SLAUGHTER DAY {1991}

 THIS MONTH HAS BEEN SOMETHING OF A "SHOT ON VIDEO" MONTH FOR ME.

 

I blame this entirely on WildEye Releasing's subsidiary label Visual Vengeance which sprang into existence this year; belched forth from the crypt of SOV ghoulishness and has just been hitting it out of the park with each release!  And the releases have been coming fast and furious; over half a dozen already and more to come!  Probably my very favourite Visual Vengeance release is coming up later in this Halloween Countdown.  But here we have the wonderful SLAUGHTER DAY; shot on S-VHS somewhere in Hawaii by the (obviously bonkers) Cousins twins Brent and Blake.  No, not bonkers.  Actually, guys who really know how to make a no-budget backyard movie with absolutely NO lulls and boring bits.  In fact, from the first minute of SLAUGHTER DAY, the action ramps up and never really stops until the almost-an-hour running time is over.  The fight scenes are almost continuous and are inventively shot and the guys on screen have more high energy than the Energizer Zombie!  The median age of these guys is around 20 years old and they're all in good physical shape so they throw kicks and punches and wrestle around with seemingly limitless enthusiasm.  The (of course) practical gore effects are wonderfully fun and actually work very well.  The story . . . well, I guess there's a story but who really cares?!?!! 

Our 2 lead 'dudes' are quickly attacked by a guy who is possessed by an evil gasmask which apparently was conjured by H.R. Giger's NECRONOMICON book.  That's pretty much it; the guys manage to hack the possessed guy into pieces but the evil gasmask possesses a couple more dudes and they use the Necronomicon to reconstitute the guy.  And then there's much more fighting and blood and gore effects and just the BEST time is had by all!  Above all, by THIS viewer who loved every minute of it.  One side note which owes nothing to the original filmmakers but instead derives from the truly awful close-captioning by Visual Vengeance on the blu ray is the fact that the Necronomicon is constantly called in the close-captioning:  The Microeconomics!  Laugh I thought I'd die!  The Cousins brothers show a real knack for frenetic pacing, that's for damn sure!  This film leaves you practically breathless.  As I mentioned, the camerawork shows talent as well and the only thing that hinders the guys is their obviously VERY basic equipment.  If I had a portable tesseract and could travel back in time to 1991 and hand these guys an iphone or something, this movie would be the best thing ever seen in the entire history of civilisation already!  But yeah, the film shows it's VHS origins proudly on this blu ray -- especially at the very beginning where the videotape is rather chewed up.  As someone who himself tried to edit on videotape back in the day, I can sympathize with the Cousins brothers because that's what they obviously had to do here.  This leads to the rather charming (and funny) experience of hearing the director (Brent Cousins) shouting "GO!" or "NOW!" or "GET OUT OF THE PICTURE" which he certainly tried to edit out of the cut but which remains in the final film.  It's just wonderful!  I had SO much fun with this movie!!!  You haven't lived until you've watched it!