Just in case everyone has forgotten, lets take a look at the second rule of horror/monster movies….
"Never read a book of demon summoning aloud, even as a joke."

But people just keep on forgetting this one thing. From watching films like Evil Dead or other movies dealing with the supernatural, it would appear that all of these shows tale place on an alternate world where horror movies don't exist. Because no one pays attention to the rules. Never go into a cellar, never get drunk or use drugs especially in a house where someone went insane, was murdered or a previous tenant tried to raise the devil or sacrificed a child.
And for gods sake people, don't have sex in a mansion where you have just been told that someone did any or all of these things. Christ.
Well, guess what happens in the low budget zombie and demon offering called "The Slaughter"?
When the janitorial service owned by Dana (Jessica Ellis) and Tyler (Terry Erioski) is brought in to clean up four decades of dust and dirt from an uninhabited and isolated home by a greedy and disgusting real estate agent (Brad Milne) and the abused and embittered assistant (Jen Alex Gonzalez) strange things start to happen. People seen who aren't there, sounds, ghostly images seen from the corner of the eye.
So we have six college students in an abandoned house with a job to do (work hard during the day, get stoned and laid at night) it all comes crashing down when they awake an ancient evil demon.
Isn't that how it always goes? Come to party, invite satanic evil, go to hell.
Our team of almost cutting board characters (cutting board in that you have seen these same people for years, not acting style) includes geek Iggy (Zak Kilberg) who ridicules and hates the corporate world and the mentality of money; openly admitted slut Heather (Laura Stein) who looked hot even as a zombie, her jock jerk boyfriend Brandon (Travis Wood) and ultra stoned Razz (Billy Beck) who faces a point in his life when he is made to feel just how compact his life really is.
It is Iggy who discovers a skin covered volume of supernatural incantations and reads from it the summoning spell that will unleash he ultimate evil.
While the film uses lots of genre clichés the cast of attractive women and colorful men doesn't make you feel like the script is talking down to you. It does not try to use fancy-schmancy film making techniques the director or actors learned in film school thereby making the viewer feel that they must have missed something important because they were trying to get that last scene cleared up.
Here they use straightforward film making 101 for horror. Use the not quite camp attitude, but keep the one-liners going. Throw in a lot of horror, some good *as in well done* efx, use a cast that is not only photo friendly but wants to have fun not win an Oscar and you will have a film that will appeal even to over jaded fans who have seen this oven and over.
And that is one of the things that makes The Slaughter a good film to me. The little comments that you can see came in some way for other films, the depressing atmosphere at the beginning of the movie, good special effects (with one exception) and yes, some dang good pretty girls. Yee'HAW!!
The sound was excellent. Unlike so many films of this type, where you have to strain to actually hear something, in The Slaughter they talk into the mics. Isn't that an amazing concept? And the actors don't mumble or garble their words up, or even ram them together to make incomprehensible sounds at the viewer. Thank you.
Picture quality was also first class. It wasn't grainy or patchy, clear and easily viewed the entire time.
The film also benefits from two different beginnings. Not an alternate, but a continued beginning, starting with a witches' coven which calls forth an evil that has been around for a long time. And if I got any real chills, it was during this first prologue. During the montage of swirling naked women a couple of them have this most incredibly evil looking grin on their faces. That got to me, I will admit.
The second one takes place almost a hundred years later where a young mother kills hew own child then dies herself. You might say, the demons staked her out for this one.
Some very good shocks, and gore so wild it is often more funny then I think then director or producer wanted. As for comedy, my favorite scene was the "Romero vs. 28 Days Zombie". I actually laughed quite a while at that one.
I admit when I first heard about The Slaughter, I was scared. Not white knuckled, gripping the chair arm in fear kind of scared. More like, "Oh great. Another standard below par low budget that has horror evident only in the actual acting.
I was surprised and pleased. Yes, it is like many other indie horror films when you first start out. But that changes when you actually start to watch and have an idea where the director wants to go.
If I had any major criticism it would be with the ending. I might have tweaked it a little differently, still keeping with what was done, but just a slightly different touch.
And the DVD itself could have a few more added features. It has a preview of the film now, but could have used some extra commentary, deleted scenes and FRIKKIN' BLOOPERS. You can't tell me on a film like this there was not a lot of goofs and cut ups going on. Include that on the next printing or just send out an extra DVD loaded with those features.
I won't mind.
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