Slaughterhouse

Yeehar !! Many years back I was reading about a new film on the way called 'Slaughterhouse'. It sounded right up my street and I was green with envy at the cool signed promo shot of the lead character 'Buddy' that ran in Fangoria at the time. But it seemed never to be, that it until recently when a copy of Program Powers DVD came plopping through the door...yeehar !!

'Slaughterhouse' concerns a father and son old school slaughterhouse team that are being squeezed out of business (well, what's left of it anyway !) The son Buddy ain't too bright though y'see and although he loves his pigs he tends to get a bit easily confused when it comes to killing - as the local teenagers are soon to find out !!

Yup, they don't make them like they used to I tell ya ! 'Slaughterhouse' is a great fun romp through the genre cliches of the eighties horror scene. A strange hybrid of a movie - like the bastard offspring of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets an eighties spin off of Friday the 13th/Pranks et al.

Yeah sure, the opening titles are slightly contentious (more so with the great mood setting music which is great throughout) with the inclusion of the slaughterhouse footage, but this is easily forgiven for the great fun you'll have checking out this wee retro gem. Yeah also there's a bag load of corny old eighties teens on show discoing away ala old Troma stylee, but I love those old eighties disco teen moments so double grins from me !

Director Roessler does a sterling job, which I found similar in style to Muro's work on Street Trash - good solid directing that gets the job done. The cast obviously had a fun time on this production, more so the old school leads that ham it up big time (which is eveident more so in the discs out-takes section).

And yes, what a disc this is. The first in the special horror line 'Lucky 13' from Program Power and hopefully a sign of future things to come from them. The disc is jam packed full of 'Slaughterhouse' related goodies - as well as a uncut print of the film, there's (take a deep breath!) an audio commentary, two featurettes, several trailers and TV spots (check out the hilarious 'No Smoking' ad), a couple of home movies of lead Buddy on tour and a scary amount of DVD-Rom material that would keep any obsessed movie fan drooling for hours !

A great little odd ball flick from the good ol' days and a mighty fine debut from the folk at Program Power. Go check it out ! Yeehar !!