Nice effects though.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Eradicating its South African origins, pretending that the open plains of the country are those of America's Midwest, this is an imitation of an American slasher movie with ageing character actor Steve Railsback imported to lend minor star power. His image and performance are eerily similar to that of Anthony Perkins in the latter Psycho sequels.Slasher formula dictates that we have a killer, a group of youths and an isolated location in which to kill them one by one. The killer is a combination of both the Creeper, first seen in Jeepers Creepers (2001), in his scarecrow-like clothes, and Leatherface, wearing a crudely constructed mask. His weapon of choice is a scythe, giving him an additional reaper quality.The youths themselves, here twenty-somethings, are members of a band called Slash whose lead vocalist is the protagonist. He's a typically sculpted, Whalberg-esque type whose aesthetic potential is exploited in one especially gratuitous woodcutting scene.His uncharacteristically feisty girlfriend is the bass player, played by British Zuleikha Robinson, familiar from the short-lived "Lone Gunmen" series (2002). The group is rounded out with a guitarist, drummer, keyboardist (!), groupie and manager. Circumstance brings all these characters together to play 'unravel the mysterious past and discover the identity of the killer' on a farm, eliminating requirements for extras and exploitation of a selection of buildings and cornfields.It is clear that this is not some cheap wannabe, but a genuine attempt to create a respectable genre entry. This is a straight but tongue-in-cheek movie, there's even a farm owner called MacDonald and the characters joke about this just as we would. Sex and gore are present but in keeping with the more subdued nature of the recent American films, as evidenced by its 15 certificate, which it shares with the likes of Jason X (2001) and Halloween Resurrection (2001). While the content may be cliché, it is in the striking cinematography that the film truly shines. Cinematographer Mark Lennard shoots the rural locations with the same eye as Daniel Pearl, including a striking use of low angle shots and a sharp focus on the clouds in the sky.The patented mix of postmodern slasher conventions, including pop culture dialogue, unfolds over just under 90 minutes. The hero returns home, uncovers his family's dark past and puts a stop to the dastardly "Harvest of Blood." Setting the tone with a stylishly shot 'couple get killed' scene, director Neal Sunderstrom delivers everything we want from a film like this and caps it off with chase through a corn field by a threshing machine and typical twist ending.At times Sunderstrom seems to be blatantly breaking the rules of the genre, with the only two sexually active members of the group surviving the carnage, but this is nowhere near the standards of the best in the genre. There is an attempt to take emphasis from gore and lean toward performance, but unfortunately the cast are unable to compliment the standard set by Railsback and the film disappoints as a result. While the idea of making the protagonists a band is an interesting one it ultimately weakens the clichéd narrative; the beginning and ending of the film are drawn out with insufferably dire ballads.

I happened to be surfing through channels one evening, and saw that "Slash" was about to begin. Since it was a horror movie, I gave it a try, and it was actually a surprise. The film revolves around a rock band, called Slash. The group of band members end up at a secluded old farm out in the middle of nowhere, when the band's lead singer's aunt dies and he goes to visit his father at the family home. Things begin to get a little bit spooky when strange events plague the band members. It seems someone is lurking around the farm, putting a stop to all of their attempts to leave. Someone wants them to stay, and then the band members begin to die off. Who is behind the killings? Is it the creepy farm handyman? Or perhaps someone else? I actually thought this movie wasn't that bad at all. The story (while it is somewhat routine) was interesting enough to keep my attention. The twist ending was obvious but appropriate in the film's context, it worked well. The acting was so-so... let's just say that there aren't exactly Oscar-worthy performances. But what can one expect from a film of this nature, the cast is mostly unknowns (aside from Steve Railsback who plays the band's lead singer's father). The scripting was somewhat corny at times, and some of the characters made stupid remarks, but I wouldn't make a big deal about it, because "Slash" is a B-grade horror flick all the way. The death scenes were creative, especially the harvesting machinery sequence, which was quite brutal, and the setting of the film was isolated and kind of spooky. The finale itself was well executed also and the killer throughout the film was pretty cool.Overall, "Slash" is really nothing new for horror fans, but it manages to be a decent and fun little movie to view. Complete with a rock soundtrack, some gory death scenes, and an overall decent story, it serves it's purpose and manages to be alright in the end. Horror fans will find it enjoyable, others will probably hate it. 6/10.

