|
|
Slaughtered
Directed By Anthony Doublin
Released: 2005
Starring: Khhryst, Lena Ramon, Ariel Carmine, and Arlisha Fogle
Running Time: 87 minutes
Harold Parkinson (played by Khhryst) hires beautiful models to come by his house to be photographed for his website. What the models don't know is that Harold's website, Slaughtered Sheep, is a snuff site and he plans to murder them for his pleasure and profit. His scheme begins to fall apart when Monica (Arlisha Fogle), a private investigator, tries to discover the whereabouts of one of his former models. As if things couldn't get any worse, Harold is haunted by the spirits of his victims and they won't rest until they get revenge.
Anthony Doublin, the man behind the makeup effects in Re-Animator and
From Beyond, writes, produces, and directs, Slaughtered. The digital camera work is excellent and the lighting is professional. The music is primarily goth electronica and sounds fine, even creepy in some scenes. The only real problems with the quality of the production is the sound and there are a few continuity errors. Occasionally, it's hard to hear what characters are saying and the presence of background noises gets annoying. As far as continuity goes, actors that are supposed to be dead are still breathing and one character that is supposed to be handcuffed can be seen merely hanging onto the cuffs. However, this is a small budget production so most of these little problems are forgivable.
The storyline is intended to get the female characters naked as quickly as possible and then have them brutally murdered by Harold. The film doesn't make any pretenses about what kind of a film it is trying to be so, depending on the viewer's sensibilities, this simplistic plot works quite well.
Slaughtered wallows in trashiness and exploitation without making any apologies.
Even for the most desensitized of viewers, one scene in particular strikes a disturbing chord. After Harold is finished dumping a girl's body in a dumpster, he stops and picks up a hooker named Pearl played by Aschleigh Farynn. Even though Pearl seems tough and streetwise, the second she realizes that she is in grave danger, she completely loses it. The terror that Farynn is able to convey is very convincing and the entire scene is chilling.
My third and final complaint about Slaughtered concerns the script. A cast of non-professionals or newcomers can be problematic for an indie production but it is obvious that the actors are being either scripted or directed to speak their thoughts out loud. There are several instances here where the film assumes that the viewer is totally lost and the actor speaks their thoughts, no matter how mundane. Otherwise, the performers hold their own and do a good job. And besides, where else are you going to hear "And now it's time for some nipple
clamps"?
Slaughtered is full of naked ladies (alive, dead, and ghostly), brutal torture sequences, lots of blood, and even one Lovecraftian creature. The digital effects are well done without going overboard and the gore effects are very cool despite the small budget. This film is definitely not for the easily offended or those disturbed by twisted and pointlessly cruel film violence. Anthony Doublin has brought a seriously sleazy flick to life and it will be interesting to see where his next feature takes us.
For more information, be sure to check out the Slaughtered
website.
|
|
