The slasher movie has long been in decline. In its ‘80s heyday, slasher films were a dime-a-dozen, with new titles popping up almost every week, with a diverse range of quality. For every classic there were a dozen duds. As a result, apart from the odd remake, sequel or occasional attempt at a new franchise, we don’t see many anymore.
But GirlHouse is recreating those gravy train moments once more.
Set in the eponymous house, which is also an online porn site where members can request that the girls do anything in front of the cameras that stands within reason – and there are cameras everywhere – a new girl, Kylie (Ali Cobrin), joins and immediately the viewers take a liking to her. One member, Loverboy (Slaine), in particular takes a fancy to her. Only problem is that Loverboy has serious girl issues stemming from when he was a child and does not deal well with rejection or being belittled.
Although the house is in a secret location and has the best security that money can buy, Loverboy has some very handy IT skills and manages to work out where both the house and control centres are. After being made to feel small, he decides to don a psycho killer costume, that just so happens to hang in his basement, and kill everyone involved in the website and house as brutally as he can. Only an amorous friend of Kylie’s in the real world can hope to find the house and stop the massacre before it’s too late.
There are some slightly uncomfortable moments of voyeurism that make you wonder if you should be watching this, but the gratuitous nudity is kept to a minimum and the kills are impressively nasty. Let’s just say that Loverboy is in no way subtle when it comes to dispatching his victims, male and female. Interestingly, the girls aren’t bitchy towards each other as you’d probably expect them to be, and so apart from the token drug addict you actually feel a bit sad as each one gets picked off.
If you have fond memories of the titillating and gore laden ‘80s slasher films, of which this is a pretty good homage, then you should find something to entertain you here.
INFO: GIRLHOUSE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JON KNAUTZ, TREVOR MATTHEWS / SCREENPLAY: NICK GORDON / STARRING: ALI COBRIN, ADAM DIMARCO, SLAINE, ALYSON BATH / RELEASE DATE: JULY 20TH
