Director – Chris LaMartina (Witch’s Brew, WNUF Halloween Special)
Starring – Bennie Mack McCoy IV, Lizzy Denning (Swarm of the Snakehead), and Nicolette le Faye (The Chainsaw Sally Show Season 2, The Serpent’s Tongue)
Release Date – 2010
Rating – 3/5
Tagline(s) – “Hail to the Chief… or he’ll hack you to PIECES.” and “When they ran for student council… they didn’t know… they’d be running for their lives.
Slashers and holidays have always went hand in hand and will continue to do so. These flicks often bring bloody mayhem to days that are normally filled with joy and celebration. With most of the major holidays already taken filmmakers have to look to the more obscure holidays that most people tend to ignore. These holidays; Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduation day, and so many others still find their home in slasher films.
That brings me to the Chris LaMartina slasher flick President’s Day. I heard of this film shortly after I heard about LaMartina’s other flick, Witch’s Brew. The film looked fun so I had to order it. However, this is one of the many films I order and leave on my shelf still in the plastic. However, with President’s Day approaching I decided it was time to dust it off and give it a spin.
**Spoiler Alert**The film takes place at Lincoln High School where we meet the easy going Barry (McCoy). Barry is the kind of teenager that knows everything and gets along with everyone. The school is in a buzz as the students prepare themselves for the upcoming student elections. As everyone is gearing up for the elections, a few students turn up missing and a few more are found brutally murdered by someone sporting an Abe Lincoln costume.
The school security guard is being framed for the crimes but Barry knows he is innocent and begins his own investigation to uncover the truth. While Barry is searching for the real killer other murders pop up and the victims are those running for class president. Is it someone killing off the competition or is someone holding a serious grudge?**Spoiler Alert**
Holiday slashers will always be a staple of my collection and as long as filmmakers keep finding holidays fit to kill people on then I will continue to buy them. However, not all of them are worth my time nor my money. President’s Day falls somewhere right in between. The film had a lot of slasher elements but it was watered down with a who-dun-it storyline unlike the slashers I grew up watching. Sure, some slashers focused on the who-dun-it aspect but not many. That makes the story slighter weaker than most slashers. It does give the film depth and the twist ending was effective but the film has long periods of nothing going on making it hard to pay attention.
The acting in this film is actually very good and the entire cast did an amazing job. I would love to see more indie flicks with this caliber of talent. Finally, the film does show off some great special effects and amazing on screen kills. Though the kills were impressive they did not fit in with the theme of the film. So many holiday slashers use kills that fit in with the holiday and that is half the fun. Overall, President’s Day is your above average slasher that offers up some great talent and bloody kills. I recommend this one!
