Slasher (2007) User Reviews

A taut, psychological thriller with clever, unpredictable twists (just kidding).

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 15 December 2018]

German independent horror Slasher is as uninspired as its title: a group of twenty-somethings drive to the countryside for a few days of fun and are systematically killed by a hulking maniac in a mask (wielding a chainsaw, natch!). This total dearth of originality mightn't be so bad if it wasn't for the lack of decent scares and virtually no explicit gore (something that I have come to expect from low-budget German horror movies).

Fortunately, director Frank W. Montag is well aware of the importance of gratuitous female nudity in the genre and sees fit to fill his film with attractive women who are only too willing to strip in the name of art; the frequent T&A helps, but even with lots of skin on display, the film is extremely tough going at times.

After much screaming and aimless running through woods pursued by the killer, the final girl successfully fights back in true slasher fashion, after which Montag throws in a twist that I completely failed to understand; then again, I was really struggling to stay awake by this time and may have missed something that might have helped it make sense.

2.5 out of 10, rounded up to 3 for tasty blonde Maja Makowski as feisty mädchen Maya, who gobbles a guy's bratwurst while he is driving, strips off for some topless swimming, and has sex in a tent (cowgirl and doggy style).

it start okay but...

[DarkMessias · 4/10 · 6 April 2008]

well it start as a typical Slasher Movie, Teenager, Sex, Drugs, a Killer... This could be a good trashy Horror Movie but the second half destroys a lot. There was at first the "more than 24 Hours hunt" in a wood that seems very small cause the Killer every time founds Erin after she ran hours in another way than he. But more than this the Plottwist was crap, well intentioned but crap.

!!!!!Spoiler!!!!!!!!!!

derrie357 was wrong when he say "Next morning - HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD - turns out that she was a killer in some subplot that I didn't really catch, or really care for.... but it turns out that she killed four people and they had to be five... and Danni should be the fifth. She kills him in the ambulance and leaves. Now what I don't get is if she wanted to kill him why save him in the first place????"

Erin killed 4 Girlfriends cause they don't fit with the perfect Life that she want.At last she entice a man into the house and try to kill him and make it looks like he was the killer. But he survived, he was the masked killer who hunt her and he was her 5th victim. She talks to herself this story and her friend awake an here it, that was the reason that she finally killed him.

Well there a 3 Points why this Twist isn't good for the Movie:

1. It has and creates a lot of Plot Holes, If the killer was a typical Psycho it makes sense but when he kills cause he want revenge why he kills the couples at the beginning or Erins Friends? The Policer say the attack makes him Psycho but that makes all more worry. And why the police found no Traces that Erin killed the Girls? And she has left traces, when she killed her friend you coul see thaht she isn't very professional. She remove his breathmask and suffocate him with a towel, she removed his bandage an put her fingers in his wound, he try to defend that make a little bit of Noise, two policers are DIRECTLY outside the ambulance and the backdoor was open but nobody hears anything. The Nurse closed the door after Erin left, but she don't see his mask was removed, she don't se his badage was removed and im shure nobody will search any Fingerprints. This Reminds me of American Psycho 2

2. A plot twist need some Scenes they will, after you see the twist, make a complete new sense. Like on The sixth sense, Bruce Willes meets his wife in the restaurant, she want talk to him and it seems there are problems in there relationship. After the twist you know she didn't see him cause he was Dead. This Scenes completely turn around a story and you see the film with other eyes. But in Slasher there are no points like this, only the header a little bit but not enough. Tey make the opposite and make the whole Character of Erin so there is no allotion that she was Psycho. It makes no difference in the main Part of the movie if you know the twist or not, the Twist was like a Foreign in the movie.

