USA
Review: JA Kerswell
Flesh is both shown and shorn in this stylish, raunchy Queer indie slasher. A man who takes the rap for an accidental death returns to town, only to find his old club friends start being carved up by a disco death dealer in studs and black leather.
Late one night, Noah (Cody Steele), a hard-partying club kid, meets Paul (Kevin Ballou), a shy pre-med student at his local club. The pair hit it off, but neither notices when Noah’s friend Dante (Anthony Covatta) roofies his crush, and he and his clique take him to the VIP area after the club closes so they can keep partying. Passing out as the group sexually assaults Paul, Noah wakes alone the next morning with only the newcomer’s corpse for company.
Abandoned by his so-called friends to take the rap despite being blameless for what happened, Noah doesn’t rat them out and serves four years in jail in silence. On release, he moves back to town and in with his sister, Kayleigh (Hayley Lynn Rose). However, not everyone is happy to see him when he visits his local club, where he receives a frosty reception from its owner and the real culprits who were there the night Paul OD’d. He begins to repair his relationship with a few of them, including Vinny (Matt Kane) and Theo (Katelynn E. Newberry), who wasn’t at the fateful after-party. His best friend, Coral (Angelia Green), offers him a job at her new fashion house and boutique, but his confidence is further shaken when the dead man’s still-angry, ultra-religious mother shows up at his workplace and humiliates him in front of everyone. However, he finds a shoulder to cry on with a new co-worker, Tristan (Anthony Dain).
The club friends fear that Noah’s return will stir up memories of what happened four years ago, raise fresh questions, and risk revealing their involvement. However, they face an even bigger problem when a brutal killer begins to pick them off one by one. Quickly becoming the chief suspect, Noah must determine whether he is next or whether the killer is seeking retribution against the guilty on his behalf …
There is plenty of meat on display in MEAT, with the camera paying loving homage to the male form with the film’s ample full-frontal nudity. There’s also meat of the offal kind, as the film doesn’t skimp on the red stuff either, with some pretty gnarly and effective gore FX that include a jaw ripped open by a boot and not one but two disembowelments.
The film benefits from a killer killer nicknamed The Stud, dressed in black leather and what looks like a thousand metal studs, whose identity is hidden by a gimp mask covered in hundreds more. The Stud targets the guilty but also indiscriminately kills anyone who gets in the way. What also separates MEAT from many other indie slashers is its look. The cinematography is top-notch, with gorgeous, creative neon visuals for its budget. The film also benefits from strong acting across the cast (another relative rarity in the indie field), with Steele especially good in a difficult role as a man carrying a burden of guilt and shame. It also has some fun cameos, including Pandora Boxx as Noah’s Norma Desmond-esque next-door neighbor.
Whilst making an explicitly LGBTQ slasher, director and co-writer Roger Conners doesn’t shy away from asking some pretty uncomfortable questions about the community and around lack of accountability, while still creating characters who do bad things but who the audience eventually becomes invested in. However, the film’s epic run time (it is surely unheard of for a slasher movie to run over two hours) is both a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, it lets the audience get to know the characters and explore themes around guilt, alienation, and redemption. Thankfully, MEAT is well-made and engaging enough that this extra thickness in the script works, even if a few aspects don’t quite ring true. That said, the slasher action is a long time coming, but when it arrives, it comes on like a disco ball attached to a runaway freight train. There are bravura scenes in a gym changing room (which pays homage to the weightlifting death in HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (1981)) and a massacre in a gay sauna, with the killer wielding two sabers. Whilst the violence is brutal, the film doesn’t feel mean-spirited (a real benefit). It all culminates with the naked killer's unmasking (who shows full peen, obviously) and a fiery denouement at the neon-soaked fashion house surrounded by mannequins, straight out of a late-‘80s Giallo.
The version I saw is the advance festival cut, so a leaner version might be released, with a couple of continuity flubs addressed. Otherwise, even for this long-time vegan, MEAT is a riotously fun, unabashedly Queer trip through a blood-soaked clubland that is thoroughly recommended.
MEAT is currently playing festivals (and winning awards!). To find out when it will be streaming, check out the film's official page on Facebook or Instagram.
BODY COUNT 16:
Female 3 / Male 13
MEAT (2025) - trailer
