Director – Renaud Gauthier (Inspector Bronco)
Starring – Catherine Antaki, Francois Aubin (Starbuck), Sandrine Bisson (Daybreak)
Release Date – 2013
Rating – 4/5
Tagline – “He was made for loving you”
Slashers are one of the most influential sub-genre in the horror business. This sub-genre has spawned some of the most iconic legends. It is because of the slasher sub-genre that we have the great Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger. That is one of the main reasons slashers became so popular in the late 70s and early 80s. It took particularly nothing to make these films in comparison to others. All the you need is a relatively small budget (smaller in comparison to other films) and a decent slasher mask/gimmick and you were all set. These films flourished in the last 70s and early 80s only to slow down in pace until the mid 90s with the release of Scream and the self-aware slashers until the early 2000 when we saw the the rise in indie micro-budget slashers.
These indie micro-budget slashers tried to harness the look and feel of the slashers released in the slasher hayday but utilize modern trends to give us a killer that will stand the test of time. This did not happen every time but we did get some creative killers out of it. That brings me to the slasher-esque Canadian slasher Discopath. I knew this one would be different so I reached out to the fine folks at Black Fawn and they were kind enough to send me a review copy. Thanks guys!
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a fry cook who has a problem with disco. When he hears disco he has the sudden urge to kill. When a group of men bring a boombox into the restaurant he works at he zones out and the owner fires him. On his way home he meets a foxy little lady who has an eye for him. She invites him out to the disco and he agrees but once he arrives things turn bad and he drags her under the stage where he brutally kills her. He flees from the disco and immediately boards a plane to Canada. The police try to investigate but they have no leads.
We then jump forward and he is working in a Catholic school in Canada as a handy man. He pretends to be deaf and uses hearing aids to block out all sound. That is until one weekend night two girls decide to listen to music in their room on a very loud level. He is able to hear it over his hearing aids and he goes berserk. He breaks up a record and mutilates their bodies before beheading them and taking their heads back to his sadistic chamber where he kidnaps another lady to torture. The local news reports on the murders and the news coverage makes it’s way to New York where the police who covered the first murder see it. They travel to Canada and work with the local police to bring him in but he is not as easy to capture as they would have wished.**Spoiler Alert**
What I love about slashers is that they can go anyway they wish and offer us a unique spin on something we have already seen before. So many slashers have similar stories but with a different looking killer. However, Discopath mixes it up a bit and gives us a film with slasher elements and an extremely unique killer.
The acting in this one is great. The entire cast did an amazing job with their performance. Each character was cast perfectly and made their roles very memorable. With that being said, the star of the show is Jeremie Earp-Lavergne. His is a brilliant killer and makes the film so much fun. The story for this one is something old but with a very unique spin on it. The killer is not your typical killer but one with a personality. Instead of having a killer stalk unsuspecting girls we have a killer that is able to get close to them in one way or another similar to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. I also like the fact that the killer doesn’t needlessly kill for no reason. Instead we get a killer that is turned into a killer by those that he kills making it feel like they bring it on themselves.
Finally, this film has some very brutal kills and amazing special effects. The kills we get are very unique and extreme. I have never seen kills this relentless. The special effects are just as amazing and spectacular. This has the kind of kills and special effects that will give any gorehound a hard on. Overall, Discopath is an amazing piece of horror and cinema alike. This is a traditional slasher shot in non-traditional form. Fans of blood and gore should check it out!
