Well today we are stepping away from low-budget into no-budget. Believe it or not there is a whole fan base for shot-on-video no-budget films.
And right now the shot-on-video sub-genre is thriving! Anyone can pick up a camera (be it an old camcorder, a cheap digital camera, or even a camera phone) and film their own movie. These movies are often grainy, often poorly shot, and often littered with problems. But fans of the genre (especially horror fans) love it.
One small company that makes many shot-on-video films is The Sleaze Box. And this week we are reviewing The Sleaze Box's strange and taboo ridden camp themed film Slasher Weekend.
The main plot of the film follows Jenny, a girl who is trying to have a nice weekend at a cabin in the woods with her boyfriend, Aaron, and her gay best friend, Johnny.
Unfortunately, tensions are high as Aaron and Johnny hate each other. Aaron is a bigoted loud mouth and Johnny is a whinny pout. Worse yet, the cabin they were supposed to stay in burned down and the group is forced to stay in a different cabin.
Meanwhile, other couples and hikers are slaughtered out in the, woods breaking men's necks and slitting girl's throats, one by one while our main characters sit and argue in their cabin.
Finally, Aaron has had it and takes off into the woods by himself. Jenny persuades Johnny to go out looking for him. Little do they know that the maniacal murderer in the woods is waiting for them, waiting to kill them.
As per usual, the film is grainy and shaky. The special effects are primitive at best. (They use a white filter in order to simulate lighting during the final scenes of the film.) But this just adds to the charm of the film style.
I was actually somewhat impressed with the characters. While the acting wasn't great--and the main characters were horrible, disgusting people--there were strangely real and tender moments between some of the characters (especially Jenny and Aaron). This gave a little more depth to the characters besides just sleaze. By far my favorite character was the old man at the fire.
But there was also a slew of characters who were flat and stereotyped, basically existing as only fodder for the kill.
At the end though, the film was a little more choppy than others. The plot jumped around quite a bit and the ending became a little confusing. (They replaced the actor for Johnny during his final scene. That really threw me off.) The locations became more unrealistic (with highways and police sirens clearly in the background of this secluded "backwoods" location.) It just took me out of the action of the film.
But, for a film of this caliber, these types of elements are mostly forgivable. My main complaint for Slasher Weekend was the fact that every kill was basically exactly the same: snap the man's neck, rip off the girl's shirt and slash her neck. They never got creative with any of the kill scenes.
Summing it Up
Deaths: 13
Language: 5
Gore Factor: 4
Sex Factor: 4
Scare Factor: 3
Fun Factor: 3
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5