Slaughterhouse (1987)


Slaughterhouse is one of many low budget horror films made in the 1980s by a writer/director who managed to scrape the money together to make one film and then never did anything again.  In the case of Rick Roessler it appears it wasn't for lack of trying as he did intend for Slaughterhouse to have a sequel, and I'm sure it made money.  It just never happened.

This is one of the many slashers that fell between the cracks.  In this case a big part of the problem is that this film is about five years too late to cash in on the genre.  It also feels like something that is older than it appears, as if the movie had sat on a shelf since the early 1980s.  It also has too much in common with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, using many of the same set design choices of animal bones as decoration outside the slaughterhouse of the title as well as an opening line claiming that the events are based on a true story.  Slaughterhouse is also more comedic than the normal slasher and seems aware of how the genre is wearing out its welcome.

Lester Bacon (Don Barrett) is the owner of an old slaughterhouse that has been shut down for a number of years.  He lives on the property with his son Buddy (Joe B. Barton), a large mentally handicapped boy who communicates in pig noises.  He has refused a number of offers from Tom Sanford (Bill Brinsfeld), a slaughterhouse owner who wants to buy Bacon's land, which is facing foreclosure by the county.  Though his lawyer Harold Murdock (Lee Robinson) has encouraged him to sell, he won't, and after discovering that Buddy has a penchant for killing he decides to take care of Sanford, Murdock and local Sheriff Borden (William Houck).

Meanwhile, a group of teenagers, including the sheriff's daughter Liz (Sherry Leigh) and her boyfriend Skip (Erich Schwarz), decide to hang around the slaughterhouse.  During a stormy night Skip and his friend Buzz (Jeff Grossi) dare Liz and her friend Annie (Jane Higginson) to spend an hour in the old building.  Unfortunately, Buddy is on a tear, and he's not just going to stop at his father's enemies.  

The thing that surprised me about Slaughterhouse was, as formulaic as the movie is, it's still a fun watch.  Joe B. Barton makes an excellent killer while Don Barrett overacts just enough to make the humor work but not enough to where he gets annoying.  The younger actors playing the teenagers are okay, if a bit exuberant at times, but never to the point where I was hoping Buddy would just get to killing them.  As usual there are a few slow parts, but it's not as bad as many of the second and third-tier films of this type.  Roessler at least keeps the pacing up so the audience doesn't get bored.

The main problems are some of the characters constantly making stupid decisions that pretty much guarantee they are getting slaughtered, as well as the issue of the teleporting killer who seems to be places he shouldn't be, either due to poor editing or someone just not paying attention to continuity or making the passage of time apparent.  This film is straightforward, not a weird surreal experience like some low budget films, so how Buddy can be back at the slaughterhouse in what seems like seconds after killing someone a few miles away gets questionable, especially when it comes to the final scenes of the film. 

Despite the problems this is still one the better movies pulled out of obscurity in recent years.  It deserves a bit more attention as Roessler seems to have cared enough to put something worth seeing on the screen even if it isn't anything that redefines the genre at all.  Despite his ultra-low budget he did a good job, got some decent performances and made a memorable film.  Few others can say that. 

Slaughterhouse (1987)
Time: 85 minutes
Starring: Erich Schwartz, Sherry Leigh, Joe B. Barton, Don Barrett 
Director: Rick Roessler

 

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