Director: Charles Martin Smith
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 104 minutes
Slaughterhouse Rulez (DVD) – Movie Review
When you throw Simon Pegg and Nick Frost together in a movie, you know the entire thing won’t take itself all too seriously. The duo already starred in big hits such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, but now it seems they have taken more to the background for Slaughterhouse Rulez. A movie about an elite school being swarmed by an evil that lurks below sounds pretty fun, especially when it’s a bunch of teenagers who have to fight for their lives while all the rest is being slaughtered.
The movie starts with a cringe-worthy advertisement video for the Slaughterhouse academy, which is supposedly the best high school for elitist children. For some reason, a spot opened and Don Wallace (Finn Cole) makes it in thanks to the help of his mother (Jo Hartly). While he is quite reluctant at first to join the somewhat snobby children of the school, he decides to give it a go. It’s clear from the start that the school is a rather odd place, as the upperclassmen are referred to as house ‘gods’, who can pretty much dictate what the freshmen have to do.
Sadly, the Slaughterhouse school hasn’t been faring all too well these past few years and now they’ve gained few extra funds by allowing a big gas company to extract the gas from the caverns underneath the school. This move has rallied protestors against the school, but still, the new headmaster, ‘The Bat’ (Michael Sheen), finds this a lucrative solution to the school’s problem. Again this doesn’t bode well for the school and its surroundings, as the company that is ‘fracking’ the gas is ignoring signs of movements in the caverns. Before everyone knows it a great evil is being unleashed on the school and its surroundings.
The flow is what you’d expect from a movie such as this, namely that things go at a fairly steady pace. You’ll have a proper introduction of the characters, making sure you know who’s who and who the good and bad guys are. After a somewhat lengthy intro, shit hits the fan, and things start to go down. The movie has a decent division between information, a little character development, and action, making sure the entire experience isn’t all too dull, but if you have little to work with, there’s only so much one can do with the material they’re presented with.
We already mentioned that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will be a part of the movie, and they play their roles quite splendidly. That being said, it’s clear that both actors aren’t the leading roles in this horror-comedy as those roles are reserved for a cast of teenagers/young adults. Finn Cole will be the leading actor in this flick, supported by Asa Butterfield, Hermione Corfield, Isabelle Laughland and several others. While some get more time in the limelight than others, the cast does a formidable job in making this somewhat low budget production into something decent and worth watching (once).
Sadly, there are no extra features to be found on the DVD edition of Slaughterhouse Rulez, which feels a bit like a missed opportunity. While the movie speaks for itself, it’s always nice to have a couple of deleted scenes, a gag reel, or just something more tangible about the creation of the film. As it stands now, you’re not getting your money’s worth for a full-priced physical release.
Conclusion
Slaughterhouse Rulez will certainly not be the highlight in your movie collection, but it does provide you with a fun evening. The movie never becomes anything more than fun, and a decent pastime, but it’s certainly worth picking up when found in a sales bin. You’ll get to watch a decent cast and a few witty scenes will certainly make you crack a smile now and then. A mediocre experience, but a passable one.
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