Friday 5 June 2015

Slasher House

So I had an idea a while ago to do a Killer Clown week on here, and while I may still do that sometime in the future it isn't a priority right now, that been said todays film is one of the films that gave me the idea to do it. The green and red box of the DVD immediately stood out on the shelf as did the creepy meat cleaver wielding clown on the cover, I must say I love the detail of his red lips actually been a bloody hand print.



Slasher House is a 2012 British horror film from Mycho, an independent production studio in south east England specialising in music videos and horror, and directed by Mj Dixon (who after watching the film I found out is from my home town, very cool).

So right off the bat you'll notice the interesting colour choice for the film, baring flashbacks most the film has a green tint, with the only exception been the colour red, at first this can be a little odd and I thought I might get sick of it but I never did, as everyone knows green and red compliment each other and it adds to the strangeness of the situation our characters find themselves in. We start off with a character, known at this point only as Red (Eleanor James), waking up naked in a prison cell, the building seems deserted as no one replies when she calls out, clothes have been left for her in the room. She attempts to crowbar her cell door open with a pice of pipe to no avail, but soon a siren calls out and a red light flashes as her door opens.



Exploring the abandoned prison she finds a fridge with an ice pick and beer, taking the ice pick and drinking a beer she continues to explore before finding another locked cell and within a frighted young man named Nathan (Adam Dillon). After determining that neither knows what's really going on here she explored further and finds another prisoner, my personal favourite character in the film Charlie Corben (Wellington Grosvenor), who stands in his cell, never letting his full face be seen and hints that he might know what is going on but only offers Red half truths and riddles. Soon the siren goes off again and Cleaver, the creepy clown from the DVD cover shows up, armed with a meat cleaver he starts to chase Red through the prison until she hits a dead end in the medical wing. After a skirmish it becomes clear that Cleaver will not listen to any reason and is determined to kill her, and it looks like he just might but at the last second Nathan runs in and stabs him in the back killing him. Now Red and Nathan are together to try and find a way out and fight their way through the other prisoners as they are released and it becomes all too clear that this is a house of killers.



I don't want to give any more away as this film has some decent twists, one unwrapping after the other as the film builds to its climax.


The killers themselves fill different archetypes, the giant powerhouse, the crazy psychotic and the sophisticated intellectual, Charlie Corben fills the latter category and I must say the scenes where he is giving Red and Nathan half answers from behind the bars of his cell are great, reminding me somewhat of Hannibal Lecter playing his games with Clarice Starling. The film also hints at a larger world of crazy killers that are as much super villain as they are slasher villain, there are hints at supernatural powers and even technology you expect a mad scientist to have, all this just adds to the world the film is hinting lies beyond the walls of the prison.



I really enjoyed this film, was it perfect?  No, what film is but I certainly had a good time, Red is a very likeable lead and played wonderfully by Eleanor James, a young woman who has made quite a name for herself in independent horror films over the last ten years. The various killers are great two, following their archetypes while still feel uniques and interesting, each given a brief flashback that though short go a long way to flesh out the characters. Building on the films universe Cleaver and Thorn (played in this film by Alex Grimshaw) have their own spin off films, Legacy of Thorn is out now and Cleaver Rise of the Killer Clown is due for release October 2015, and a sequel to Slasher House is in the works. I will be checking out all these films as soon as I can.


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