Director: John Grissmer
Year: 1987
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Nightmare at Shadow Woods; Slasher
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Years after a tragic accident, a serial killer escapes from a mental asylum and returns to his parents' apartment complex where his twin brother and his friends have gathered for Thanksgiving, and after learning about who's the real killer the slowly-dwindling group tries to stop the madman.
Review:
This here's not all that bad when it really tries. The main one that this one gets right is the slasher motifs that it plays upon since there's some great stalking in here that gets some nicely needed suspense in the film. This is mostly used from the ability to play off the true identities of the two brothers against the others, which is where this one manages to get some fantastic use out of pulling the double switch about which one's who. A lot of scenes work for that reason, as the playoff of which one's which drives up the confusion factor in the characters quite nicely, especially since the ruse is found out so early on and the majority of the film plays off that discovery as everyone goes around trying to find out the killer's true identity which is what results in the variety of kills in here.
The first rampage scene in the apartment complex, where there are some great attempts at hiding from the killer and some wonderful confrontations before the final result comes out as the various workers confront the killer unknowingly only to end up getting hacked to pieces in exceptionally gory manners. There's several more that the film uses to trade off its twin gimmick, from the encounter with the older couple to the scenes with the friends partying in their apartment and the tennis court scene. The ending chase in the film is also really great, as there's plenty of full-on stalking and confrontations with the two involved, and it's a long, drawn-out one that's a lot better than what would normally be.
There's some really wet and graphic kills in this one, including a really graphic decapitation that is just as remarkable for the stumble-across-the-body-gag than it is for the actual kill itself, a body cut in half at the waist, hacked in the face repeatedly with a small hatchet, being stabbed in the stomach and having an incredibly bloody machete emerge out the back as well as being viciously chopped and sliced up with a machete, among others. There are several more great kills that are just as bloody and gory, so this one here has some really nice ones for gorehounds to really get into. As well, the wild and wacky killer that's delightfully cheery and upbeat adds nicely to the film by making it quite enjoyable to stay around the killer as this one has plenty of time around him in order to do so. That also helps to raise this one above the norm as there are some pretty big flaws about it.
One of the biggest flaws with it is that there's way too unconventional an approach to the narrative structure. There's way too much skipping around to other areas that mean absolutely nothing which is just irritating. That affects the numerous scenes where one of the tenets in the apartment complex keeps trying to get out a phone call to a person that lives within the complex itself. It's a short walk over to the place where they're calling, yet the fact that half of the movie is the character calling is just plain ludicrous. It's so illogical that it's hard to take seriously, and thus really should've been dropped. The other really noticeable flaw in the film is that there's nothing given about the motive behind the killer. This one offers up nothing, and not even clues are hinted around. This here really kills most of the positive points, since that's a crucial area to handle and this one doesn't attempt one. That takes off most of the positive points itself and just leaves it feeling mediocre.
Overview: *** 1/2/5
While this isn't exactly high art in the slasher genre, it's at least got enough about it that are joyous for the fans since the main likable elements that come into play are issues relating directly to that section. The hardest of genre fans are encouraged to check it out, while those who don't really enjoy this kind of film should take caution with it.
Comments
Post a Comment