Slaxx’s surface level concept, possessed jeans that kill, is not a new fresh idea. We’ve had killer hair through a possessed weave (Bad Hair), a killer tire (Rubber), we can’t forget Christine the killer car, and Maximum Overdrive were everyday machines start turning on humans. Not to mention, all the possessed doll movies out there.
Nothing outrageously new. However, Slaxx manages to pull off a fresh campy, bloody, exaggerated satire. And highly exaggerated at that. The characters are shallow and cruel, apathetic and self-centered, all except for the main character, Libby (Romane Denis). And she's inconsequential, buried by all the colorful characters, until later in the film. There are many jabs at consumerism, controlling and fake store managers, online influencers, corporate evils and hypocrites, child labor, and horrific co-workers. Slaxx discusses a lot in between the bloody kill scenes without drawing too much away from the focal point of the movie.
All of that is given to the viewer so excessively to drive home the parody, all while inserting really bloody scenes for dramatic horror effect. There’s even witticism in some of the kills performed by the possessed jeans.
So, the story goes…
Libby is a new employee at the popular upstart clothing store, Canadian Cotton Clothiers, aka CCC. The story picks up with her first day of employment, which is where we get introduced to the aforementioned egocentric co-workers and manager. The store is closing for the day and about to go into complete lockdown. All hands are on deck to reset the store so a new flagship “Super Shaper” pair of jeans can be revealed for their Monday Madness event the following day.
Lockdown means all the employees are literally locked in the store for the entire night, so they can prepare the store for the next day. The only time the doors are unlocked is for online influencer superstar, Peyton Jules, to be allowed into the store. Played by Erica Anderson, her over-extravagant character plans to highlight the upcoming release of the SS jeans on her online show. Being locked in like sardines is the perfect set-up for a murderous vengeful pair of jeans to have free reign with its victims.
Craig (Brett Donahue), the store manager, will do anything to make his store succeed, only driven by his future advancement and the limelight within the company. Full of company slogans, and rote automated responses when challenged by an employee’s personal stance, Craig deliberately ignores the bodies that begin to pile up, and their fatal situation, until it is too late.
There’s Shruti (Sehar Bhojani), the long-time journeyman employee who doesn’t truly fit in with any of the other egocentric employees. Her Indian heritage comes into play as the story progresses and they discover more about why the killer jeans are brutally murdering the store employees. There are many other colorful, but unlikeable, characters in the movie, which adds flavor to the overall spoofing of the film, and not to forget...body count.
Slaxx does a great job in achieving its sarcastic witticism through the characters and their actions. The employees speak to each other over earpieces even though they are standing a few feet from each other. The inspirational speech that the CCC owner makes is one that would be performed for a group of a hundred-plus people, even though there are less than twenty in attendance. It also seems like the type of speech that would NOT be used for a clothing retail store but a motivational TED talk. Another example of the humor is when confronted with one of his worker’s dead body, Craig’s response is to stash the body in a rolling cart under a tarp, stating to Libby that “we take care of our own here at CCC.”
The atmosphere and cinematography of Slaxx were really enjoyable and aptly captured a clothing outlet (and its employees) that is trendy and pretentious. The kills were ferocious and with plenty of blood and gore to fulfill that aspect. I thought the scenes were colorful and enjoyable to watch.
I will say, the movie is ridiculous. And, people who are tired of deep social and economic issues being portrayed in their horror movies may not like this movie. I’ve seen a lot of gripes about that recently with Slaxx, as well as others. And someone who gets annoyed by the farfetched over-the-top characters may be too distracted by that facet to enjoy Slaxx.
However, I laughed through the entire movie as the humor hit home with me. I thought the creators of Slaxx were successful with their goal to create a goofy bloodstained mockery. It wasn’t scary or really even suspenseful, but I don’t think that was the intention.
I do recommend Slaxx for a quick laugh, if anything, to see the outtakes at the end of the movie.
Slaxx
Released: 3/18/2021
Rating: TV-MA
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Running Time: 1 hour 17 minutes
Director: Elza Kephart (Go in the Wilderness, Graveyard Alive)
Writer: Elza Kephart (Go in the Wilderness, Graveyard Alive) & Patricia Gomez (Graveyard Alive)
Stars:
Romane Denis as Libby (True North series, Slut in a Good Way)
Brett Donahue as Craig (Bad Blood series, Private Eyes series)
Sehar Bhojani as Shruti (Sex and Ethnicity series, The Handmaid’s Tale series – very brief role)
Erica Anderson as Peyton Jules (Killer Prom, Clarice series, Little Death)
IMDB Rating: 5.3 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 35%
Metascore: 64 out of 100
Streamable on these Apps with subscription at time of Blog Post: Shudder, DirecTV, AMC+
Rentable on these Apps at time of Blog Post: N/A
Slaxx Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBUwi9eXtXM
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