Director/Writer: Rick Roessler
Starring: Joe B. Barton, Don Barrett, Sherry Leigh, Bill Brinsfield, Jason Collier, William Houck
Taglines: “Buddy Has An Axe To Grind. A Big Axe”
“You’ll never get out in one piece”
Slaughterhouse (1987) ** 1/2
By the mid-80s, the slasher craze had run its course. Jason had been resurrected so many times, the producers had decided to make him a zombie. Freddy was well on his slide from nightmarish bogeyman to moderately-scarred stand-up comedian. Michael Myers was AWOL, and there were depressingly few memorable characters to fill the gaps. In addition, the slasher genres was so repetitive and clichéd that it decided to laugh at itself rather than reinvent scary conventions.
One of the directors to realise this was Tobe Hooper. Although his original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was an extremely blackly humorous movie, many people missed that among the masterfully executed slaughter. He decided to make the humour (and gore) much more overt in his 1986 sequel. In what would be (in my opinion) his last watchable movie before 2005′s Toolbox Murders remake, Hooper returned to his characters with some fanfare, some good reviews, and made some new fans.
It’s not a stretch to assume that director Rick Roessler had this sequel in mind when he made 1987′s Slaughterhouse. I was surprised to see that this was his only directorial effort, as apart from some ropey acting and other low-budget pitfalls, it’s not a terrible movie and shows some promise.
The story is a little convoluted, but ultimately fairly simple. The owner of an old slaughterhouse has failed to keep up with the times and owes a lot of money to the government, thanks mainly to ignoring his colleagues’ advice to automate production. Now closed and run-down, the slaughterhouse is about to be repossessed. However, he has a small bargaining chip – his physically oppressive, mentally retarded son. A young couple chance across the few pigs left at the slaughterhouse, and the son responds to their taunting of the pigs by killing them. Initially shocked, the father decides that maybe allowing his son to kill off the lawyers and businessmen trying to evict him might be a good thing…
Slaughterhouse is essentially an acceptable mid-80s video rental. Clocking in at 85 minutes, it doesn’t really overstay its welcome, and the main villain (the son played by Joe B. Barton) is an interesting variation on Leatherface, a pig-grunting wrestler with a chain around his neck. The main problems are those associated with most mid-80s slashers. The story strays too often from the core conflict between the slaughterhouse owners and the would-be developers to a group of vapid teens planning on making a horror movie on the site. There’s a few musical montages that make the modern viewer roll his eyes, while the general predictability is a bit annoying at this late stage in the game, and the acting is generally pretty terrible.
However, I really can’t attack this movie. The direction and cinematography are highly competent for a low-budget movie of the era. There’s a decent amount of gore, a couple of effective if unremarkable murder scenes, and the movie’s never exactly boring. The black comedy in the climax is also pretty good.
Rating: 
