I have toyed with the idea of renting this obscure "Video Nasty" from my local DVD shop for years but only now – that I have watched Nucleus Films' exemplary VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP AND VIDEOTAPE (2010) documentary and have been going through a handful of them for this ongoing "Halloween Challenge" – have I finally bit the bullet and went for it. Unfortunately, THE SLAYER turned out to be one of those titles in that much-discussed list which does not deserve its inclusion, being far too slowly-paced to compel one's full attention and, ultimately, far too tame to satisfy the gorehounds' tastebuds. Sure, there is a bizarre beheading (sort of), a beating-to-death with a paddle (to a completely peripheral character!), a human 'hooked-up' like a fish, a flare being shot into a man that subsequently catches on fire and an impalement-by-pitchfork but, for the most part, the four lead characters spend the time talking in circles (about the artistic female protagonist's current frame-of-mind) or wandering around the abandoned island they are ostensibly vacationing on looking for one another!
Apart from a few welcome humorous touches present during its earlier stages, the best part of the film is decidedly the concept – originated in the classic sci-fi piece FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) and clearly picked up and improved upon by Wes Craven for the original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) and the consequent "Freddy Krueger" franchise – of a murderous being from the id, created by the lead character in her dream-state, eventually materializing in the real world to violently dispose of her unbelieving friends. However, the film-makers end up fumbling that asset as well because, not only is the talon-sporting titular character hardly seen at all, but when he does appear in close-up towards the end, his merely skeletal visage leaves one underwhelmed. To add insult to injury, the film leaves off with one of those stupid cop-out endings where it is revealed that all the events that had gone on before were only the nightmare suffered by the leading lady who, in this case, even goes all the way back to her childhood trauma of receiving a black cat as a gift WTF?!
Apart from a few welcome humorous touches present during its earlier stages, the best part of the film is decidedly the concept – originated in the classic sci-fi piece FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) and clearly picked up and improved upon by Wes Craven for the original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) and the consequent "Freddy Krueger" franchise – of a murderous being from the id, created by the lead character in her dream-state, eventually materializing in the real world to violently dispose of her unbelieving friends. However, the film-makers end up fumbling that asset as well because, not only is the talon-sporting titular character hardly seen at all, but when he does appear in close-up towards the end, his merely skeletal visage leaves one underwhelmed. To add insult to injury, the film leaves off with one of those stupid cop-out endings where it is revealed that all the events that had gone on before were only the nightmare suffered by the leading lady who, in this case, even goes all the way back to her childhood trauma of receiving a black cat as a gift WTF?!