Review by Peter Syslo
THE SLASHER (2000) is another film from writer-director-producer Jim Haggerty. In this one, he tackles the slasher sub-genre and quite frankly, the result is a kick-ass film. This has to be one of the best independent films that I have seen and it really does display Haggerty’s and the crew’s filmmaking skills (actually, I forgot that I was watching a lower-budget production, at times). THE SLASHER is really a solid film which flows very nicely, packs in a few surprises, and gives the slasher fan exactly what he/she wants to see.
THE SLASHER is written, produced, and directed by Jim Haggerty. The film’s main cast includes: Jae Mosc, Nicolle Mirabella, Jim Haggerty, L.P., Norman Pasternak, Maria Bolaris, Spike, Alicia Brown, Charlotte Bair, and Allen Rockefeller. The film also features great atmospheric music by composer Joe Randazzo.
The premise of the film is fairly straightforward and I will give just a brief overview. A serial killer (“The Slasher”) is loose on the streets of the NYC boroughs and two detectives, Brown and Stone (Mosc and Haggerty), are trailing him – they are like two “Ahabs”, in constant pursuit. The film opens with “The Slasher” making a few kills, but he slips up when he fails to kill one female victim, Lara (Mirabella). It turns out that she may hold the key to catching the killer, once and for all, and she collaborates with Brown and Stone in order to finally put an end to the killing spree. This is not your strictly formulaic slasher, because there are many twists and turns which make the film unpredictable and the very end is a great surprise and a novel way to wrap-up a slasher film.
I loved THE SLASHER – there it is, point-blank. It was everything that I wanted to see and expected to see in a slasher film and it actually took the ideas of the sub-genre into new territory. Yes, the core material is not really new, but Haggerty has (again) written an excellent screenplay which bends the rules, a bit. I was thinking how to sum up the picture and the best description that I can come up with is that it is a combination of a Bill Lustig film, the slasher qualities of COBRA, and shades of the AUGUST UNDERGROUND films. In other words, the film combines gritty realism with the “thrill-of-the-hunt” quality and it is exciting from start to finish.
There is the strong link to the classic slashers of the 1970s/1980s and it’s funny because you see some of the slasher stereotypes come into play. For instance, the victims seem to make all of the “slasher mistakes” – leaving the door unlocked, opening the door for strangers, etc. Also, you have the tried-and-true stereotypes of the masked killer, nudity, blood, and the protagonists who are going to catch the killer - it was all very well done. Some of the cast archetypes of the slasher are also present: you have an annoying, invasive reporter, you have the witty interaction of the detectives, you have a disgruntled police chief, one detective falling for the girl, a classic “survivor” girl, and a complex and disturbing killer. All elements worked perfectly together, along with realistic camerawork and excellent acting, to create a suspenseful, compelling, and fulfilling story.
Even though the production quality may have been slightly better in I DREAM OF DRACULA, some of the “rawness” of THE SLASHER seemed to enhance the realism. Case in point: at times, there was some color shifting in some shots (I almost thought that they used an amber filter); whatever it was, it created warmth and realism and it also gave it a lot of charm. As in the other film, there was a lot of clarity in the night shots, the use of lighting was good, and I thought that, overall, they created a really nice slasher atmosphere - from the forest opening to the urban setting. Regarding other technical details, there are a few spots, where the dialogue audio does not line up exactly with the video, but that did not seem to take away from this movie. Again, the “rawness” was appropriate.
Other elements of the film that deserve mention are the music and the effects. The music is great in this film – it has that eerie synth quality, like a late 1970s British film, and it enhances the tension. The make-up effects are very good; during the kill scenes, the camera focuses on some of the attack and then it cuts away, using the “less is more” technique. The effects came off as fairly realistic and the victims all did a fine acting job, which heightened the danger in the kill scenes (except for the second victim – her actual kill scene was good but when she was first stalked, she didn’t look that frightened). Also, keep in mind that a lot of the killing takes place in the daytime, which is sort of against the slasher rules. I think that daytime slasher scenes always present a greater challenge to the filmmaker – it always s eems like it is a bit easier to make something look scary, at night.
That brings me to the acting. Everybody did a great job in this film, especially the team of Mosc and Haggerty – they owned their roles and had a natural, realistic interplay which was very entertaining. My favorite humorous scenes were when Stone found his wife in bed with another man (I laughed out loud) and when Stone and Brown interrogated the call girl – that was great comedy. Basically, the duo injected a lot of fun into the film, but they also kept it very serious when it needed to be. Other good performances include: Norman Pasternak as “The Slasher” – he had a restrained anger which was maniacal; Nicolle Mirabella was very good as the “survivor girl” – she had a very comforting way about her; and lastly, Maria Bolaris was a riot as the informant call girl.
Cutting to the chase: THE SLASHER has a little bit of everything in it – a sense of humor, scares, a good story, and all of the slasher elements in their glory. The stlaking/hiding scenes with the killer were well-done, his mask was very effective, and the kill scenes were all very distinct from one another. On a final note, the film actually seemed to have two epilogues to it (I know that sounds odd, but that is the only way that I can describe it). I thought that it was going to end at one natural point, but then Haggerty came back with a final wrap-up, and then another final wrap-up was done after that. It actually dealt with some of the aftermath of the killing, which you don’t often see in a slasher, and it was great (like I said before, Haggerty likes to “shake-up” the formula). If you like slashers, forensic films, independent horror, Lustig films, or the AUGUST UNDERGROUND films, then you might enjoy the “re alism” of THE SLASHER. This one really hit me and I give it a 10 out of 10.