It’s a trio of slasher subgenres, but did they deliver on the kills?
PRETTY BOY (2021)
This is a sequel to the home invasion flick Blind, which was about a masked psycho stalking a blind actress. This is quite an odd way to extend the story, starting off as a holiday slasher, then eventually segueing into a psycho family flick. Either way, it earns a spot on the holiday horror page.
It begins on Valentine’s Day, and I assume it’s supposed to be the same night as the first movie. However, I don’t remember Blind taking place on Valentine’s Day. This one is set at an 80s themed Valentine’s Day house party being thrown by a gay guy, and while there’s plenty of VD decor and red lighting, there’s not much in the way of romance. There’s also nothing to signify that this is an 80s themed party beyond a character mentioning that it is. And while the title Pretty Boy sounds really gay, the gay host is the only gay aspect of the movie, so this one goes right to the does the gay guy die? page.
There is, however, some sexual content, including a weird scene in which a hot, straight dude is handcuffed and blindfolded and thinks his woman is licking him when it’s actually a prank—the gay guy is the one licking him. A totally unnecessary moment and kind of makes the gay guy seem predatory.
The blindfolded dude does eventually have sex with a woman, and it’s a pretty funny moment before it gets to the penetration…with a machete, that is.
Meanwhile, for no apparent reason, the killer carries the blind woman he captured in the first movie into this house. He starts hacking up party guests with a variety of weapons, but I have no idea where he’s scoring all these different weapons. Regardless, the kills are bloody and awesome and use practical effects, so I was satisfied enough with the first half of the film.
However, once the killer takes down all the party guests, we end up at the house of his parents, played by horror queen Maria Olsen and Robert Rusler of Vamp and Elm Street 2, officially making his house more 80s themed than the gay guy’s house.
Things really slow down as both parents get longwinded monologues and we finally find out why this masked dude stalked and abducted the blind actress. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before and leaves us with a very anticlimactic climax.
REVENGE OF THE BOOGEYMAN (2025)
Sounds like a sequel, but it’s not. It is, however, a basic slasher that adds nothing fresh in terms of plot but does have grisly kills, a monstrous boogeyman killer, and some understated humor.
It starts off with a strong kill and then awesome opening credit fonts that are sooooo reminiscent of the 80s.
A two-timing dude goes to a cabin in the woods and bangs a girl while waiting for a bunch of friends to arrive. They’re having a supportive gathering for a friend who is freshly out of rehab.
This is where things get questionable. At first it seems like there’s a boogeyman killer that makes creepy, throaty groaning sounds as he gruesomely kills victims, but eventually it begins to seem as if the addict guy might be hallucinating or dreaming all the kills. There’s nothing more to the plot than that, and we don’t find out until the final act what the situation really is.
Watch it for the kills, the killer, a take on the That ‘70s Show pot smoking circle shtick, and a raunchy, hetero sex scene that starts off funny but ends up going on for an oddly long time. This dude has so much control that he lasted through the commercial break of the rental on Prime, and then kept going in a different position.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE MASSACRE? (2025)
This one is trying to be both clever and humorous in its approach to a slasher, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark in either case.
The title says it all—this is supposed to be about what happens after the slashing is done. In this case, two dudes come to a campground as the cleanup crew, but instead of getting an answer to what might actually happen after a slasher ends, we get what is basically a sequel that takes place immediately following a slasher we didn’t get to see. You know…like many slasher sequels over the decades.
It’s literally just a summer camp slasher about what happens to the next set of people that come for the second summer camp session of the season, although it looks more like winter than summer considering there are no leaves on the trees.
We do have the two main guys cleaning up some hints of the previous massacre, but this mostly features quirky characters getting killed off by “Red Face” before we have a chance to know much about them.
The killer mask is cool, there are nods to a few plot points from Friday the 13th installments, there’s killer mask eye hole POV at one point, the kills are basic with no chase scenes, the humor is lacking, and the climactic twist is short and uneventful.
