I don’t have a lot of hope for this movie, yet I had zero faith in Cocaine Bear, either, and that turned out to be pretty fun. The difference, though, is that this film is PG-13, so I am immediately apprehensive.
Synopsis:
“Emily Young, a senior, wants to be elected as her sorority’s president. She adopts a cute sloth, thinking it can become the new mascot and help her win, until a string of fatalities implicates the sloth as the main suspect in the murders.”
IMDb: 5.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 62%
Slotherhouse is directed by Matthew Goodhue, a newcomer who has directed about 3 shorts and a feature named Woe that is sitting on a 3.7 on IMDb. Actor Stefan Kapicic (Deadpool films, Last Voyage of the Demeter, Better Call Saul) plays Oliver, and Lisa Ambalavanar (Titans, The A List) plays Emily.
Reading about the development of the film, I stumbled upon two quotes. First, co-writer Bradley Fowler tried to come up with the “dumbest idea he could think of,” when developing the script. The other co-writer, Cody Lanigan, said the film is, “like Mean Girls meets Happy Death Day with a touch of Gremlins.” Let’s see which of these is closer to the truth.
The first thing I noticed was that the music was very fun and whimsical, a throwback to 80s lighthearted horror. The Gremlins comparison is very much “on the money” when it comes to describing this film. The cute little mogwai-er-sloth, introduced with loving coos and noises, accompanied by soft musical cues. The hints at something darker and more violent with the haunting musical cues. Only, instead of a wholesome family Christmas setting, we have the movie set in a bitch filled sorority house.
The effects aren’t terrible, they are a bit goofy, which the film tends to land more on the comedy and outlandish side than the horror side. Let’s just say that my vision of the cute cuddly little slow moving teddy bear sloth is being challenged.
Tagline: Don’t rush, die slow.
The logic is completely ludicrous. The kills are insanely dumb and unbelievable. The damn sloth roofies a girl, cruises the internet, reads, drives, and posts on social media for crying out loud! And that is just the TIP of the iceberg!
Stylistically, it’s clearly aimed at the younger hip crowd with social media graphics, tweets, and emoji’s that we are constantly bombarded with onscreen. Imagine those end of movie graphics that say, “Jim ended up marrying his high school sweetheart and moved to India,” only every 5 seconds when someone new is introduced.
It’s not some B movie production, though. It is a professionally made, theatrically released, well-acted, practical effects laden film, that swings for the fences, while trying to capitalize on the current ‘wild animal is a killer but funny at the same time’ phase we are currently going through in cinema. It’s fun and will keep your attention. The sloth is cute. If you disagree, you’re a damn cold-hearted monster.
I don’t know if you will LOL, you definitely won’t be doing any ROFL, but IDK, TBH, I kind of enjoyed it. OMG!
5.5/10 Stab Wounds
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