Another Hole in the Head Film Festival Coverage
Movie Theater Massacre review.
An old school slasher that targets the biggest death of all…movie theaters. Movie Theater Massacre has a lot to say.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Movie Theater Massacre
Directed by Ian Courtney
Written by Ian Courtney
Starring Jalen Wilson-Nelem, Adam DeFilippi, Caitlin Cavannaugh, LeJon Woods, Jessie Carl, Mike Lemieux and Linnea Quigley
Movie Theater Massacre Review
Movie Theater Massacre isn’t much of a slasher movie. Wait…come back. That wasn’t the end of the review…nor was it the summation of one. The masked killer and his exploits don’t seem removed from the plot of the movie…but not the point. Despite its trappings as a low budget slasher…Movie Theater Massacre has something else on its mind. In fact, it’s consumed by it. While the things you expect from a slasher movie technically exist in the film…the story is about a different sort of danger. The death of the movie theater industry.
The movie goes surprisingly far in keeping to its message. Characters in the story don’t even know there is a slasher movie going on around them. They notice someone hasn’t shown up for work…but no one cares. The theater is closing, after all. Who can blame a disgruntled employee for ghosting the final days? Its more than a lack of concern…it’s a complete lack of awareness. Until the film’s final moments…none of the surviving characters even perceive they’re in danger. At least…not from a masked killer. The danger that consumes them is the same asconsumes Movie Theater Massacre itself.
We’ll try to ignore that there are far too many employees working at this theater. Let’s just leave it at…when your staff outnumbers the customers there is a decent reason you are going out of business. It’s a one screen theater staffed to the hilt for a weekday matinee. Especially when they’re screening old movies anyway. What did they think was going to happen? Anyone who has worked at an independent theater will find the number of employees on hand hilarious. I guess we failed at ignoring it. We haven’t seen an overstaffed business like this since Fang’s shoulder to shoulder warehouse structure.
Of course, that isn’t important to the story. What matters is that the theater is closing in a week. The marquee on the building counts down the days for us. The lack of customers allows the throng of employees to spend their days discussing the state of the movie theater business. It’s so heavy early in the movie that it can border on listening to someone recite their thesis paper. Not that the opinions are wrong…just that it’s strange to hear separate characters all share the same voice. Normally the sign of a bad script…but here it has its purpose.
The most entertaining thing about Movie Theater Massacre is how aloof the staff is to the serial killer subplot. They toil away having deep conversations about cinema…blissfully unaware that murders are even happening. There aren’t that many deaths here. When you consider the army of employees…far less than you’d expect. The story is more interested in the mundane day to day of theater work than painting the walls red with blood.
That monotony is broken up in surprising, non-masked killer, ways. A robbery happens near the end of the week. The manager knows who is robbing her and isn’t all that affected by it. There is an independent movie being shot after hours. We pause for a séance when the audio equipment picks up strange noises. The medium says they’re connected to a fire in the theater long ago. It’s the closest the staff gets to a death warning…though they shrug that off as well. A collection of strange ideas is thrown together. The film’s characters brush then all off. It’s enough to make one question why anything happens in Movie Theater Massacre.
The slasher plot is treated like any of these random things. The only difference being that no one knows it’s happening. That is…until the end of the movie. Movie Theater Massacre likes to comment on things without actively doing anything about them. Even the resolution of the killer subplot doesn’t come at the hands of anyone we’ve been following. A strange combination of disparate ideas converges into a climax that could make your eyes roll into the back of your head if you didn’t consider the purpose. Movie Theater Massacre has one final comment to make.
With a story was about the death of movie theaters…the story opts for the only plausible positive resolution available. Not…literally, mind you. Literally the resolution is purposely absurd on multiple levels. But metaphorically…if you’ve sat back for too long ignoring the danger…Movie Theater Massacre knows there’s only one way to save things. It happens here just in the nick of time. For many independent theaters the countdown on the marquee already hit zero.
Scare Value
Movie Theater Massacre is a metaphor for the state of cinemas. Danger is all around but the common person remains blissfully unaware of it. The movie posits its own solution for how to save the theater going experience. It ends up choosing a hopeful take…as long as you can ignore the bodies piling up in the meantime.
