THE SLAYER – The Blu Review

Review by Roger Carpenter

My guess is that all true movie lovers have a list of films which remain unavailable on a decent DVD or Blu-Ray release and for which they are waiting for some company to pick up and give it a nice release.  This was true for me regarding The Slayer.  I first saw the film in the early-to-mid-eighties on a VHS double-bill with Fred Olen Ray’s Scalps.  Both films were pretty terrible quality but both were fun in their own way and I duped both and kept them for a long time.  Scalps has long since been on DVD (and recently Blu-Ray), and I have long owned a copy of that film which I still pull out from time to time and watch again.  But my dupe of The Slayer died decades ago and I hadn’t viewed the film in a long time…really, too long.  Along comes Arrow Video USA.  They have been thrilling and pleasing me for several years now, what with their official Blu-Ray releases of some genuinely hard-to-find gems such as Brian Yuzna’s Society, the little-known but oft-bootlegged Blood Rage, the nearly-impossible-to-find The Mutilator, the first legitimate North American release of Maestro Bava’s Caltiki, and many more.  It seems that every other month Arrow announces the release of another film on my “need to own” list.  And I haven’t been disappointed by any of these releases yet.

The Slayer was a low-budget quickie produced by first-time filmmakers in 1980 and picked up by an independent releasing company in 1982.  It saw a very spotty theatrical release before heading straight to video where it quickly became a popular video rental.  It was released at a time when Britain was going through its video nasty scare and was subsequently identified by that country as a video nasty, though it was never actually prosecuted for such.  And if these weren’t enough indignities for the film to suffer, it was apparently cut down (though not the gore) to fit onto a VHS tape along with Scalps, so the film has never really seen an uncut release.  And finally, the film was simply very dark and hard to watch simply because many scenes seemed to occur in pitch blackness.  I’ve since learned—thanks to the special features on this disc—the reason for this was because the distribution company never had the film color-corrected, instead, opting to release it before final processing.  So now, with a huge thanks to Arrow, we finally get to see The Slayer completely uncut and color-corrected, and what a difference this makes!

Summarily dismissed by critics as just another early-eighties cheapie slasher film, a new generation of horror film fans can now see the film for what it was intended.  The story revolves around Kay (Sarah Kendall), a painter who has lately been producing scary, surreal works of art that have taken a toll on her finances as well as her marriage.  The source of these paintings is a series of dreams that have haunted the young woman since she was a child and her kitten was found drowned in the bathroom.  While her adulthood has been fairly stable, the dreams have returned and seem to be increasing in frequency.  So, her doctor husband, along with her brother and his wife, have planned a week-long vacation on a secluded and totally uninhabited island.  The island is so far removed from civilization they have to rent a small aircraft to drop them on the beach and then hike inland to the sole remaining beach house in existence.  Kay is, of course, apprehensive of the trip as she recognizes the beach house and the island as locations she has painted from her dreams.  The others, typically, are dismissive of her worries and so off the foursome goes to be dropped onto this secluded island (actually Tybee Island, Georgia).

It doesn’t take long for Kay’s husband to disappear and for the others to separate so they can search for him.  Kay discovers his headless body hanging from the feet in an abandoned building near the beach house and is so distraught the other couple give her some sleeping pills.  Convinced the death was caused by something she dreamed, Kay tries hard to stay awake, even burning herself with a cigarette.  Eventually, however, the drugs overcome her will and she falls asleep, unleashing something terrible upon her brother and sister-in-law.

While there are some typical slasher-like tropes in The Slayer, I would disagree it should be lumped into that particular sub-genre.  While most critics simply saw the premise of four people being picked off by a mysterious killer as a typical slasher film story, there are many other characteristics that elevate this picture from being just another slasher film.  First, our four protagonists are all full-fledged adults.  They have real lives, real marital struggles, and real careers.  There are no horny teenagers to help equate sex and death, no silly characters for comic relief, no prototypical, virginal Final Girl.  And despite one very brief glimpse of profile nudity, sex isn’t mentioned in the film.  Second, the killer may—or may not—be real.  And it may—or may not—be human.  Lensed four full years before A Nightmare on Elm Street as well as Dreamscape, The Slayer is an early example of a film that introduced modern audiences to the idea of dreams that could bleed into reality (and no—I’m not counting Cronenberg’s The Brood here).  And, more than just a simple “dream it and it becomes reality” concept, the film remains open-ended allowing the viewer to determine whether Kay is unhinged and killing her friends or whether a monster is truly capable of being conjured simply by a dream.  The body count is also relatively low compared to other slasher films of the day, with only five deaths in 90 minutes.

This last statement may be the only criticism I’ve heard about The Slayer, and that is that some viewers think the movie is slow.  In fact, this idea is brought up numerous times by the filmmakers and others in the various extras on the disc.  It is true that, aside from one quick killing early in the film, the death scenes don’t occur until the second half of the film.  But The Slayer has tons of atmosphere which hearkens back to the “old dark house” films of the 1920’s that I find plenty entertaining in and of themselves.  There is a creepy guy that keeps appearing at odd times who is used as a red herring.  He isn’t truly necessary but does add to the overall eerie feel to the film.  But once Kay’s husband is offed, things pick up and the killings occur in more rapid succession:  death by boat oar; by fish hooks; by decapitation; by pitchfork.  Not the bloodiest I’ve seen, but gory enough to be placed on Britain’s Video Nasty list, a quality recommendation if ever there was one.

Ultimately, I find The Slayer to be a more violent version of an “old dark house” tale than a slasher film.  But however one defines the film, it is simply thrilling for it to be so readily available after nearly four decades in cinematic purgatory.  Arrow Video has seen fit to provide us the uncut version in a brand new 4K scan from the original negative, thus ensuring viewers are seeing the film in the best possible quality.  While there is still plenty of grain, as befits a low-budget quickie from the eighties, the quality is remarkable, allowing many fans the opportunity to really see the film for the first time.  Typical of Arrow, this Blu-Ray and standard DVD combo comes with plenty of extras to enlighten and entertain the ardent Slayer fan, including a nearly hour-long “making-of” documentary featuring many of the primary cast and crew members; a 13-minute featurette revisiting the original locations on Tybee Island; a ten-minute still gallery; and theatrical trailer.

But Arrow has included plenty of other fantastic extras, including an audio commentary with writer/director J.S. Cardone, actress Carol Kottenbrook, and production executive Eric Weston.  A second commentary track is provided with the slasher podcast ensemble The Hysteria Continues, and a third track includes an informative and entertaining 45-minute interview with composer Robert Folk (perhaps most famous for his Police Academy scores) followed by isolated score selections.  And finally, a fourth track is included, which is a recording of the audience reaction at the Tybee Post Theater, the recently-restored movie theater that was used as an abandoned ruin in the actual film.  You can listen to the audience reaction as the film is played, along with an introduction by various people as well as a 17-minute post-screening Q&A with a crewmember from the original production.  And finally, with the initial pressing only, a collector’s booklet with new liner notes by writer Lee Gambin will also be included.

For those who were true believers back in the day—or for those who have never seen the film—this is a deluxe package for a hard-to-find film which is a true classic of independent horror cinema.  It’s worth every penny!  The Slayer has just been released and can be found through Amazon or directly through Arrow Video at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.