Slaughter (Horrorfest 2009) Review

Not knowing anything about movies going in can always lead to surprises, but imagine how surprised I was when I sat down to this one and found out it was “inspired by true events” and is set in Atlanta. I had no idea. Of course, the true events thing immediately put me in mind of last years entry “Borderland”. Although this is not as good as that, it isn’t the worst of the bunch.

It opens with us seeing a person being tied up, dragged through a field, and then stop at a platform of some sort. While this is happening an old church song is playing from a record player in the background. We get a good view of the nightly landscape of a large farmhouse and the body a several yards in front of the house, resting on a small dock of a lake. Then we see a figure tie off the ropes to a cement block and into the water the body goes. This is where it then cuts to Atlanta and two young girls are in a truck trying to convince one girl, Faith (Amy Shiels), that this is a good move for her. We find out she is trying to escape an abusive relationship with her boyfriend Jimmy from North Carolina. Her friend Cathy tells her to look at is a new start and not a new place to hide. They get to Atlanta and decide to have a night on the town before Cathy heads back. While they are out Faith notices a girl in the bar seemingly to be having boy problems of her own. She makes eye contact with the girl and swoops in with an excuse to get her out of the situation. The girl, Lola (Lucy Holt), thanks Faith and gives her her phone number and tells her she owes her one.

Faith keeps this in mind and after finding her e-mail inbox of messages from Jimmy she decides she could use a break and calls her new friend. Lola invites her out to her place, which is a pretty good size farm. Same place we saw in the opening. Lola tells her about how she has this separate house from the men that her dad built and is looking for a roommate. After having a nice day with Lola, Faith gets home. Her phone rings and she answers it to find Jimmy on the other end. She is shocked to realize that he has found her. She calls Lola back and asks if she can move in with her. Lola agrees and they go out to celebrate. Lola hooks up with some rich guy in a Ferrari and Faith isn’t too happy about this. We then see flashes of scenes similar to the opening only this time it is the Ferrari guy.

Faith wakes up and finds Lola alone, the guy gone, his car gone, but he left his Rolex. This is also when Faith notices the pigs and the slaughterhouse. She is warned to stay away from there because Lola’s dad doesn’t approve of girls down there. The two girls go out again and the same thing happens. This starts to cause Faith down a road of suspicion, but when she continues trying to get to the bottom of it, she finds out it is better to not be so trusting of others.

The acting was actually pretty good in this movie. The two girls, Shiels and Holt, really played well off of each other. They were the main focus of the movie and that overshadowed any sub par performances that may’ve been in the movie. Well until Jimmy shows up.

There were a few gruesome moments, but not a lot. I think the effect of the movie relied more on the fact that something similar to this really happened. They did have a few teeth and needle scenes that might get a cringe out of a few people. Not a whole lot in the gore category though.

This was a movie that I was really enjoying until the end. It wasn’t that the end was so bad, but it became a bit of a monologue and ended up making me feel like the people behind the movie didn’t think I’d be able to figure out the conclusion if it was just shown to me. The last part just seemed to drag on a bit and I think that is where it lost me. Not that I didn’t enjoy the movie because it is one I’ll probably own. There were also a few continuation errors. One minute Lola has a black eye, she takes a shower and then it is gone. Just little stuff kept this from being a really good movie for me. I did learn one thing though, if I need help in Decatur it is probably best not to rely on their 911 police service.