{"id":16285,"date":"2015-10-16T00:15:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T04:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=16285"},"modified":"2015-10-16T00:48:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T04:48:27","slug":"slashers-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/16\/slashers-2001\/","title":{"rendered":"Slashers (2001)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Slashers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maurice Devereaux\u2019s \u201cSlashers\u201d is that satire that is right up there with \u201cDawn of the Dead\u201d and \u201cBattle Royale\u201d in how is explores an element of our society that warrants a poking. \u201cSlashers\u201d is an often absurd commentary on the extremes our society is willing to go for entertainment, and how television continues evolving to new extremes to whet the appetites of a society gradually warped by violence. First and foremost, \u201cSlashers\u201d is a horror slasher comedy, but it has a good time mocking the reality show trend of the early aughts. \u201cSlashers\u201d is set in a universe where Japan has produced its highest rated game show of all time. Said game show is called \u201cSlashers\u201d where a group of people volunteer to run through an obstacle course and be hunted down by knife wielding maniacs that brutally murder them on air.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If the players can survive until the end of the show, they win a jackpot, but that rarely occurs. Now \u201cSlashers\u201d has come to North America, and a group of ready and willing players have volunteered to enter in to the gauntlet. Awaiting them are three maniacs that are aching to dismember and mutilate them. Among the players are some skilled warriors, opportunistic young women, and a young girl named Megan who has entered the game to comment on this ugly pop culture phenom. But her efforts are thwarted when she realizes she has to make it out of the game alive, or else her commentary will have fallen on deaf ears. \u201cSlashers\u201d is a bold mix of pseudo-documentary and found footage, in where it never loses the illusion that it\u2019s filming an actual game show.<\/p>\n

The film revolves around the characters trying to survive the game, and once the cameras stop, the meta-narrative unfolds as we learn about our characters, and the ulterior motives for the game show. Director Devereaux unleashes an array of interesting characters and villains, particularly in the slashers, all of whom have their own gimmicks for murdering the contestants. The tension ratchets up more and more over the course of the film, as the players have to work around the obstacle course and keep two steps ahead of the slashers. Especially as they realize not only are the slashers out for their blood, but that the producers of the show are rigging the game in order to produce a more entertaining program for their audience. Devereaux\u2019s concept is always creative and I loved the approach of conceptualizing a world where sadism is a sport while also building a small group of very creepy and likable horror heroes.<\/p>\n

That said, most times \u201cSlashers\u201d literally stops its action in favor of a lot of clunky exposition for its characters. We\u2019re told in the movie that the producers prefer our characters talk to keep the show running longer, but that slows down the larger experience as, since most of the performances in the film are iffy, the exposition provided keeps the film screeching to a halt time and time again, completely distracting from the intended menace and tension. Every time Devereaux builds up to an explosion, there\u2019s just more of characters exchanging endless dialogue. For a game show that is supposed to picture these people as canon fodder for slashers, why is it necessary we know more about them? In either case, while \u201cSlashers\u201d falters on occasion with clumsy exposition and stiff performances, it\u2019s still a fun slasher flick that introduces a unique idea and a world I wanted to see so much more of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maurice Devereaux\u2019s \u201cSlashers\u201d is that satire that is right up there with \u201cDawn of the Dead\u201d and \u201cBattle Royale\u201d in how is explores an element of our society that warrants a poking. \u201cSlashers\u201d is an often absurd commentary on the extremes our society is willing to go for entertainment, and how television continues evolving to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[259,367,419,477,631,885,898,950,1012,1087],"class_list":["post-16285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-dark-comedy","tag-foreign","tag-gore","tag-horror","tag-martial-arts","tag-s","tag-satire","tag-slasher","tag-survival","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16287,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16285\/revisions\/16287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}