Sledgehammer (1983)

One of my all time favorites.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Sledgehammer" its an SOV slasher, its the infamous directorial debut of director David A. Prior and what a film to start with. When it comes to SOV horror "Sledgehammer" its probably among the most entertaining ones or at least the ones that have the most redeeming qualities, but as a legit horror movie it doesn't work at all.I like just how surreal it is, it doesn't try to ground itself in reality, instead, it creates its own mood and atmosphere, something I really enjoy in horror films, however, its also a severely flawed movie even by SOV standards, mainly because of the obnoxious main characters, all of them are unlikable idiots, they sink the movie really low and make it almost unwatchable.It started pretty decent but never became any more interesting, its predictable, cheesy, slow and dull but the tone its perfect for SOV horror. This is a really weird movie, there is fine line between genius and craziness, unfortunately, I believe this is the later.

The title appears, barely legible, in blocks, on screen for nineteen slow seconds, before being smashed with the title object. We, the audience, are then seemingly beaten over the head with some of the poorest picture quality imaginable, even for shot-on-video flick, during the opening title sequence, while an imitation of the Phantasm theme is played.Obnoxious, amateur actors/ amateur porn stars gather in a farmhouse where, ten hyperbolic years earlier ( because nine years is never enough time, but eleven years is always too much time ) a double murder was committed. At one point, the filmmakers seemingly forgot they were doing a slasher film, and meander into a food fight, which lasts for nearly eight minutes, before setting up a seance, to contact the spirit of the killer from a decade earlier. " Some of you may have already heard what I'm about to tell you, " Mr. Polo Shirt informs us. We all have, because at this point, the filmmakers pad out the run time with a lengthy expositional flashback to the first scene from this very movie, in a Friday the 13th part 2- inspired bit, telling the audience what we already know. Two of these dip****s are later killed with a sledgehammer, which prompts another dip**** to ask​, " Any clues? " Perhaps the sledgehammer, and the dead bodies themselves, which they move, because they're all drunken morons? They remain in murder house overnight, basically waiting to be killed. The ghost/ killer/ whatever he is materialises/ crawls out of the woodwork, to off these nitwits one by one, and they kind of, sort of, fight for their lives. The cast:Chuck, seemingly cast for his muscular physique, and willingness to wear a polo shirt. Joni: completely forgettable. John: This guy just sucked. Mary: kind of pretty, but has the same awful 80s perm as Joni. Jimmy: looks likes he's killing time until the next Hall and Oates concert, or until he and Mary and Joni go have their hair permed at the same place. Carol: probably the best of an admittedly lousy cast, but with the same perm hairdo as the rest of them. Joey : I don't even remember this guy, but I'm sure he sucked. Lover: sucked. Mother: tolerable, but she and Jimmy and Mary and Joni look like they all have the same hairstylist, who only knows​how to do that same perm. The boy: was a lame villain. Killer: was he the killer? I thought it was the boy? The driver: why was he even here? But for all the grief and aggravation, I must admit I watched this film twice this month, before writing this review. It has some occasionally inspired camera-work, especially during the climax, among static shots of hallways. The music score is eerily effective, it reminded me a bit of German industrial band Einsturzende Neubauten, particularly their record, Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T. Plus, the added terror of a killer stalking his victims in their own home is a terrifying thought in and of itself. Gore fans should find enough in the ending to make it worthwhile, too. I'm not saying this is * good *, but there are worse movies out there, like Blood Massacre, for example. Without the opening and closing credits, this is only 74 minutes long. Without the use of slow motion, it might only be about 20 minutes long.

We all know the drill: A young boy murders his abusive mother and her smarmy lover with a sledgehammer just as they are ready to get down to business. Ten years later a gaggle of obnoxious teenagers crash at the house where the killings occurred and not surprisingly the graphic carnage begins anew. Man, does this gloriously ghastly shot-on-video micro-budget train wreck possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a real four star stinkeroonie: hopelessly all-thumbs (mis)direction, a droning and redundant hum'n'shiver synthesizer score, hilariously horrible acting from a lame no-name cast, ugly fuzzed cinematography complete with primitive fade outs, tacky freeze frames, and clumsy excessive overuse of strenuous slow motion, cheesy excessive gore, a meandering narrative that plods along at a gruelingly sluggish pace, the tried'n'true have sex and die cliché, zero tension or spooky atmosphere, annoying one-note characters, loads of needless filler (the ridiculous messy food fight set piece is especially extraneous), rusty tin-eared dialogue, dumb false scares, a downright surreal last third, and the inevitable "it ain't over yet!" sequel set-up non-ending. An uproariously atrocious howler

With any slasher movie, you have to understand that it was never intended as the next "Citizen Kane". But even with that in mind, "Sledgehammer" - whose title basically explains the entire plot, if you can call it a plot - is truly the bottom of the barrel. For starters, it's obviously shot with a video camera, and probably a hand-held one. But even worse, the movie contains long stretches where NOTHING happens. They put up $40,000 for THIS?! Look, don't make me waste your time trying to explain how awful this movie is. It's not even entertaining. Just avoid this grade-Z atrocity at all costs.