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| Given the title, I'm thinking it's probably The Slayer... |
Arrow Video has really dug deep into
the obscure corners of cult filmdom this time around, and has
unearthed a slasher film which has a good word-of-mouth reputation
among serious connoisseurs of the genre, yet is very rarely actually
seen. The Slayer has a
certain amount of notoriety for two reasons: firstly, it was among
the notorious banned-in-the-UK “video nasties,” and secondly, its
old VHS releases boasted some eye-grabbing cover art which burned
itself into the retinas of many a kid growing up in the video store
era. But despite being much talked-about in certain horror-lover
circles for those reasons, this film has been notoriously difficult
to find pretty much since the 1980s. In the US, its only home media
release was a big-box VHS from the collector-favorite Continental
Video, on which it was presented as a double-feature with Scalps.
By the later '80s it was already out of print, and while big-box
tapes became very rare in the collector's market in general, its
unusual property of being a VHS double-feature made it doubly
collectible and tough to find. Unfortunately, even if you could find
it, the film was cut by about ten minutes (for pacing, not for gore)
to make it fit onto the tape with another movie, and as with most of
those early VHS releases from Continental, the transfer used was very
murky and dark even by the standards of the format. In the UK it
eventually got a DVD release – but even then, the DVD was a
straight VHS transfer, and just as dark and murky as the Continental
tape (not to mention likewise panned and scanned down to 4x3). So
here we have a film which managed to achieve a minor cult following
basically by word-of-mouth alone, despite never being available uncut
in its home country, never being reissued in its home country in any
form after its first VHS pressing, and never being available anywhere
in the world in above-VHS quality, let alone its original aspect
ratio. In other words, exactly the sort of film we should expect
Arrow Video to rescue with a jaw-droppingly improbable 4K (yep, this
film jumped straight from VHS to 4K) restoration.
The Film:
While
it certainly is one of the more obscure American slasher films of the
early-80s, The Slayer stands
out as a rather ambitious and well-made one. This is not some
low-budget cash-in on the slasher craze sparked by Halloween
and Friday the 13th;
it is quite clearly an honest
attempt to make the best possible horror/suspense film the filmmakers
could on a modest budget. For young director/co-writer J.S. Cardone,
producer/co-writer Bill Ewing, and their likewise still-starting-out
crew, this was a project that they intended as a calling-card to
demonstrate their skills, and it shows in the final product. Granted,
the film does have the usual B-level flaws of a lower-budget flick
like this, with some wooden acting and cheesy moments, but it has an
unusually strong visual style and sense of suspense and tension,
which really does set it apart from the pack. It also has a (for the
time) rather unique central concept to its story, with a supernatural
angle that typical slashers wouldn't experiment with very much until
a couple more years into the life of the genre. It concerns a young
woman who has been plagued for her entire life by a recurring
nightmare in which she is trapped in a house, being stalked by a
monster. As her psychological state is getting worse, her husband,
brother, and sister-in-law book a cabin on an isolated island for a
vacation that they hope with be therapeutic... but when they arrive,
she finds that it is the same house as the one in her dream... which
can only mean that the monster (or some type of killer that it
represents) is likewise coming. What follows plays out mostly like a
slasher film, although with the emphasis on the suspense and tension
leading up to the kills, rather than just the appropriately gory
kills instead. But a question hangs over everything that happens: are
her dreams just a coincidence, and their stalker is a human killer,
or is something supernatural truly afoot? In other words, as the
tag-line asks, “is it a nightmare, or is it The Slayer?”
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| "Into every generation, a Slayer is born..." ...oh wait, different slayer. |
In the
commentary on this blu-ray, director J.S. Cardone denies that The
Slayer is really a slasher film
at all, and while the plot certainly feels like one, and while the
gore effects are suitably nasty and shocking, he does have a point.
This movie is a true slow-burn in a way that not many slashers
are; it truly is all about the
build-up, and not the murders themselves. Cardone handles the
suspense very well for a first-time director, building tension with
creeping, long-take dolly shots and slowly-rising orchestral music.
