top-Ten? feature. Trailers and interviews with three of the cast!

Click on the film's title to explore more.

(Added: 23 September 2010)

NAIL GUN MASSACRE
(1985,US)
[reviews by Joseph Henson]

    A woman is raped by construction workers. Afterwards, a mysterious figure puts on a camouflage suit with a black motorcycle helmet and a bright yellow compressed air tank and nail gun. They cruise around in a gold hearse offing construction workers and assorted flotsam and jetsam

    I saw this in New Jersey with my friend Gina ten years ago - and we still haven't stopped laughing even now! It's a classic of the genre, and that ain't no lie.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 23 September 2010)

FATAL PULSE
(1988,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    Girls in a sorority house are being targetted by a killer in black leather gloves, who kills them in a number of inventive way - including throat slitting with a vinyl LP. A college student becomes the prime suspect after being seen leaving the scene shortly before the first murder, and he has to join forces with his girlfriend and best friend to clear his name and find the killer ...

    What exactly is a fatal pulse?Who knows, but you'll have more fun pondering that than actually watching this sorry excuse for a slasher movie. I know you will anyway, but you were warned!

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 23 June 2010)

END OF THE LINE
(2007,Can.)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    An assorted group of people catch the late night subway alongside followers of an extreme Christian cult. On a signal from their leader, the cultists start to butcher - or save them as they see it - every passenger on the train. A few manage to escape into the tunnels, but they face the wrath of the religious nutters and maybe something much, much worse ...

    Easily one of the best slasher movies of recent times. It just goes to show that the subgenre can still surprise, shock and entertain.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 23 June 2010)

ALL AMERICAN MURDER
(1991,US)
[reviews by Joseph Henson]

    A cock-sure young student attends a new university after being kicked out of his old one. He falls for the class beauty, but their burgeoning relationship is cut short when she dies a violent death. He finds himself suspect numero-uno; something not helped by the fact that he always seems to be around when the bodies start piling up ...

    A twisty and turning early 90s murder mystery that borrows much from the slasher toy box.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 9 May 2010)

GIRLS SCHOOL SCREAMERS
(1984,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    Catholic school girls - right out of a John Waters movie - are hand picked to help catalogue the antiques at a mansion their school has just inherited. Little do they know that the mansion harbours a dark secret; one that manifests itself when the girls start to meet grisly ends one-by-one ...

    Troma is usually a guarantee of a hunk of crap, and there's no change here. Still, there's a modicum of cheesy entertainment to be had for those foolhardy enough to go in search of screaming school girls.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 9 May 2010)

MEATCLEAVER MASSACRE
(1975,US)
[reviews by Amanda By Night]

    A spurned student gathers some friends to attack his professor and his family, which leaves them all dead apart from the professor who ends up in a coma. Bad luck for the attackers, the professor exacts his terrible revenge from his hospital bed ....

    An early supernatural proto-slasher this features Christopher Lee definitely slumming it in an otherwise unrelated intro ahead of his gig as the angry one in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Still, it's not without its charms.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 11 February 2010)

FLOWER WITH THE PETALS OF STEEL
(1973,Italy)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    A suave doctor in Rome accidentally kills his lover, when she becomes impaled on a sharp artwork - or does she? The girl's half-sister - and lesbian lover, not to mention ex-lover of the good doctor - decides to try and find out what's happened. However, not all is what it seems ...

    As Carroll Baker's giallo swan song, this is surprisingly obscure. Undeservedly so. It's nothing new - certainly for the then fading genre - but its curious mix of realism and lesbian scuba sex is certainly head-turning.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 11 February 2010)

TIMECRIMES
(2007,Spain)
[reviews by Joseph Henson]

    A man finds a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour, after he is attacked by a masked man bearing scissors. He then finds things are even more complicated as he tries to avoid confronting himself; and becomes more exasperated as things go wrong faster than he can put them right ...

    A highly innovative thriller that borrows from the giallo and stalker in the woods genre that is likely to intrigue as many as it dumbfounds.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 24 January 2010)

DEVIL TIMES FIVE
(1974,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    Five cute kids are involved in a van crash in a remote snowy resort. Except they have more than Mousetrap on their minds; they want to find people to play with - and they have deadly games in mind ...

    This should be an absolute mess. The director was fired after producing just 40 minutes of useable footage. But, it actually transcends the bad movie it undoubtedly is and has moments of sheer perversity and unadulterated 1970s weirdness.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 24 January 2010)

A QUIET PLACE TO KILL
(1970,US)
[reviews by Erik Threlfall]

    A financially ruined racing car driver (an unlikely bit of casting for Caroll Baker) is tempted into a plot to murder her ex-husband by his new wife. As these plots often do go wrong in gialli, they do here - with the new wife accidentally killed instead. Then the divorced couple must try to cover up her death ...

