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Slaxx
Canada 2020
produced by Patricia Gomez, Anne-Marie Gélinas, Shaked Berenson (executive) for EMA Films, Téléfilm Canada, Entertainment Squad
directed by Elza Kephart
starring Romane Denis, Brett Donahue, Sehar Bhojani, Kenny Wong, Tianna Nori, Erica Anderson, Stephen Bogaert, Jonathan Emond, Jessica B. Hill, Pritha Mazumdar, Hanneke Talbot, Amanda Chiu, Elizabeth Neale, Aris Tyros
written by Patricia Gomez, Elza Kephart, music by Delphine Measroch, special effects by Blood Brothers FX, visual effects by Alchemy 24
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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It's Libby's (Romane Denis) first day at a store of the super exclusive
CCC fashion brand that's run by messiah-like Harold Landsgrove (Stephen
Bogaert), a posterboy of social and ecological responibility who even
likes to call his shops eco systems. For her first day, Libby has already
pulled an allnighter as the store is preparing for Monday Madness,
which also marks the unveiling of the Super Shaper, jeans that by
themselves adjust to the size of one's body. So it's going to be a busy
night, but Libby's too excited to care - and then she's asked by store
manager Craig (Brett Donahue) to look for two other store clerks (Jessica
B. Hill, Hanneke Talbot), who have gone missing on the job but must be
inside the building because it's under lockdown for the duration of the
preparations. Libby finds them - dead and brutally murdered, but when she
reports that to Craig, he persuades her to help him hide the bodies as
there's no way to communicate with the outside world anyways, they don't
want to create a panic, and of course a scandal would hurt the brand and
likely close down at least this store and cost Libby her job. What they
don't know of course is that one of the Super Shaper pants has come to
life and is currently wandering around the building killing people. Of
course, when Libby finds yet another body, she draws the line and insists
on getting word out - maybe with Peyton Jules (Erica Anderson), an
"influencer" who has been granted exclusive entry into the store
for one hour for publicity. Craig knocks Libby out to prevent just that -
while in the shop, Peyton is strangled by the killer pants in front of a
camera and the entire staff, and then the pants go berserk and kills the
everyone on the floor, safe for Shruti (Sehar Bhojani), an absent-minded
Indian store clerk who just loves to listen to Bollywood music on her
phone, and when the pants hear the music, they stop killing and break out
into dance ...
Eventually, Libby, Craig and Shruti all manage to bunker themselves in
inside Craig's office, and try to communicate with the pants - and they
find out they're possessed by the soul of a 13 year old Indian girl
(Pritha Mazumdar) who got killed working on the cotton fields falling into
the machine processing cotton. Now that all throws the company's policy of
social ecological responsibility into doubt of course, and Libby and
Shruti promise the pants to expose this to put the pants at peace - but
Craig has other ideas, locks Libby and Shruti into a warehouse of pants
just waiting to be awoken like the killer pants, and asks for the evidence
they have in return for their freedom - and suddenly our heroines find
themselves in a horrible situation. But has Craig really thought his plan
through?
Of course, the mere premise of Slaxx is pretty
outrageous and also slightly ridiculous - but very much in the tradition
of horror satires from the 1980s like The
Stuff or the Czech Ferat
Vampire, this movie mixes its rather wild concept withbiting
commentary on hyper-consumerism and the companies profiting from it. And
it's true, Slaxx is a bit blunter in delivering its message than
above movies, to the point where it's spelled out, but it sure has fun
spinning its yarn, and the fun is 100% infectuous to its audience, making
this one very entertaining flick.
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