Slotherhouse review.
Slotherhouse delivers something a bit different than you might expect. Or…maybe exactly what you expect. I don’t know what you think a movie about a killer sloth is going to do. What matters is if it does what it does well.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Slotherhouse
Directed by Matthew Goodhue
Written by Bradley Fowler and Cady Lanigan
Starring Lisa Ambalavanar, Stefan Kapicic, Olivia Rouyre, Sydney Craven, Tiff Stevenson, Tiana Uphcheva and Grace Patterson
Slotherhouse Review
When I first heard that there was a movie about a sloth slashing his way through a sorority house two thoughts crossed my mind. First…I wonder if they’re going to repeat slow moving kills over and over to see if it gets funnier each time. Second…I have to see this movie. I missed the mark on the first one…but I was right about the second. Slotherhouse chooses a different path than I expected. It commits to what it wants to do and inevitably wins you over. It’s also a shockingly detailed examination of sorority politics. But we’ll get to that.
Emily (Lisa Ambalavanar) wants to become President of her sorority. She adopts (read: abducts) an adorable sloth from a black-market dealer thinking it will improve her popularity. Well…she’s right…but it comes at great cost. This particular sloth (who Emily names Alpha) has a wide range of skills and a hankering for murder. While everyone is focused on the election…Alpha slashes its way through the unsuspecting sorority sisters.
Slotherhouse is, as you’d expect, extremely silly. It’s just not silly in the ways you might expect. I don’t know if subverted stupidity is the right way to put it…but that’s the phrase I had in my head as I watched Alpha’s increasingly ridiculous methods of murder. While I entered expecting slow rising claws and prolonged shots of screaming sorority sisters…Slotherhouse instead delivers the opposite. Alpha is as adept at murder as he is reading the internet and driving a car. It subverts the expected stupidity…instead offering up a progressively ridiculous stupidity of its own. I mean that in the best way possible.
The movie wisely puts its focus on the build up to the kills. It isn’t equipped to deliver gore effects on the level needed for them to be the point. Due to the adorably little monster wreaking havoc throughout the house…the build up is the worthier part anyway. It is increasingly funny to watch Alpha do things a sloth is incapable of doing…knowing that every move will lead to someone’s demise. It is never not funny to see Alpha setting up the next kill.
Outside of its perfect antagonist…Slotherhouse has a lot of things going for it. The acting is much better than you generally expect from this kind of production. It also has a great look to it. Despite the lack of bloody aftermath…it has a nice aesthetic befitting the stories setting. Which brings us to the most interesting aspect of Slotherhouse…
For much of the film’s run time…it isn’t so much a killer sloth movie as it is a sorority house movie that happens to have a killer sloth in it. The choice is fascinating and, when it finally morphs into the killer sloth story we expect, worthwhile. There is such a focus on the politics involved in the election of sorority President that the movie itself ushers Alpha’s killing spree to the background. At least, at first. There’s a telling montage somewhat early in the film that largely focuses on the two weeks leading up to the election. After several minutes showing the events Emily and rival Brianna (Sydney Craven) go through in their campaign…there are brief mentions of sorority sisters who have mysteriously disappeared.
We know what’s happened to them even if Slotherhouse isn’t yet interested in reveling in it. Eventually the story transitions to the killer sloth movie we want it to be. At the same time Alpha’s methods have become wilder and more entertaining. When the movie ramps up the murders…Alpha ramps up the style. The more absurd Alpha’s actions become…the better Slotherhouse is. Watching a furry arm enter the frame to drug someone’s drink…it’s impossible not to laugh. That’s the path the movie chooses. It’s a very effective and ultimately successful one.
The greatest achievement here is that Slotherhouse doesn’t overplay its hand. Instead of trying to deliver things it can’t pull off it commits to finding the most entertaining versions of what it can. Can’t do great kills or effects? Don’t waste time on them. The audience will be too busy laughing at the set-up to worry about the payoff anyway. By delivering increasing absurdity…those laughs come more and more frequently as Slotherhouse progresses. Considering the final product anything but a success dismisses the film’s intention and its effectiveness in achieving it.
The story leaves off in a place that could easily lead to further entries should someone desire them. After taking in Slotherhouse in a crowded theater that was largely in for the ride…I hope we see more of this brand of killer sloth movie. After all, someone involved has to be desperate to title a sequel Slotherhouse-Five…don’t they?
Scare Value
Slotherhouse accomplishes what should be the main goal of all independent horror films. Figure out what you can do and do the hell out of it. For Slotherhouse that means laying into the set-up of the gag…not the payoff. The adventures of Alpha get more ridiculous as the story progresses…and the reveal of the Killer Sloth and what it is capable of gets more entertaining along with it. This is a movie that doesn’t always move in the direction you expect it too. And it’s better for it.
3.5/5
I’m afraid I lost faith in the reviewer when he failed to grasp that Alpha was a girl sloth. A bloody mean girl at that. The point was baked into the plot.