Slaughter Night (aka SL8N8 aka Slauchtnacht/DTS/Tartan/Dutch)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C+
The story
is familiar. A bunch of bored teens play
with a Ouija board and Tarot Cards for fun, but this quickly goes bad as demons
arrive, friends turn to killer zombies and they may all die. This has been the plot of many dumb U.S.
Horror/Slasher flicks, but co-directors Frank Van Geloven and Edwin Visser give
it a slightly different twist by default with Slaughter Night (aka SL8N8/2006)
since the teens are Dutch.
That is
the only thing that makes this fresh, since we have seen everything else
before. It reminds us of how bad and
badly teens in the U.S. are portrayed in Horror and other commercial fare since
the 1980s in particular and is a key pointy lacking in most such films
since: teens that are real and that you
care about. This becomes like the anti-Final Destination, which can never be a
bad thing. That is the sole reasons to
see it and anyone making such films should take note.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is somewhat stylized, but not as badly
as its U.S. equivalents, making it more watchable. However, detail, depth and even some color is
an issue with this transfer and it could look better. We believe cinematographer Jan Vrints’ intent
was a bit better than this. The DTS 5.1
and Dolby Digital 5.1 are not great, with limits in soundfield and fullness,
showing the likely low-budget origins of the film. The combination is not bad, helped by Dutch
locations and a not-bad score by Habbo Beem.
Extras are few and include amusing outtakes, original trailer and making
of featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
