Slaughterhouse Rock [Blu-ray]

‘Once Alcatraz meant serious hard time for society’s very worst slime, now it’s a savage, blood-sodden playground for a diabolical demon far beyond your very worst nightmare!’The old adage that any frisky 80s fright flick with limber pop star Toni Basil and a sprightly score by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh is usually worth a shout is given ghastly verisimilitude with director Dimitri ‘Kickboxer: Retaliation’ Logothetis crisply-screamed, Krugerised, demon-festooned kill-fest ‘Slaughterhouse Rock’. The purloined plot is a Craven, ‘Elm Street’ / ‘Bad Dreams’ pop video garish, paranormal puree joyfully overstuffed with every deliriously day-glow diabolic, college Jock, horror cliché any misfit-minded splatter mad hatter might possibly desire to see in one outrageously silly, serotonin-steeped slasher! Our majestically mulleted brawny beefcake-headed hero Alex (Nicholas Colozzi) evilly experiences multitudinous morbid dreams wetter than the poor, swarthily chested dear can literally stomach, all his ghoulish, gut-churning, bed-levitating gubbins finally culminating in a desperate night-time flit to infamous terror island Alcatraz where the distraught Alex must reluctantly confront the malign, nightmare-spawning, no longer corporeal cannibal entity ceaselessly broadcasting this demented screed through his beleaguered, sleep-deprived noggin.Once nervously ensconced upon the infamous, brine-lashed, long dilapidated, ghoul—infested gaol our picture perfect, perfectly perky, fouffy-haired, ceaselessly-libidinous terror teens are rabidly set upon by a throat-goring, Lamberto Bava-esque, dastardly-dentured demon and these quarrelsome, trash-talking kids only real hope of ever escaping this blood-lashed rock alive is by the rather incredulous intervention of a ludicrously garbed, amusingly expository specter doing an unerringly accurate impression of world renowned choreographer Toni Basil invoking her somewhat less renowned Toni Basil persona of kooky, demon-slaying sprite!While ‘Slaughterhouse Rock’ cannot be legitimately considered an unheralded midnight movie masterpiece, it is way more amusing than its relatively obscurity might suggest, not only is ‘Slaughterhouse Rock’ absurdly good fun from the gory get go, being effortlessly re-watchable, the sublimely splattery film’s knowingly jokey, self-deprecating humour lends it a curiously contemporary feel many similarly trashy horror films from the VHS-era usually lacked. It’s been said before, but if it was worth saying the once, it’s worth saying again, ‘Slaughterhouse Rock’ rocks pretty hard, dude! and zealous exploitation enthusiasts of vintage 80s head-splattering, latex-bubbling, terrifically taste-shattering terror titles like ‘Prison’, ‘Neon Maniacs’ and ‘Doom Asylum’ should righteously groove on this adrenalized, Alcatraz-set, analogue-era slasher the most!

I liked the setting/atmosphere of this film. Toni Basil is in it. like the song she sings in the end credits music by Devo. Otherwise it is bit of a slow moving 80s Bmovie. Enjoyable nonetheless.

i did not like the movie.

Brill film

got what i paid for

Being a massive horror movie fan for longer than I care to remember and now older than I care to come to terms with, I've spent many an hour watching the genre's finest; from the classic '80s boom where it seemed every release was a stone cold classic to that middling '90s dip right up to the current 'anything goes' mentality - I've been there through thick and thin. Yet, as with everything in life - some of those releases can always slip through the cracks... which brings us to this 1988 ditty where I recall being mildly entranced by its VHS cover art as a nipper but never plunked down my dough to give it a spin. Well, that is until now...The story (oh, the irony) has hard rock lovin' but tenderly shy teen college student Alex Gardner (Nicholas Celozzi) sporting a bitchin' mullet and suffering from a reccurring nightmare where he experiences a vicious supernatural killer offing folks whilst imprisoned on the now defunct Alcatraz prison. Why is Alex having these visions? Who is the mysterious murderer? And when will Alex finish tie-dying his jeans? Inquiring minds need to know and when those nightmares start to become a deadly reality, an occultist tells him to pay a visit to Alcatraz's island in order to face down the mysterious ghost killer. Obviously a plausible notion in Alex's mind and without further ado he and his friends take a trip until they all become inexplicably stranded on the island with Alex's brother Richard (Tom Reilly) becoming possessed by an unknown entity, forcing him to hunt down the group one by one...Double threat writer/director Dimitri Logothetis (whose also given the world the recent 'Kickboxer: Retaliation' and... ahem 'Hard Bodies 2') handles the 'rubber reality/Freddy Krueger rip offery with an assured hand but his screenplay leaves alot to be desired with non-sensical plot developments and dead-end character arcs. Sure, the movie looks fine with a heavy dose of '80s blue hue lighting and shafts of light through every window, enlivened with some funkily mad practical effects but sadly that's where it all ends: This one fails to entice the viewer into the heroes plight and for much of the running time I kept thinking to myself on more than one occasion - 'is the dishwasher finished?'. Which, y'know I never recall thinking whilst watching 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors' which if honest, this so desperately wishes to be...88 Films' UK blu-ray release sports a very decent transfer with vibrant audio, ensuring the dated score by Devo hits the highest of notes (most of the 2 stars is for 88's release). There is only one extra which features a slasher movie expert discussing the movie by basically doing a 'say what you see' breakdown - its short and worth a one shot watch, but it would have been nice if the original cast or crew were on hand to offer their personal recollections on the making. All in all, this is one of those 'beneath the barrel' slasher flicks which haunted video stores in the '80s with their single copy which was always in stock, but hardly anyone ever rented. Thanks to 88, now is the time to rectify that but approach with caution: Its an average affair only bolstered by funky choices and goofy effects.

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  A movie of two haves. The first half comprising of haunting dreams, blood, and of course rock. This is where the movie soars, creating a fun sensibility that made giddy. Our main character is haunted by nightmares of Alcatraz island and a group of people being brutally murdered there. The second half takes our protagonist and his friends(Victims) to Alcatraz and things get weird. The ghost of a rock singer, a strange mutating beast and more Rock.But the film is fun, and different from most other slashers.

This is one for horror fan-boys only. It has a bit more to it than most of its ilk, but it's not neither interesting nor scary. On the up side, it's not awful.