Back Slash is set on a college campus where aspiring filmmaker Ledo (Stephen J. Burge) is directing a horror film called 'Death Blood' which is a self confessed cross between The Blair Witch Project & a Jason film, however his star Brenda (Tara Platt) is brutally murdered by someone dressed as the films killer. Then another young female student named Debbie (Jill Uden) is also killed in the same way, with a slash across her back & her liver cut out. The only link between the victims is that they were both voted the 'hottest girl on campus' & appeared on a website, things don't look good for the two new hottest girl's on campus Martha (Gretchen Akers) & Amie (Laura Bruner) who are understandably worried. They decide to play detective & track the killer down & expose them before they become his next victim's...
Written, produced & directed by Kevin Campbell who also is credited with playing the killer this cheap no budget slasher flick really isn't anything to get excited about at all, in fact to be brutally honest it's pretty bad all round. The script doesn't takes itself too seriously & is a straight rip-off of any low budget horror teen slasher film you care to mention, the identity of the killer comes as no real surprise & the motives are poor to say the least. However Back Slash surprisingly has some amusing dialogue which if it were part of a better film, delivered by better actor's could have made for a fun slasher unfortunately it isn't, it wasn't & thus it ain't. The character's aren't as annoying as I expected but since they are stuck in such a poor film it matters little, there's also plenty of Scream (1996) styled self referential nods towards the horror film genre in general with the entire story based around the making of a horror film & one amusing moment when a character quips 'The Blair Witch Project was a piece of sh*t yet made 165 million because people thought it was real' although one line of dialogue is hardly enough to recommend a film. Otherwise it's clichéd teen slasher stuff all the way, the killer is inconsistent as he kills girls with a slash to the back & then removes their liver to start with but then totally abandons that method for no reason, there are some awkward & obvious red herrings (you know people really do keep freshly decapitated deer heads in boxes in their basements don't they?), stupid plot holes (would a girl punching someone around the face once really put them in a coma?!) & people don't call the police when they should, I mean wouldn't that CD with the killers voice on it be of interest to the investigating police? It's a touch on the slow side too, the whole internet angle is poorly handled & amounts to nothing in the end & there are just much better teen slashers out there for anyone to be wasting either their time or money on Black Slash & it's as simple & straight forward as that.
Director Campbell was obviously working on a low budget but as I've said many times before & no doubt will many many times more a low budget is no excuse for such a crappy film & I'm not going to forgive both technical & conceptual incompetence purely because of a low budget. It's not scary in the slightest & there are too many annoyingly predictable instances where your supposed to think the killer is on screen yet it turns out to be the actor from the Death Blood film & vice versa where it's supposed to be the actor but it is in fact the killer. There's not much gore, the same liver removing effect is shown a few times, there's a severed penis & a bit of blood but little else to get excited about. There is however a fair amount of female nudity going on if that's your thing. Another low budget horror seemingly shot on a camcorder rather than proper film this looks grubby & cheap as well, I suspect the camcorder was even high definition either.
Technically the film is rough & has low production values, I wonder if QuickTime gave the makers permission to use their Windows media player? Shot in Denver in Colorado. The acting is poor by everyone, the actor's look nice enough but obviously can't act & that spoils what could have been some amusing dialogue.
Back Slash is a poor teen slasher & there's no other way I can describe it, the murders are poor, the gore is poor, the acting is poor, the photography is poor &, well you get the message. One to avoid I'm afraid.
Written, produced & directed by Kevin Campbell who also is credited with playing the killer this cheap no budget slasher flick really isn't anything to get excited about at all, in fact to be brutally honest it's pretty bad all round. The script doesn't takes itself too seriously & is a straight rip-off of any low budget horror teen slasher film you care to mention, the identity of the killer comes as no real surprise & the motives are poor to say the least. However Back Slash surprisingly has some amusing dialogue which if it were part of a better film, delivered by better actor's could have made for a fun slasher unfortunately it isn't, it wasn't & thus it ain't. The character's aren't as annoying as I expected but since they are stuck in such a poor film it matters little, there's also plenty of Scream (1996) styled self referential nods towards the horror film genre in general with the entire story based around the making of a horror film & one amusing moment when a character quips 'The Blair Witch Project was a piece of sh*t yet made 165 million because people thought it was real' although one line of dialogue is hardly enough to recommend a film. Otherwise it's clichéd teen slasher stuff all the way, the killer is inconsistent as he kills girls with a slash to the back & then removes their liver to start with but then totally abandons that method for no reason, there are some awkward & obvious red herrings (you know people really do keep freshly decapitated deer heads in boxes in their basements don't they?), stupid plot holes (would a girl punching someone around the face once really put them in a coma?!) & people don't call the police when they should, I mean wouldn't that CD with the killers voice on it be of interest to the investigating police? It's a touch on the slow side too, the whole internet angle is poorly handled & amounts to nothing in the end & there are just much better teen slashers out there for anyone to be wasting either their time or money on Black Slash & it's as simple & straight forward as that.
Director Campbell was obviously working on a low budget but as I've said many times before & no doubt will many many times more a low budget is no excuse for such a crappy film & I'm not going to forgive both technical & conceptual incompetence purely because of a low budget. It's not scary in the slightest & there are too many annoyingly predictable instances where your supposed to think the killer is on screen yet it turns out to be the actor from the Death Blood film & vice versa where it's supposed to be the actor but it is in fact the killer. There's not much gore, the same liver removing effect is shown a few times, there's a severed penis & a bit of blood but little else to get excited about. There is however a fair amount of female nudity going on if that's your thing. Another low budget horror seemingly shot on a camcorder rather than proper film this looks grubby & cheap as well, I suspect the camcorder was even high definition either.
Technically the film is rough & has low production values, I wonder if QuickTime gave the makers permission to use their Windows media player? Shot in Denver in Colorado. The acting is poor by everyone, the actor's look nice enough but obviously can't act & that spoils what could have been some amusing dialogue.
Back Slash is a poor teen slasher & there's no other way I can describe it, the murders are poor, the gore is poor, the acting is poor, the photography is poor &, well you get the message. One to avoid I'm afraid.
