Multi-generational murderers are a trope we’ve seen. Jason and his mother from the Friday the 13th franchise, the Sawyer family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Firefly family from the Devil’s Rejects to name a few more “recent” ones. To slasher fans it works, it entertains. There’s not much needed to make a coherent story and capture the audiences’ attention. It’s kind of difficult to screw it up. Begin to add more ingredients to the pot and it’s a recipe for failure, but figure out a way to make it work and you have gold. Alberto Armas Diaz takes his shot at melding dark comedy with this tried and true formula with Slasher.
Julio (Sergio Alguacil) has always looked up to his father, a masked killer, moving in silence, stalking the unsuspecting visitors to his small town. He wanted to be him, emulating his father’s work hiding behind a handmade cardboard mask of his own. Too young and inexperienced to kill he sits back as his father dispatches a man behind closed doors. Fast forward 10 years and his father has left the family without saying a single word. As a rowdy group of vacationers enter the town, Julio’s mother blesses him with a mask of his own telling him it’s his turn to take up the mantle and rid the town of these drunken partiers. So with a complacent mother and a town turning a blind eye, he sets off to fulfill his destiny. “With each kill you’ll grow stronger” she says and that he does but when he meets Ursula (Fabiola Munoz) he’s torn between love and his birthright.
The production itself looked almost like soap opera at times. I’m not sure if that was the intent but there it was. The majority of the kills seemed to happen off screen with buckets of blood splashed toward the audience for effect. The one memorable kill was the first performed by our dashing lead where he proceeded to shove a still glowing cell phone down a woman’s throat only to have it ring while shining through the skin of her neck. I’ll give the effects department props for that one. Although kind of cheesy it looked fantastic on the screen.
Horror/Comedy is a tricky genre to get right, few movies successfully find that perfect blend of laughs and scares to keep an audience enthralled. Go too hard on the comedy side and it ends up goofy, too hard on the horror side and the comedy is completely lost. This film was trying to blend dark humor with a story of curse to kill handed down generationally and missed the mark on both. Given the benefit of the doubt, I can probably chalk some of that up to the language barrier but even as a casual Spanish speaker (and the captions on) I struggled to find the humor. There was zero tension, no scares (not even a jump scare thrown in for cheap effect) and the shots at comedy only made me cringe.
This is writer/director Alberto Armas Diaz’s feature length debut so I guess you can chalk that up to being a newcomer on the scene. There is promise there but this FELT like something from a first timer. Like I always say though, I have respect for anyone that can get a movie made. That is a feat in itself and I applaud you for that. One can only hope Diaz continues to hone his skill and come back stronger with the next attempt.
You can find Slasher streaming now.
