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Overall Rating : 5/10
Directed By : Kevin VanHook
Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers)
Jennifer O'Dell (The Lost World (TV) )
Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman (TV) )
Ray Park (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace)
Supplied By : Anchor Bay Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Nov. 10, 2006
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| PLOT Somewhere deep in the South American rain forest, an elite commando team led by lifelong friends Hawk and Grieves are attacked by a brutal superhuman force: A flesh-ripping, blood-guzzling clan that hunts in packs, strikes in daylight, and won’t stay dead. The U.S. military calls them ‘a tribal anomaly’, but are they actually a horrific race of pre-Incan vampires? Six months later, Hawk must return to the jungle on a deadly new mission, this time to rescue his tough-but- beautiful scientist ex-wife and destroy his best friend, who may now be leading a tactical assault squad of immortal bloodsuckers out of their caves and into our world. |
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| THE REVIEW In SLAYER Hawk and his group of commandos set off on a mission in the jungles of South America, during the assignment they are attacked by a unique breed of day-walking vampires that feed on human blood and flesh in order to grow stronger - during the fight with the man eaters Hawk and crew believed they had killed them all. 6 months later Hawk is informed by Colonel Weaver that his partner Grieves as well as ex wife Laurie are once again back in South America on assignment and that the vampire problem that arose before has grown far stronger and has got far worse. When Hawk goes back to the jungle to rescue both, he and his crew run into many problems, as far as having to do with the vampires - one of which being Grieves, who has been bitten has now become the proverbial leader of the flesh-eaters and are teaching them to work as an army as they come out of hiding to navigate amongst the real world... So, this film SLAYER is the second film I have reviewed by Kevin VanHook, and the third I have heard about, and all three have played on the Sci-Fi Channel. 8 times out of 10, when a film airs on the Sci-fi Channel before it's national DVD release it is likely to be really bad - such was the case of VanHook's last film VOODOO MOON. Despite wanting to like his last effort, I really couldn't find very much memorable about VOODOO MOON, and hoped for the best when it came to his next outing. Well SLAYER happens to be that outing and even if it is a little better than VOODOO MOON, it still suffers from many of the flaws which plagued the previous. Here we have a story about a young commando sent back to South America after being attacked 6 months prior by a unique breed of vampires who are back for more terrorizing within the remote villages in the area - the thing is that both Hawk's best friend Grieves along with his ex-wife Laurie are down there on separate assignments. The base premise of the film is clear and straight forward, but the problem lies in the rest of it - Grieves' nor Laurie's reasoning for being on assignment in South America is hardly ever explained, we know Grieve's is fighting of the vampires, but why exactly is Laurie there? - I still don't know... Well anyway, Hawk and his commando entourage are caught in the heat of many fast past battles in the film, some of the coordination in these scenes are somewhat laughable, therefore deeming them partly unbelievable - but when that said it is a big step ahead of the fight scenes in VOODOO MOON which I found boring, and why should action in a movie be boring in any case? What I was most happy not to see in SLAYER was the over abundance was the terribly cgi effects VanHook seems to love to use in his films, they are not all completely eliminated here however but at least there is a minimal use of them, which made this film a lot easier to watch in my opinion. The acting here is about average and at it's usual B-Movie fare. This time however VanHook as a few bigger names accompany him in his project, like Danny Trejo, Ray Part and the name that stood out to me the most, Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter - who's role as Colonel Jessica Weaver isn't very lengthy but it is still great to see her again, B-Movie or not. As you'd guess both Trejo and Park's role's are even lesser of importance than Carter's - and with Danny Trejo being, um...well, Danny Trejo, you have to wonder why he'd take such small roles. Casper Van Dien, is yet again back in another Military role in a low budget Horror Film in this flick(it seems as if that's all he's playing these days) Being someone who once starred in an A-list movie(STARSHIP TROOPERS) Van Dien has since stayed content in the B-Movie field and it would seem he is comfortable, here his performance is average do to the performances of others - but still better than his performance in SKELETON MAN. My favorite character in SLAYER would have to be the character of Grieves played by Kevin Grevioux. In the beginning Grieves is a commando on the side of Hawk, but once bitten be a vampire becomes the would-be leader of them - and with Grevioux's awesomely deeper than normal voice and towering stature, he made one hell of a force to be wreakened with. he just has a presence that demands dominance! I would say that Kevin VanHook's SLAYER is a big improvement over VOODOO MOON, at least that is the only one that I can speak on as I have still yet to see his other two films. This film, while enjoyable to an extent still lacks in the plot department - the plot is there, however only partially and thin - not easy to follow or solid enough, |
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| GORE
METER 5/10 The gore is decent and often dramatically exaggerated(the blood squirts out in streams) a lot of slit throats and torn flesh. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3.5/10 The typical soundtrack that you would hear in a jungle themed Sci-Fi flick, nothing major happening here. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM As I said, SLAYER is fairly enjoyable(at least to me) but definitely not the best film of this type I have seen. SLAYER is a film that actually gets somewhat enjoyable as it progresses after initially being just another "Sci-Fi Channel film". To this one I say try it, you might end up liking it, if even just a little bit... This DVD will released on November 21, 2006 |
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