The Slayer (1982)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Memorable, crazy movie

The first must-see film of the year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Very few of the original 'video-nasties' were actually good. This one was definitely not one of the good ones. My biggest disappointment came when I realised that the monster that is shown on the DVD menu only properly shows up in the last minute of the film. So DVD menus have ruined another film for me. Trailers ruin films too sometimes. Like Spiders (2000) told me the ending in the trailer. I hate that. Anyway if you manage to not see the monster before you watch the film then this may be a little better for you. The story bumbles along telling us of nightmares, isolation and killing. It was actually quite gory even though there were only five people to kill off. What also surprised me was that there was actually a bit of atmosphere - just not enough. It was a film of not enough; they just needed more of everything to make it average.

The Slayer (1982) ** (out of 4)Kay (Sarah Kendall), her husband David (Alan McRae), her brother Eric (Frederick Flynn) and his wife Brooke (Carol Kottenbrook) decide to go on vacation because of Kay's strange dreams that are harming her life. She claims that her dreams tells her things and before long someone shows up and starts picking them off one by one.THE SLAYER is a mildly entertaining slasher movie that manages to have a few good moments scattered throughout its running time but at the same time there are certainly some flaws to be found with the picture. There were countless slash and dice movies throughout the 1980s and this here really isn't very popular and in fact it pretty much disappeared there for a while until Arrow Video remastered it and released and uncut version, which is what I'm reviewing here.The thing the film has going for it are the special effects. This isn't really a flat-out slasher but we basically have a group of people being stalked by someone or something. This leads to some pretty good killings including three of them that are quite graphic when it comes to the blood. Fans of this type of stuff will certainly enjoy the effects and wish that there were more of them. I'd also argue that there's one intense sequence where the first victim is wondering around looking for something.The performances aren't the greatest that you're going to see but I thought all four were good enough for this type of film and I'd argue that they were rather realistic when it came to the performances. They all seemed like actual siblings and friends and I thought this added to the picture. With all of that being said, THE SLAYER really doesn't have much of a story and sadly the majority of it is quite boring. This includes an extremely long sequence where one of the members goes missing and the rest walk around and walk around and walk around some more looking for him. This entire sequence was incredibly boring and just went on way too long.It's really too bad that THE SLAYER didn't have a few more slayings because there's no question that these were the best parts of the film.

I have toyed with the idea of renting this obscure "Video Nasty" from my local DVD shop for years but only now – that I have watched Nucleus Films' exemplary VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE (2010) documentary and have been going through a handful of them for this ongoing "Halloween Challenge" – have I finally bit the bullet and went for it. Unfortunately, THE SLAYER turned out to be one of those titles in that much-discussed list which does not deserve its inclusion, being far too slowly-paced to compel one's full attention and, ultimately, far too tame to satisfy the gorehounds' tastebuds. Sure, there is a bizarre beheading (sort of), a beating-to-death with a paddle (to a completely peripheral character!), a human 'hooked-up' like a fish, a flare being shot into a man that subsequently catches on fire and an impalement-by-pitchfork but, for the most part, the four lead characters spend the time talking in circles (about the artistic female protagonist's current frame-of-mind) or wandering around the abandoned island they are ostensibly vacationing on looking for one another! Apart from a few welcome humorous touches present during its earlier stages, the best part of the film is decidedly the concept – originated in the classic sci-fi piece FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) and clearly picked up and improved upon by Wes Craven for the original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) and the consequent "Freddy Krueger" franchise – of a murderous being from the id, created by the lead character in her dream-state, eventually materializing in the real world to violently dispose of her unbelieving friends. However, the film-makers end up fumbling that asset as well because, not only is the talon-sporting titular character hardly seen at all, but when he does appear in close-up towards the end, his merely skeletal visage leaves one underwhelmed. To add insult to injury, the film leaves off with one of those stupid cop-out endings where it is revealed that all the events that had gone on before were only the nightmare suffered by the leading lady who, in this case, even goes all the way back to her childhood trauma of receiving a black cat as a gift…WTF?!

The Slayer is a very good 80's slasher film that, unfortunately, is very hard to find. It's not out on DVD (Region 1) and the VHS tape is way too expensive online. I actually watched this on youtube the other day, that's pretty much the only possible way to watch this unless you want to spend upwards of $40 on Ebay. A group of four go on vacation to a deserted island. Every time the main character Kay goes to sleep, she has terrible nightmares of murder. Each time she falls asleep, someone around her dies. Are the murders a dream or reality? I have to say for a low budget horror film, The Slayer looks really good. The location shots of the beach and the sets are nice, and the gore is really well done and quite gruesome. The acting is actually pretty good from all of the main actors. I like the story too. Having Kay seem sort of "off" from the rest makes her a suspect. Maybe I am the only one who thought that, but an hour into the movie I believed their was a good chance she was the killer. The death scenes as I mentioned were pretty gruesome, namely the pitchfork scene. The ending was sort of hokey and a weak spot to the movie, but it was a little bit of a "twist" I guess. It didn't take anything away from the rest of the film.The Slayer is a low budget slasher film with a lot more class then many others made around this time. It's a shame this is not out on DVD because it deserves a release.8/10