ADH III: Slaughter

In 2007 Adela and I bought passes to After Dark Horrofest II and proceeded to watch all eight of the featured movies in the theatre. Most were very, very bad. We still managed to enjoy ourselves by mocking the majority of the films, smuggling in booze, and talking with other horror fans between showtimes. When After Dark Horrorfest III was announced in January 2009 I wanted to attend again.

In a travesty of justice no passes were sold this year and I actually would have had to leave the state to watch bad movies. This made me sad for longer than I like to admit until I moved on with my life. The eight films were released on dvd March 31st and I promptly rented them all.

Throughout the next week I will be posting mini-reviews of each film. As with After Dark Horrorfest II there were a bunch of bad movies. Surprisingly enough, there were also good ones.

Let's start with one of the best: Slaughter, which was was "inspired by true events".

Slaughter begins with Faith. Faith is pulling a runner by moving to an undisclosed city to get away from her possessive and abusive boyfriend. She's one of the walking wounded who just wants to start over.

On her first night in a new city Faith's best friend takes her clubbing. There Faith meets Lola. The two become fast friends despite their obvious personality differences (Faith's quiet, Lola's not, Faith's only had one boyfriend, Lola's has many "boyfriends", etc). When Faith's ex leaves a threatening message on her phone she decides to move in with her newfound friend.

Here's where things start to get a little strange. Lola lives on a farm with her father and two brothers. She doesn't reside in the main house and has been relegated to the barn for an undisclosed reason. Lola casually tells Faith as long as her chores are done her daddy doesn't put up too much of a fuss about the gentleman callers she bring home.

Things seem fine for awhile...except there's a slaughterhouse Faith isn't allowed to explore. Nobody except Lola and her little brother Cord are friendly. The pigs are being fed mystery meat. And Cord mentioned his mother killed herself because of something his daddy did...

Slaughter felt like an old-fashioned Southern gothic tale with incest, family secrets, and random murders throughout. The storyline was interesting and both Faith and Lola were incredibly likeable characters. While I would have preferred another ending the one given was powerful and unexpected. Two thumbs up!

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