The Slayer
When two couples take a holiday on a deserted island, everything looks idyllic, if a little desolate. But when one of the husbands goes missing, things take a turn for the sinister. Has he just wandered off? Has he drowned in the sea? Or is there an evil creature stalking them all? Sensitive artist Kay knows it’s the latter: because she’s seen this place before – in her childhood dreams. Released in 1982, The
Slayer is a bit different from other slashers. For a start, there’s a strong emphasis on the supernatural, rather than plain old knife-to-the-guts stuff. Plus there aren’t any teenagers necking beer or getting laid. It’s just urban professionals, sipping wine and chatting about work, marriage and art.
The atmosphere and rhythms of the film are different too. People do die, but the murders feel rationed and sparse. This low body count gives the film an occasional sense of plod, so be prepared to watch characters walking around while calling out the names of other characters, a lot.
Yet it’s the unique feel of the film that really strikes a chord. It’s just so damn ominous. The excellent cinematography and orchestral score pile on the dread and melancholy, leaving you with a film that just feels, well… lonely. The couples don’t even love each other as you’d expect, which lends a creepy, miserable, dream-like coldness to the whole affair. This is, of course, deliberate. This film explored ‘dream killers’ years before Freddy Krueger ever raked his metal glove across a pipe. There’s even a scene where a woman desperately tries to survive by staying awake. I reckon Wes Craven might have seen this...
The film may meander its way to the kills, but they do arrive, and a couple are fairly brutal. They’re technically impressive too: bleeding eyes and pitchforked chests look surprisingly unsettling here, and the monster (when it eventually turns up) is really rather cool.
The folks at Arrow Video clearly have a lot of affection for The Slayer, and their enthusiasm is infectious. The 4K restoration is – compared to the dingy-looking VHS of old – a revelation. The extras are sweet too, like the isolated score selections and the location visit to Tybee Island. You can even watch the entire film with an audio track featuring the Tybee locals. They watched the premier of this restoration in the original theatre featured in the film, so Arrow recorded their reaction and threw it on this release, too. It’s the sort of extra that feels slightly pointless and a bit mad, I guess, but I found it (and the whole package) a pretty beguiling cocktail of horror flavours.
In this closing chapter, a young Native American woman is found dead in the cold wastes of the Wind River Indian Reservation by local tracker Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner). The circumstances surrounding her death are suspicious to say the least, and the FBI sends the inexperienced but determined Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) in to assist the local police. However, she is out of her depth on the reservation, where the locals are less helpful to the outsider, and Lambert joins forces with her in an attempt to solve the tragic murder and also hopefully get some vicarious closure after a traumatic loss of his own.
While Renner and Olsen have starred together twice before as members of Marvel’s Avengers,
Wind River is anything but a fun solo romp for Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch. Sheridan’s previous scripts have been depressingly bleak yet undeniably compelling, and this establishes a similar tone and feel. The visuals are both magnificent and haunting, conveying not just the vastness of the reservation but also a powerful feeling of isolation and hopelessness. The sense of loss and injustice associated with the young woman’s death is maintained throughout the film, as her parents’ grief intertwines with Lambert’s past experiences.
Unfortunately, Olsen’s role is not afforded the same depth as Renner’s, and the scenes involving the pair as the investigation progresses become increasingly tiresome rather than intriguing. As a result, the more dialogueheavy scenes tend to meander and run the risk of hindering the viewer’s continued investment in the two leads as the film progresses. While the final act offers a highly memorable sequence that is heart-poundingly intense, the film as a whole suffers from slack pacing and deficiencies in the tension department. Those who prefer a very slow build-up may enjoy the overarching structure and the contrast it creates to that final conflict, but to most, Wind River will be a watchable but ultimately underwhelming conclusion to this dark trilogy about modern America.