Cardone and cinematographer Karen Grossman give the film a strong
aesthetic and sense of atmosphere: the film is very well-shot,
particularly for an early-career low-budget effort, and the lighting
in the nighttime scenes is often memorably moody. That the film only
has four principle characters – not many expendable ones to up the
body count – should be the first clue that The Slayer
is more of a slow-burn than a gore-fest, but that in fact ends up
being one of its strengths, as it handles this style quite well. When
it does bring the gore it delivers on that side of the equation too:
at least one of the kills is a very nasty display of practical
effects nearly worthy of Tom Savini.
One
could accuse The Slayer
of having some wooden acting (although it has some good acting as
well, particularly from its haunted female lead, Sarah Kendall) and
some awkward or stilted moments that could have been written or paced
better, but these are to be expected from a low-budget horror film.
None of the film's weaker points are really deal-breakers, but rather
understandable quirks of this breed of cinema, that fans shouldn't
have much trouble forgiving. The things that it does well, on the
other hand, really stand out, considering the number of slashers that
are famous for their gore but are otherwise rather poorly-made films.
Particularly from the cinematography, atmosphere, and suspense
standpoints, this really is a well-made movie. Of course, its
slow-burn approach and relatively small body-count won't be for
everybody: those who fall more on the Friday the 13th
side of the slasher spectrum
than the Halloween side
may not like it as much as some of the more wild entries in the
genre. But for those who dig a good slow-burn in addition to
slayings, there is a lot to enjoy in The Slayer.
While there are better films from the early years of the slasher
genre, this is nonetheless quite a good one (better than plenty of
better-known slashers), and one that is long overdue for rediscovery.
Particularly now that Arrow has resurrected it in such fine form,
fans of the genre should definitely check it out.
Score:
The Video:
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| Shellfish allergies are no laughing matter. |
One of the defining
aspects of The Slayer's much talked-about but seldom-seen
notoriety is the way in which the film famously never got any sort of
decent release, picture-quality-wise. Even when it eventually got a
UK DVD in part of a line capitalizing on the Video Nasties madness,
the disc was a shameless VHS rip. So with the rare exception of those
lucky enough to see the film in theaters upon its very limited 1982
release, no one had ever seen this film in its original aspect ratio,
or above VHS quality. But as the special features on this disc taught
me, The Slayer got even rougher treatment in the
picture-quality department than I even knew. The film's original
distributor went out of business before it could be released in
theaters, and when a new distributor bought it, they inadvertently
used a non-color-corrected test print as the master for all 35mm
theatrical prints. This means that even for those who did get to see
it in theaters, prior to this blu-ray no one had ever seen the
finished version of the film, with the color-correction completed.
This makes it all the more improbable, and all the more stunning,
that Arrow has now given us a 4K remaster of The Slayer, made
from the original camera negative.
For a film that is
known for having always suffered really rough transfers, The
Slayer now looks fantastic. Karen Grossman's widescreen
cinematography is very good, and this beautiful restoration does it
justice in a way that murky, pan-n-scan copies never could. Those
long, deliberate dolly shots look great in their full scope, and with
this level of clarity. The picture looks fantastic, with excellent
detail and a healthy presence of film grain throughout which an
essential part of the atmosphere for a vintage genre film such as
this. On VHS The Slayer looked terribly washed out (which
makes a lot more sense now that I know those tapes used a
non-color-corrected version of the film), but now that the film has
finally been released with that error corrected, the use of color in
the film is quite strong. I am the sort of person who generally
thinks that the grimy, lo-fi aesthetic of VHS can really add a bit of
authentic video-store-era charm to 1980s horror films, but comparing
this blu-ray to the old Continental Video tape is night and day, and
I can safely say that this restoration is the way to watch The
Slayer.
