A serial killer is finding his victims on a dating website. The police are in a panic as they warn people not to meet on dating sites. Jack (Ben Kaplan) and Kristy (Morgan Carter) decide to do something a little different for their first date and head out for a weekend in a cabin in the woods. However, the family who runs the cabin are a little weird, especially Momma Myers (Jewel Shepard).
Slasher.com has got a B-movie vibe to it. It’s got an electronic soundtrack harking back to the slasher films of the ‘80s and has dialogue like ‘This is my daughter Caitlin, she has blue hair’ and ‘That’s a nice spoon.’ ‘Thanks, it’s been in my family for generations’, which can surely only be from a place of homage. That spoon gets in on a lot of the action, so much so that it should actually get a mention in the credits. The acting is a little wooden, including a stabbing in the leg that seems quickly forgotten about, and is in some cases very over the top but that does lend itself to the B-movie vibe. However, the film doesn’t throw itself enough into this B- movie homage and it isn’t funny enough, which means you never quite shake the feeling that it might just be accidentally ropey. It doesn’t really have an original idea in its head. We get a cabin in the woods, the city kids unused to the countryside, creepy country folk and a town of locals who know each other and stick together.
Slasher.com does have a problem with its form. Its opening scene doesn’t have a lot to do with the film for most of the running time. However, the opening act is enjoyable enough and this is where we get a lot of the B-movie fun. The second act gives way to uninspired basement captivity which isn’t interesting or original. Things pick up a bit in the third act as a twist, though one you probably saw coming, allows certain characters to let loose a little. It’s a shame that this didn’t kick in earlier because it’s a nice idea, though not a new one, but it is more interesting than what was happening in the second act and the film does get a lift of energy. It’s just not quite enough to change your mind at the late stage. However, Slasher.com is quite well filmed with some nice crane shots and helicopter or drone shots establishing setting which suggests that D.O.P Brian Maurer may go on to do some good things.
Slasher.com doesn’t have enough going on to really recommend it but you might enjoy the B-movie atmosphere and the hints that some of its crew are capable of more.
SLASHER.COM / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: CHIP GUBERA / SCREENPLAY: CHELSEA ANDES / STARRING: JEWEL SHEPARD, R.A. MIHAILOFF, BEN KAPLAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