    Before Umberto Lenzi turned into a peddler of much epic trash he made respectable giallo thrillers such as this. Not the best, but certainly not the worst the genre has to offer.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 15 December 2009)

SPINE
(1986,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    A beardy-weirdy in a pink shirt terrorises nurses. He has a grudge against someone called Linda (maybe she was his stylist?). Police are inept and the cast even more so ...

    This is sadomasochistic soft-core porn masquerading as a slasher film. Not much of interest here unless you like counting bad hairstyles as a hobby. One for completists only.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 15 December 2009)

THE TOOLBOX MURDERS
(1978,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    Sadistic murders rock an apartment complex, as women fall prey to a ski masked killer equipped with an array of murder implements. A teenage girl is kidnapped, the police are baffled, and there's a tap dripping in apartment 13 ...

    Who knew a film with a veritable toolbox of murders could be quite so dull? Apart from a cavalcade of atrocities in its opening 15 minutes it never quite escapes from its subsequent TV'esque rut.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 16 July 2009)

PSYCHO II
(1983,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    Norman Bates is back and he's sane. Or is he? Released from the asylum he returns to the Bates' Motel only to find it full of sin and vice. Perhaps unsurprisingly, brutal murders start afresh, but who is behind the mayhem ...

    The Grandpappy of the slasher movie gets an unlikely sequel. What's even more unlikely is that it's pretty good; mixing classic thrills with the best of early 80s slasher hi-jinx.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 16 July 2009)

WINDOWS
(1980,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    A young woman is attacked in her apartment by a knife-wielding man, who forces her to moan into a tape recorder. Her neighbour tries to comfort her, but it turns out that she is actually behind the attack and has developed an unhealthy obsession. An obsession that she will go to any lengths to pursue ...

    Pretty much buried since its short theatrical release, WINDOWS appears to link lesbianism with homicidal tendencies. Inaccurate, brimming with bad taste and sadly very dull.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 31 May 2009)

COLD PREY 2: RESSURECTION
(2008,Norway)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    The lone survivor from the first film struggles back to civilisation. She is taken to the local hospital to recover, but she is joined by the bodies of her dead friends and the mad killer. Only, the killer isn't dead, and soon he's cutting the nursing staff down to size ...

    Someone should show Rob Zombie this film. If you were going to remake HALLOWEEN II this is how it should be done.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 31 May 2009)

DEAD IN 3 DAYS
(2009,Austria)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    In time honoured tradition, a group of teens are hiding a deep, dark secret. Just after their graduation, they are hunted one-by-one by someone who first texts them that they will be dead in 3 days ...

    It's one big cliche, but despite - or perhaps because - it's actually pretty fun. And the Austrian landscape gives a nice twist to the backdrop of this teen slasher.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 28 March 2009)

THE DEVIL WITH SEVEN FACES
(1971,Italy)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    A young woman is stalked through the streets of Amsterdam. Two hunky men come to her rescue, but still the unwanted attention continues. Could it be something to do with her twin sister and a diamond heist?

    One of the many gialli that Carroll Baker and George Hilton made in the early 70s. Although this veers more in the direction of traditional thriller, it still has a modicum of giallo magic.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 28 March 2009)

FRIDAY THE 13TH
(2009,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    Jason Voorhees is back! Or is this his debut? Remake or reimagining? Jewel or turd? More horny campers check into Crystal lake and just as many check out - permanently

    Well, it's finally here. It can't possibly be as bad as Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN. Can it?

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 13 February 2009)

THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN
(1976,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell]

    Young couples are being targeted by a psychotic killer, with a bag on his head, in this period slasher set just after WW2. The police are baffled, but the killer keeps on offing necking couples. Based on real events.

    An important proto-slasher, THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN suffers an even pace and veering haphazardly between horror and humour. Still, that trombone murder is a doozy!

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 13 February 2009)

    The family of a high school girl are butchered by a teacher obsessed with his student. A few years later she and her friends are getting ready for their prom night. Only, the killer is back in town and out to finish what he started ...

   Worse than abysmal, this is a dull, anaemic pitiful excuse for a slasher remake. Take out all the good things from the original and fill it with morose, self-centered teens is not a recipe for thrills.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 13 February 2009)

MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D
(2009,US)
[reviews by J Kerswell and Joseph Henson]

    A young man returns to his hometown ten years after the Valentine's night massacre that saw 22 people loose their lives. Rather than being welcomed with open arms, he finds himself under suspicion as the murders start again. Could it be that Harry Warden has returned to continue his bloody revenge?

