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Overall Rating : 7/10
Directed By : Edward Gorsuch
Ashley Rebecca Hawkins
April Gilbert
Bill Jacobson
Tom Nagel (Dracula's Curse)
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jun. 21, 2006
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| PLOT terror begins for six college students who've just been involved in a horrible car accident. Stranded, the friends seek help at an isolated farmhouse - only to discover a horrifying family secret that they will wish remained as a skeleton in the closet. |
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| THE REVIEW With the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE prequel just around the corner, TCM like films are just bound to pop up, but surprise, this film is not distributed by The Asylum. This time from Lionsgate comes THE BUTCHER, a film that this die hard TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE fan welcomes with open arms... In regular Horror movie fashion, a group of teens, all packed in their van, are heading out on a trip to Vegas for the weekend. You know this was coming....but one of them complains about the planned route being so long and slow, another passenger than happens to say that he knows a shorter way. They then take the shorter way suggested, but as suspected, it won't be that easy, they happen to later run over what looks to have been a piece of wood wrapped in razor wire, after being run off the road by a dirty wrecker truck, I bet many of you are thinking this is where the fun starts, but surprisingly it's not - the teens fix the problem and are steadily back on their way. But it is not until one of the female passengers loses a bet and flashes everyone while sticking her head out of the sunroof that the mayhem begins.. The group are suddenly cut off road again by that same truck and what looks to be a bruised and beaten little girl who runs in front of them, and at this time the girl whom lost the bet also loses her life as she in cut in half by a tree. The worried and frightened teens are shocked and don't know what to do, searching for help, they stumble upon a "ranch house" Before they know it, they are trapped in a world of hurt - they have just stumbled on the Mayhew house, home of Franklin and family, a man who guts and mutilates his victims only salvaging their bones. Michael Hurst, this time obviously writing under a pseudonym (I guess?) has done it again. With somewhat moderate success with HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2, and a hugely impressive showing in ROOM 6 recently which he wrote and directed, Hurst seems to be on the up and up. Now diehard fans like myself of CHAINSAW series, usually get pissed when another film, draws inspiration and almost mimics the films that they love(there's one scene in particular in the film, in which a victim gets his leg caught in a bear trap and is nearly ran over by the wrecker truck - this is strikingly similar to a scene in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE : THE NEW GENERATION) but I for one, love them - I was one that did not hate the remake, although I do prefer the original over it. The premise of the butcher is very similar to the CHAINSAW films, earlier on we are made to believe, there is only one killer, but later meet Franklin's wife and daughter, who are well....just as crazy. We never really do know just why Franklin kills, and that's a good thing, because it leaves it up to the viewer to speculate, something that 1974's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE does so well. However, THE BUTCHER, does have a well written back-story, it seems as if the Mayhews have tried and tried to have the perfect child throughout their marriage, but seemingly every one of the children would have defects much like their father. This would cause Franklin to kill the fetuses and keep them in jars, and for what reason is unknown. The couple did have one little girl who is "almost" normal and they named her Angel, being that's what she is to them I guess. Some of the tension of the family lies in the protection of their Angel, and fear of losing her is what triggers the hell they unleash on the teens - THE BUTCHER is a really well written film. The atmosphere of the film as well, has a creepy score accompanying it, serves up a rather creepy and enjoyable story. In the film, there are a lot of actors which this is their first feature, and by these performances you wouldn't be able to tell, although not the greatest on occasions - the cast puts in a very decent job here. The only cast member that I recognize here, is one Tom Nagel. Nagel, usually a regular for The Asylum Home Entertainment, turns up here with probably the best performance I have seen yet of him. It really was refreshing to see him in a non Asylum role, i'm a big fan of his work. But to say this again, the cast worked very well together to create one hell of an entertaining movie. I always tend to enjoy a film with a great story, sure some of this story is not original, but it has just enough originality and a setting that was ideal enough to pull it off, in my opinion, this is the best indie slasher since DETOUR, and the best direct to video horror film Lionsgate has released in a long time. |
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| GORE
METER 5/10 This one is gory enough for me. I loved the half body decapitation, and there is enough blood splatter, just to make sure it doesn't stay too dry. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5.5/10 To me this score seems to be inspired by the TEXAS CHAINSAW remake, and hey if it works, use it! definitely creepy at times. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM It's not to often that you get a direct to DVD slasher film with this much of a plot or good story, there's not too much character development, but just enough to keep it coherent. I'd say that TCM fans who are open minded will love THE BUTCHER - highly recommended! This DVD will be released on July 11, 2006 |
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