L.A. Slasher (2015)
Staci Layne Wilson
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Starring Brooke Hogan, Misha Barton, Dave Bautista, Elizabeth Morris, Andy Dick, Danny Trejo, Elizabeth Morris, Drake Bell, Barbara Nedeljakova, Carlee Baker, Eric Roberts, Abigail Wright
Directed by Martin Owen
Colorful pop art meets the gritty stab-n-slab genre in the new tongue-in-cheek indie horror film L.A. Slasher, written and directed by Martin Owen. Filmed entirely on location in its namesake, the flick is a biting satire on our shallow, celebrity-worshiping, social media-engulfed existence. Folks who are famous for being famous (or just wanting to be famous) are the easy targets of a vigilante who uses the screen-handle LA_Slasher.
Dressed all in white to show his desire for a return to more innocent times, the Slasher nonetheless gets stained with the very thing he hates: the need to be noticed. He sends out status updates and short Vine-like videos showing the grisly fates of his most contemptible captives – The Socialite, The Reality Star, The Teen Mom, The Stripper, The Scream Queen, The Actress, The Pop Star, etc.
Pretty soon, the Slasher has hundreds of thousands of followers and several news teams assigned to his sinister saga. When one of the more tenacious reporters (played by Abigail Wright) gets a little too close, she too falls prey to the Slasher’s spell. (Another reporter, a snarky, fast-talking gossip-monger played by William Nicol, is actually the most entertaining character in the whole movie!)
Barely bloody, L.A. Slasher is more about the satire than the slayings. With an all B-star cast — Brooke Hogan, Misha Barton, Dave Bautista, Elizabeth Morris, Andy Dick, Danny Trejo, Elizabeth Morris, Drake Bell, Barbara Nedeljakova, Carlee Baker, and Eric Roberts to name a few – it’s just a fun romp through the City of (not-so-angelic) Angels. Cleverly crafted, with scads of cool cyber-visuals and a snappy 80s homage soundtrack, L.A. Slasher is never boring, in spite of its somewhat drawn-out climax.
My only complaint about the film, and it’s minor, is that I didn’t feel the Slasher needed a voice at all. His motives were clear enough through his actions. At least the V.O. could have been different; Dick’s diction is tad whiny and is at odds with the calm, cool, and collected “Smooth Criminal” demeanor of the Slasher.
The visuals are what clinch L.A. Slasher for me – it’s shot like a new wave MTV music video but is juxtaposed with ultra-modern, cutting edge graphics and techniques. It’s exploitation with edge.
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Film
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