So, I had never heard of The Slayer, and it's typically a bad sign when I have never heard anything about an '80s horror movie.
The movie is trying to play in two different subgenres, and fails at both. The story is simple enough: two couples - Kay, David, and Kay's brother, Eric, and his wife, Brooke - go to an old house on a deserted island, murders happen. A slasher movie? Well, sort of. Throughout the movie, it is set up that Kay has prophetic dreams or at least thinks she does. A supernatural horror? Kind of.
The movie is trying very hard to get us to believe Kay has some type of link to the location. She seems to know information, but it's all very vague. We have a very small cast, aside from our couples we only have two other people on the island. The first one is a random guy just hanging out on the beach - pretty obvious slasher move to pad the body count with some nobody - he is killed with an oar, in a way that we do not get even a slight hint as to who swung it. The next person to die is David; similarly, we do not see who or what kills him. David is third, and he's killed by a fishing pole, while is the first clear indication we are dealing with something supernatural. Last is Brooke - who gets the only good death scene - she is taken out by a pitchfork, but is it being held by someone?Since Kay is our only survivor, I thought it was pretty clear that the "slayer" was going to be a manifestation of her subconscious, basically an evil dream twin. We do get one final, misdirect kill - the pilot who took them to the island shows up... out of nowhere... but Kay stabs him. Then, finally, we get to see the "slayer," and it's... a cheesy monster. Are you kidding? Actually, yeah. I mean, we see a monster, but only for a second. You see, it was all a dream. Turns out the movie we suffered through was a bad dream little Kay was having about her possible adult future. The it-was-all-a-dream twist may be the laziest end for any movie. I hate it.
The Slayer doesn't have much to offer: the characters are unlikeable - especially the men, unholy Hell, I know this was the early '80s, but these guys were complete dicks. The music didn't fit half the time. It had a low body count. The ending was a huge letdown.
Kay was the only aspect of the movie I liked. I really felt for her as she began to unravel at the end.
It makes sense why I never heard about this film, and it deserves to be forgotten... like a bad dream.
There's not much here that'll make any horror fan want to stick it out other than a decent atmospheric horror descent into semi-madness.
No on-screen kills and a main actress that's got about as much range as a cabbage dont exactly help this flick.
Shout by Carlos Fernando IbarraBlockedParent2017-10-15T14:33:49Z
Fairly cheesy, but cool little lost slasher flick from the 80s. It's atmospheric and has some cool kills. It would've been nice to see the monster more though...