Add Brandon Bassham, writer and director of The Slashening, to the list of filmmakers who really did their homework before attempting a throwback slasher.
Actually, The Slashening is much more than that. Essentially, it’s a retro raunchy sex comedy dropped into the middle of a slasher film situation. It also manages to spoof the clichés of slashers while avoiding the clichés of slasher spoofs that have come before it, which isn’t an easy feat. Yet, despite its nod to the 80s, it even pokes fun at modern pop culture.
I knew the movie was going to be right up my alley during the opening scene. A horny husband and wife make a move on their young “pool boy” to the strains of the 80s-inspired rock track “Maybe You’re Wrong” by PG-13. The couple’s dirty talk is hilarious, and the hubby is particularly unforgettable with his homo perv banter.
In true slasher fashion, this leads to the first kill sequence!
After a classic synth horror score serenades us during the opening credits, we meet our gaggle of girls…and they’re having a sleepover!
They’re visited by eccentric weirdos, like the neighbors and a cop, and tell gay urban legends while waiting for the pizza boy to arrive. Let’s just say that pizza boys greatly up the body count.
Despite discussing boyfriend woes and singing a Taylor Swift knock-off song about breakups (complete with harmonies), the girls can’t stop bringing up dick, so when boys show up at the party, the sex talk gets even raunchier (and dick is brought up even more). This filthy film manages to spoof the notion of exploitative sex and nudity in horror films as it flirts with slumber party nudity, man-on-man action, and lesbian action.
But fear not. There’s some seriously over-the-top obscene shit, from wiener whacking to one of the best cunnilingus kills ever, plus gore, violence, and body reveals galore.
And the victims’ reactions to their murders are comedy gold, particularly the performances by the two main guys in the film when they go under the knife.
There’s nothing like a nasty gross film that causes you to laugh out loud at the same time. The Slashening even delivers one of the best homages to Halloween I’ve ever seen.
The fact is, if Bassham set his mind to making a genuine slasher film, he would totally nail it, because the moments of horror sprinkled throughout this comedy are dead-on.
