Slashers (2001)

I'd passed this one over several times on the shelves of Poundland, but then picked it up for 50p at a car boot sale. I didn't quite like the look of it, but am pleased to say this is a fine b-movie with plenty of energy and gore, and it's fun to watch too.It's the first all American episode of the Japanese reality game Slashers and after an upbeat intro, complete with a song, we get right into the swing of things. Six contestants have to stay alive long enough to reach the end running time of the programme, while three psycho killers (one a preacher, another a chainsaw redneck and the other guy a weird Doctor) chase them round the set.The sets are nicely weird too and add to the atmosphere - I'd go into detail about the characters but I've forgotten all their names already but there's a chick there for political reasons, a hunky guy, a less hunky guy, a weird guy who enjoys things a bit too much, and two other chicks. As mentioned elsewhere the acting is a bit ropey but the gore and novelty levels are high and it's a nice take on the slasher genre.That's about it really.

If your not a fan of horror or gore leave this page now, in fact forget that it exists because your not going to like this movie one little bit. For those of you who are still reading prepare for a bloody treat of over the top horror executed (pun intended)with style and to such high quality, which is surprising as to look at the budget must have been minuscule.First of all don't expect an award winning masterpiece here just by the title of the movie you should be able to surmise that its going to be a seedy affair. Exploitation is the name of the game plenty of female nudity and gore on display just the way we like it, also it doesn't take itself seriously which I think helps this movie immensely. By keeping it light hearted the filmmakers have made it easier to look past the flaws of the movie and just enjoy it for what it is. But not to say that its shallow, with underlying satire on reality TV show's and a look into the vicarious and indifferent society in which we now live it adds depth.The story is quite basic, think The Running man meets Friday the 13th. Our introduction to the movie is the start of an episode of the no.1 extreme TV show in japan Slashers, we are quickly introduced to our six contestants who will battle it out with the insanely demonic serial killers to win a grand prize of $12 million. We have a selection of odd ball characters to route for a politically motivated college girl to an ex soldier to a fame hungry actress all out to take fame and fortune. The slashers have a comic strip feel to them played tongue in cheek and extremely over the top especially doctor Ripper (Christopher Piggins) who steals the show here, chainsaw Charlie and preacherman (both played by Neil Napier) are also deliciously disgusting character's always ready with one liners and jumping out of the scenery to keep things interesting.Some of the acting leaves a lot to be desired though, I think the performance of Claudine Shiraishi as Miho the host of the show was shockingly bad and made me want to turn it off in the first few minutes also Jerry Sprio puts in a surprisingly bad performance at some points as a Mexican bouncer. Thankfully the characters that bring down the movie are only on screen for a limited amount of time and the other characters do enough to make you look past this.The production is very cheap but on a shoe string budget what the hey, the gore effects are decent enough and there is more than plenty of the red stuff splattering from start to finish.I've seen the sets for this movie compared to a paintball arena and i will fully agree with that analysis, plywood galore comes to mind. But I think its kind of fitting to the whole feel of the movie and helps it. Also the costumes are like cheap Halloween rubbish they sell at the discount store.All in all this is a enjoyable movie which although has its flaws provides plenty of incentive to look past them and see the bigger picture. If you like gore horror then I recommend this to you highly with lashings of thick red blood, a tongue in cheek attitude and some campy over the top acting help to make this more than worth your time and a cult classic. If it wasen't for some very bad acting mainly the part of Miho i would have rated it higher, but she just brings down the quality of the first 10 minutes.

I Really hope this gets remade, with a bigger budget and a better cast and send it to theaters, or make a real TV show like this, because this movie definitely did not get the credit it deserved, the DVD is even discontinued (stop making them). This was an awesome movie and definitely worth a look, the reality show plot is awesome, i loved it, i guess it's one of those movies which you either love it or hate it. I cant really say it's being remade, but a similar movie is coming out this April 2007, entitled Wrong Turn 2, almost the same plot, i cant wait for it. But if you want some good cheap scares and fake gore and a low budget horror flick, this is definitely worth a look, so please give it a shot, you might like it as much as me!

I picked this movie up without much expectation -- I saw 'Fangoria' on the cover and thought I'd give them a chance to scare or freak me out. This is not the kind of horror that will make you fear the dark again but is more accurately described in some reviews as satire. This movie was every bit as fun as the bubble-gum pop theme song suggests. Many low budget choices were so appropriate to the setting and feel, and so well executed that they shouldn't have been done any other way. The gore effects were liberal with blood and so apparently fake that they contributed to the charm.This movie was so full of personality that even the camera was a character, one who was always present, but because of good action pacing managed to remain inconspicuous until one of the other characters addressed him. The cast of competitors were personable enough and watchable enough (though some become more watchable with their shirts off,) in spite of their weaker acting. But good horror relies on the strength of good villains, which Slashers had. Each Slasher had their comic-bookish personal style of WWF ranting and fun-park menace, backed up by their signature weapons, of course, and made the most of their screen time, hamming it up and thrilling their fans. Even bad dialog would be good for these subjects, but it was all delivered with such flair and enthusiasm by Neil Napier and Christopher Piggins that they were a pleasure to see every time they crawled, sometimes literally, out of the woodwork.