“Have you ever played Monopoly? It's a board game designed to teach kids capitalism. And what happens in the end? The winner has all the money, and everyone else has nothing. Woohoo! So much fun! That's literally how America works. That's why there are a few super rich people who own almost everything, and tens of millions of dirt poor people who have nothing.”
-Oliver Markus Malloy
Its strange to me that i have never seen a movie with a "social media influencer" that's realistic. i look forward to the day when movies can have those kind of characters without cranking them up to 11.
A possessed pair of jeans is brought to life to punish the unscrupulous practices of a trendy clothing company. Shipped to the company's flagship store, Slaxx proceeds to wreak carnage on staff locked in overnight to set up the new collection.
this movie reminds me of a watchable WILLY'S WONDERLAND. The characters are simple, the scenes between kills are fairly lack luster, but this movie has a few stand out actors that elevates this movie. I'm long past my high school acting days, but i would kill a man to play Brett Donahue's aspiring regional manager Craig. Every second this man is on screen he is endlessly entertaining, and watching him go all Jack Torrance tiger mom as the movie goes on makes this worth watching by itself. Erica Anderson is also wonderfully obnoxious as Payton the influencer, to the point where I'm both glad she died and sad she wont be in the movie anymore. nobody in the cast gives a bad performance, but the rest of the cast are really just here to pad the body count.
The jeans themselves are fascinating in every aspect. This movie was nominated for a DEADMEAT HORROR AWARD for VFX, and its not hard to see why. every single kill in this movie is practical perfection, and the cartoonish levels of blood perfectly match this movies tone. this movie has practical effects galore to show the sentient pants, and the CG is so well done its hard to tell where they used it all. it reminds me of the way MONSTER HOUSE makes the house feel like a angered animal, and the way this movie films its SLAXXs gives them facial features that make things perfectly unsettling.
a premise like this one gives you two options. either you can explain what makes the jeans sentient ala WILLYS WONDERLAND, Or you can simply never explain it at all ALA Christine. When i started watching this movie i hoped the would leave everything ambiguous, but i was surprised at how much i enjoyed this movies explanation.
i would have never watched this movie if DEADMEAT hadn't brought it to my attention, and I'm glad i gave it a shot.
8/10
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