THE SLAYER
released 21 aUGUsT 1982 | 18 | Blu-ray & dVd (dual format) Director Js Cardone Cast sarah Kendall, Frederick Flynn, Carol Kottenbrook
Thanks to a pitchfork killing that was still being snipped by the censors in the ’90s (but seems pretty tame now), The Slayer was lent minor notoriety by inclusion on the “video nasty” list of the early ’80s.
It’s the sort of film which quickly fills up your horror movie bingo card. Small cast of characters in isolated location (here a remote island)? Dab. Thunder, lightning and creaky doors? Dab. Characters too dim to arm themselves after the first murder or stay inside rather than walk around? Big ol’ dab.
Not that The Slayer has nothing to recommend it. As Kay, the painter haunted by recurring nightmares which seem to be coming true, lead Sarah Kendall gives good Edvard-Munch’s-“The Scream”-face. There’s some pleasing ambiguity as to whether Kay’s dreams are premonitory or are creating the killer, Freddy Krueger style. And director JS Cardone makes good use of his locations, framing shots with sinister tangles of driftwood and discovering corpses crawling with tiny crabs.
Extras Commentary by the director, one of the cast and a producer; commentary by slasher podcast The Hysteria Continues; Making Of; locations featurette; composer interview and isolated score selections; footage from a screening at a theatre featured in the film; stills gallery; trailer. Ian Berriman