    Here it is! The 3D remake of one of the best early 80s slasher flicks. Does it cut the mustard?

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 17January 2009)

    Savage razor killings are rocky the genteel 'English' countryside. A suave private detective is hired by an MP to investigate an old associate. However, he and the MP's glamorous daughter are drawn into a web of murder and intrigue circling a Soho strip club ...

   The first Krimi on the site. It's interesting to see how the thriller morphed into the slasher film, and these German films based on the Edgar Wallace films form an important link in the chain.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 17 January 2009)

HOMICIDAL
(1961,US)
[review by J Kerswell]

    A beautiful woman mysteriously offers to marry the bell hop at a city hotel, but after they get married she slashes to death the justice of the peace. Who is the homicidal bride? And will she kill again?

    William Castle made his name with fun-filled gimmicks (here it's a countdown to terror). Here he gives us a twist on PSYCHO that ups the graphic violence and hints at what was to come in slasher cinema.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 20 December 2008)

DEADLY LESSONS
(1983,US)
[review by J Kerswell]

    Soon after a new girl arrives at an exclusive girls boarding school one of her class mates turns up dead. Then another hits the floor, and the students and teachers can't help but wonder who will be next?

    This ultra rare little TV slasher may be pretty bloodless (and nudity free), but it does offer some subgenre thrills.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 23 November 2008)

    Someone is making like Jack the Ripper by slashing up ladies of the night in 70's Soho. The police suspect an injured acrobat played by Paul Naschy, and he fights to clear his name after his wife becomes the latest victim ...

   Despite the salacious subject matter, this Spanish giallo is a curiously flat affair. Still, there's enough knife play and Euro lunacy for it to be worth taking a look.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 23 November 2008)

BLOOD FRENZY
(1987,US)
[review by J Kerswell]

    A therapist thinks it's a great idea to take a group of her dysfunctional patients out into the desert for some confrontational therapy. Perhaps not such a great idea as soon someone finds a more deadly way to cure the group's ills - permanently ...

    No substance and you'll have forgotten it before the end of the credits, but this is a surprisingly enjoyably gory and cheesy late 80s slice of mayhem.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 23 November 2008)

HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS
(1989,US)
[review by J Kerswell]

    Michael Myers is back (again). After making like Rip Van Winkle, he returns to Haddonfield to settle some scores and hunt down his niece. Only, presumably he didn't count on her developing a psychic link and that mad old dog Loomis being hell bent on getting him back in therapy ...

    By this late in the day the franchise is looking a little dog-eared (they couldn't even be bothered to make it look Autumnal), but there's a few jolts to make it worth a look.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 19 October 2008)

    A wheelchair bound woman is tormented by someone dressed as a priest carrying a bloodied doll. Meanwhile, someone is slaughtering the local vicars. Has she been driven insane by being attacked by a priest as a child, or is someone else behind the murders?

   This late-in-the-day American set giallo provides nothing new, but it does sport some eye-popping 80s fashions, some bloody shenanigans and a wonderfully over-the-top finale.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 19 October 2008)

DISCONNECTED
(1983,US)
[review by J Kerswell]

    A young woman starts receiving strange calls after an old man she took pity on vanishes from her apartment. At the same time, the local police are investigating a series of brutal slasher murders that have been terrorising the neighbourhood ...

    Almost arthouse in its approach this is a one-of-a-kind slasher movie. Sadly that's the end of the good news, despite being occasionally arresting it fluffs the classic slasher action.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 19 October 2008)

STRAIGHT JACKET
(1982,US)
[review by J Kerswell]

    A young housewife and recovering alcoholic has flashbacks (or is that flashforwards?) of a gory axe murder after she moves into a new house with her husband. She soon finds out that there was, indeed, a murder there a year before, but the killer may not have finished their gruesome handy work ...

    A mish-mash of high camp and bad movie nirvana with bouts of sheer tedium.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 13 August 2008)

CHILD'S PLAY
(1988,US)
[review by J Kerswell]

    During his last gasps, a vicious killer transfers his soul to a Good Guy doll with some voodoo mumbo-jumbo. Chucky - the cursed doll - finds a home with a young boy and his divorced Mom. Only, soon Chucky is bored of being a mere plaything and sets out to gets revenge on those who done him wrong ...

    An entertaining spin on the old killer doll schtick, which at the very least lifted the slasher movie out of straight-to-video-hell for a little while.

Click on the film's title to read the full review (if you dare!)

(Added: 13 August 2008)