The transfer does
have the odd issue here and there; generally things that appear to be
inherent to the negative. Once in a rare while there will be a trace
of some slight wear to the negative, and on occasion the image has a
bit of shudder to it. There are also a few moments where, in a very
subtle way, the black levels seem to fluctuate a little. But these
are all very minor flaws that I'm not sure I would have noticed were
I not trying to review the disc. For the most part, this transfer is
excellent. If you've only seen The Slayer on VHS, this disc
will be a revelation: even on tape this was clearly a well-shot
movie, but its visuals really shine through here. If you haven't seen
the film yet, there couldn't be a better way to experience it.
Score:
The Audio:
The disc features
the film's original mono audio track. It shouldn't be too surprising
that Arrow didn't try to create a new surround mix; this is how the
audio was mixed originally, and for a low-budget film of the
early-80s, the original mono is perfectly sufficient. As restored by
Arrow, the film sounds very good: the audio is clean, dialogue is
clear, and the film's effectively haunting musical score sounds
great. Sure, there are limitations to the way the film was mixed to
begin with, but this disc does about the best with the audio that it
possibly could, sounding very good while also authentic to its
original form. You can't ask for much more than that.
Score:
The Extras:
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| Splitting up to investigate... always a solid plan. |
In addition to the
beautiful 4K transfer, Arrow has lavished some seriously impressive
extras on this lesser-seen under-dog of a movie. The centerpiece of
the disc is an hour-long documentary about the production of the
film, which features interviews with most of the key players,
particularly Cardone and Ewing. The doc delves deep into the making
of the film, giving some fascinating background not just about this
particular film, but the journey of making a low-budget genre film in
the early-80s. It will really add to your appreciation of the movie,
as it shows just how much all involved genuinely wanted to make the
best suspense/horror film possible. The artistry and the ambition
behind it take center-stage, with lots of attention going to the
technical aspects of the production. A good deal of time is also
spent looking into how the film's memorable gore effects were done –
particularly that one notorious kill that landed the film on the
video nasties list.
The disc also has a
commentary track by Cardone, co-star Carol Kottenbrook, and executive
producer Eric Weston. This track is very interesting and lively, as
the three of them clearly have fond memories of the production of the
film, and those memories spill out into lots of good stories of how
it was made. In this commentary as well as the documentary, Cardone
asserts that he never really intended for The Slayer to be a
slasher film, and was more interested in exploring the
suspense/thriller aspects of the story. While it is hard to deny that
the finished product is very slasher-ish indeed, his clear assertion
of his intentions for the film add to the viewers' appreciation of
the slow-burn that he created. There are two more commentary tracks
on the disc: the first is a track full of trivia and film
appreciation from the folks at the The Hysteria Continues
podcast. The second is a live audience reaction track from the debut
of this transfer at the very theater that was featured in the film.
While I'm not sure I'd watch the whole film this way, it is a lot of
fun to hear a large theatrical audience of horror fans cheering,
screaming, and laughing at key moments. There is nothing quite like
seeing a film like this in a theater, and this track replicates that
experience in a pretty fun, if slightly goofy, way.
Rounding out the
disc are an introduction and Q&A from that same screening, a
featurette revisiting the film's locations, an audio track which
presents the isolated musical score along with an interview with the
composer, a trailer, and a booklet about the film, which will only be
featured in the first pressing. This is a pretty loaded release by
most standards, but especially for a film that had previously been
left in such obscurity, it is almost ridiculously impressive.
Score:
There may be better
movies from the early years of the slasher boom, but The Slayer
is definitely a good one, and long overdue for this sort of special
edition treatment. Going from an obscure, seldom-seen VHS rarity to
the recipient of an Arrow 4K remaster is a pretty meteoric rise for a
film like this, and a testament to the cult reputation that it
acquired over the years strictly by word of mouth. It is also a
well-shot and suspenseful enough film that it genuinely deserves the
upgrade, and really benefits from such a great release. If you are a
fan of vintage slasher films, this is certainly worth a watch. And
whether you are a newcomer to the film or an old fan of its VHS
releases, you've never seen it look like this. This is a definitive
release of a movie that seemed very unlikely to ever get a definitive
release.
Overall score for
the Arrow special edition:
- Christopher S.
Jordan
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