Monday, 1 July 2013

SWEATSHOP (2009) Review


Directed by: Stacy Davidson
Written by Stacy Davidson, Ted Geoghegan
Starring: Ashley Kay, Peyton Wetzel, Brent Himes, Melanie Donihoo, Krystal Freeman, Julin, Jeremy Sumrall,

I'm not sure why I hadn't checked SWEATSHOP out earlier. I think I may have seen a trailer and nothing really stood out so I just forgot about it. However this weekend I found myself sick and basically confined to my couch so I did the only thing I could think of. I watched an assload of movies. SWEATSHOP just happened to be lying around and since I wasn't in a position to be choosy I decided to watch. And I'm glad that I did.


SWEATSHOP takes the tried and tested slasher formula and add its own flavor to the mix. Let's see.
Group of sexually charged friends? Check.
Isolated location? Check.
Sex, drugs and alcohol? Check.
Pointless love triangles? Check.
But rather than taking the usual assortment of hunky douchebags and bimbo sexpots SWEATSHOP presents a cast of goth douchebags and goth sexpots. But no matter how much latex, fishnets and mascara these kids are wearing it still doesn't disguise the fact that they are all completely annoying bastards. Luckily for the audience most of them will meet a suitably gruesome demise, so at least that's something to hold on to. Oh and a couple of the girls get their tits out. Hooray!


A group of friends arrive at an abandoned warehouse to set up for one of those illegal, underground rave parties you used to hear about all the time on the news back in the 90s. You know, those parties where people spend their entire week's pay-check on acid and glow-sticks and go dance around to shit music? Yeah, those parties. But I digress. There's also some obvious tension between a few of these people due to relationship issues and that kind of stuff. Nothing that has any real impact on how the film plays out or makes you care about any of the characters.


To be honest the first half hour of SWEATSHOP is a bit of a slog as everybody goes about drinking, fucking, arguing and dancing, all the while complaining about how they need to get their shit together because they have so much crap to organize. Honestly I don't know how such a group of unorganized idiots could ever host a big rave party, but anyway. The good thing is that if you can stick it through this unnecessarily long and slow first act your reward will be well worth it. You know how I mentioned earlier that the warehouse was abandoned? Yeah well it's not. In fact it's inhabited by a huge masked monster known simply as 'The Beast' and his harem of gruesome ghoulettes. Turns out they're pissed off about their loud, obnoxious unwelcome guests but rather than calling in a noise complaint they're going to handle this personally.


And this is where the film really comes into its own. Sure the characters are just as annoying as ever but now at least we get to see them being ripped apart and pulverised by The Beast. His weapon of choice? A big fucking hammer. And when I say big I mean big. Imagine a huge pipe welded to a blacksmith's anvil, because that's exactly what it is. Limbs are ripped from torsos, fingers cut off, jaws are torn apart, heads are smashed, in fact it's kind of like that Cannibal Corpse song; Hammer Smashed Face - "Violently reshaping human facial tissue, brutality becomes my appetite, Violence is now a way of life, the sledge my tool of torture, as it pounds down on your forehead". That's pretty much what we get here. And it's awesome. And the practical effects are amazingly well done. I'm positive there's at least a little CGI as well but it must be that rare breed which enhances the gore rather than simply replacing it because it's really hard to tell.


SWEATSHOP is a perfect example of why sometimes a strong finish can be worth a lacklustre start. Like a lot of people I sometimes feel like just giving up when the first hour or even half hour goes by without much really happening, but sometimes it really is worth just sticking it out to the end. The acting is decent for what's on offer and the plot is your standard slasher fare but the kill scenes and buckets upon buckets of gore are what really shines here. And I don't mind saying that I'd like to see The Beast make another appearance.

No comments:

Post a Comment