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Review: Night of the Slasher

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I’m a sucker for a good slasher flick and it just happens that Night of the Slasher is one of the best in the film festival circuit right now. If you don’t believe me, look at the dozens of places its shown at and the awards it’s picked up along the way. Luckily, I was sent an online screener of this twelve minute flick and here’s my review!

Night of the Slasher is written, directed and produced by Shant Hamassian. Cast members include Lily Berlina, Adam Lesar, Scott Javore, David Swann and Eve Constance. Night of the Slasher is a revenge flick without any rape: Jenelle (Berlina) survived a previous encounter with a masked intruder and now she’s ready to get even. After committing all the sins that shouldn’t be done in a horror movie, she once again comes face to face with her attack and this time it’s personal.

I’ve seen a lot of people describe Night of the Slasher as a quasi-horror-comedy, but I just don’t see the correlation. Sure, this short film had three moments that may have made me chuckle, but I don’t think that constitutes any big leap into cross-genre-ing. Mostly, I think people should take away that Night of the Slasher is a masterclass in preparation and execution as it was rumored to have been taken all in one continuous shot. And if that’s true, that is remarkable and particularly historic because it looks absolutely flawless. Impeccable, masterful film-making for all of those involved.

Secondly, I’m happy to say that this short film actually feels like a slasher flick. From the opening butt shot, to the woman dancing in her underwear and all of classic horror movie pitfalls and cliches… I wouldn’t say it felt nostalgic, but it felt like a dying genre received a couple breathes of CPR with Night of the Slasher. It’ll show the new generation that hasn’t seen the classics yet what the love is all about and will hopefully inspire them to check out similar titles of yesteryear. Also, props to whoever made the decision to muck up a Spock mask to use as the killer’s disguise, seeing how that was a direct reference to Michael Myers being a Kirk mask in Halloween. I see what you did there and it was appreciated! Oh, and props to Shant for writing in the way that Jenelle traps the killer at the end! Loved the ingenuity there!

My only criticism is that Jenelle’s neck scar looked too much like a prosthetic at some points and not like a real wound. Seeing how that is my only complaint, I can safely rate this an 8.5 out of 10!

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Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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