This film is truly an amazing feat of accomplishment, I am flabbergasted!! It is without a doubt the best horrorfilm ever made; Carpenter, Hooper,Argento, Barker,Craven: Just go home will you, there is really no need for such talentless directors when we in utter awe are able to witness the wonderful magic Neal Sundstrom manages to convey onto our screens!! This is the horrorfilm to erase all previous and forthcoming offerings within the genre, this is the masterpiece that will scare the living daylights out of you. This is the most original and inventive of them all!! This is the horrorfilm boasting the most talented actors you will ever see, these guys are really masters of their trade!! It is really a shame that they are still rather unknown, this must be corrected at once! YOU HEAR ME?! This film has the best script ever written, it has the best soundtrack ever written(Angelo Badalamenti, you might as well join the previously mentioned directors!),it completely avoids every cliché,it completely reinvents the whole damn genre!! And last, but not least, you will never, I repeat,never see so much carnage,mayhem, blood, guts and gore as you will in this shining gem! And every murder is shown in graphic detail, some up to the point that I felt the urgent need to throw up, and that never happens you know, and I have seen a lot of horror!! I give it a ten, blissfully leaning back to contemplate the wonderful world of irony.

Rating: 1/2 out of ****Behold, what we have here is quite likely the worst slasher flick of the new millennium (but not the worst horror film, as we can't forget Legion of the Dead). The unimaginatively titled Slash is a new display in complete and total incompetence, and it's about as poorly made as films get.After dispensing with an obligatory black-and-white prologue, the film makes a quick segue to two teenagers (apparently a couple)driving to a party in the middle of nowhere. Showing off its ineptness from the start, the movie gets into its first stalk-and-slash sequence when the couple in the car swerve off the road to avoid hitting a CGI cow! They crash into a cornfield, with the girl seemingly unconscious and the boyfriend seeing this as an opportune moment to feel her up. Turns out she's faking unconsciousness, and is a lot less angry than one would think she ought to be for her boyfriend showing more concern for her boobs than her well-being.Anyway, the boyfriend is quickly dispatched by a masked killer with a scythe, so the chick quickly runs to the nearest house, this whole chase accompanied by annoying pop rock music. She hides in a nearby barn, and proves to have nothing in the way of peripheral vision as she fails to notice the killer being right in front of her! The whole scene caps off with her begging for her life as he very slowly approaches her. For crying out loud, why not just run? And the sad part of it all is that despite how terrible this opening is, it boasts the only nice thing I can say about the movie; the chick being chased is pretty hot.The rest of the movie focuses on a rock band, whose lead singer is called to the very same farm in the opening scene because his aunt's passed away. He hasn't seen his father (Steve Railsback) in fifteen years, so one can expect their reunion to be a little awkward. The rest of the band (one of whom brings his groupie, who's a tarot card reader, no less!) also tags along, doing little things like playing trivia games over how famous singers passed away to entertain themselves. No points for guessing the band will likely serve as fodder for the scythe-wielding killer.The cast that composes the band is likely the most obnoxious group of protagonists ever assembled in a slasher. Among the lot of them, there's not a single redeemable factor to be found; they're loud, impatient, disrespectful at every turn (especially the token black guy), and they don't even seem to get along as a group, something you'd think would be vital in a rock band.Director Neal Sundstrom is horribly incompetent in staging and filming scares, suspense, or humor. He gives certain scenes a strange color composition, sometimes desaturating the picture for no discernible reason. Any time the stalk-and-slash scenes look like they might just pay off, all the murders take place off-screen and are even sometimes filmed with annoyingly choppy slow motion. Sundstrom's idea of atmosphere is covering the locations with lots of fog, but all that does is give the impression we're watching a stage play.The movie actually attempts to build some sort of mystery in regards to the identity of the killer by delivering obvious red herrings, but when the killer is later revealed, he's not even unmasked. The climax is moronic, with a few of the survivors deciding to hide themselves in a cellar that was revealed earlier to them to be the killer's hideout. The lead character also formulates a plan involving a prop knife, even though he had no way of knowing the weapon was a prop (to add further insult, the killer himself should have known it was a prop).No question about it, Slash is a terrible movie at every turn. It takes a mildly promising slasher concept-which I hear was utilized to much better effect in Scarecrows-and comes up incredibly short in all aspects. I heard this was a South African production, which does help explain some of the cast trying to cover up their accents, but it only proves that filmmakers overseas take too much inspiration from America's own cheap and awful low-budget slashers.