3. This is the most important Point: It degrade the Killer. The most important Point in all Slasher or Terrormovies is the killer. Michael, Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, Jigsaw. In all there movies they are the "Stars" They must be over styled, seems like Invincible and not to stop. But the Twist turned Erin as the true Evil. The Problem is, so the they put the Spotlight away from the Killer, turn him a little bit to the victim and set it on Erin but she was the most Time, screaming and hunted, not hunting. So they ruined both Killers and has no "Superkiller", no "Star" that stay in the mind of the Viewers.

!!!!!!!!!Spoiler End!!!!!!!

Slashing and bashing

[kosmasp · 3/10 · 3 June 2020]

This is way low budget - non actors trying their best to enrich the movie. You can't really blame them. They seem nice enough, even if they can't really act. But the movie itself is to blame overall. Not so much so nice ideas the script had, but the cinematography, the framing, the directing. A chase scenes through the woods is only merely saved by the music.

One of the few better things about the movie. The end twist will either annoy you or you'll find it amusing. Whatever the case, the movie is not really a good one. But I also have seen worse. Still so many movies to watch, why pick this? That I can't answer - unless you are so into Slasher movies (even the "self aware" ones like this, with little redeeming factors) ... that you just have to

decent German slasher

[trashgang · 5/10 · 11 November 2010]

There is so much negativity about this German flick. Many see it as a bad rip off of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's not that if you use a chainsaw or a mask that it becomes a TCM duplicate. But I must say that when the killer runs through the woods with his chainsaw the use of lights indeed reminded me of TCM. That said, was it so bad as they say. Yes and no. There are some real mistakes in editing and color grading. You can easily see that different takes were used in editing without looking towards the colors. Another example is when a victims face is squirted full of blood, next shot her face is covered with some spots of the red stuff. But it is an independent flick and Frank W Montag's first flick so I forgive him but shame on Timo Rose, as a producer he should have seen those things. But the movie itself is a typical slasher story, campfires, sex, a lot of nudity, shaking butts and juggs, close ups of sexy females, wet T-shirts and a lot of blood but again, some wooden performances or cheap fight scene's were you can easily see that they don't hit tear this slasher down, but still worth watching.

The German Chainsaw Massacre??? THI Comment CONTAINS SPOILERS

[derirre357 · 1/10 · 16 February 2008]

THIS COMMENT CONTAINS SPOILERS !!!

This German slasher follows the standard slasher formula which shouldn't be a surprise from a movie called "Slasher"... It is hard to believe that this movie is so bad. It is actually ludicrous. Now I know that we can't expect that every German movie is gonna be a masterpiece like "Der Untergang", but this is the exact opposite. This makes "Feuer, Eis und Dosenbier" looks like "A beautiful mind". The acting from the principal cast is average... I've seen worse. The lead actress is at moments OK, but mostly from bad to worse. At the end of the movie I thought her big b-utt is her only redeeming quality. The supporting cast (which is basically three people with about 25 lines altogether) is overacting really bad. I won't comment on production values or effects because the budget obviously wasn't very big, so I give them credit for the execution, and there is a really good moment where SPOILERS !!!! the blond chick (Maya) is tied to a chair and the killer waves his chainsaw around... It has a very grindhouse/Hostel feel to it - unfortunately this is I guess the only good moment in the whole movie. There are goofs - like for example Maya gets out of the lake and puts her dress on - and she doesn't bother to put any underwear, when she is captured shortly after, however, she is wearing panties, but that is a minor complain compared to the real problem with this so called movie. The story, on the other hand is unforgivable. I have no idea what idiot came up with this: SPOILERS AHEAD !!!! - Erin (that's right - just like the Jessica Biel character from The Texas Cainsaw Massacre - and she is wearing a very similar outfit too) and Danny (her boyfriend) are trying to escape per car, but suddenly the killer appears on the road in front of them. Instead of running him over Erin stops. Then the engine dies. It turns out they are out of gas. Erin gets out of the car, pops the trunk and searches for a canister. Meanwhile the bad guy stands there, 20 feet away and waits. She finds out there is no extra gas, but that's OK because the bad guy (wielding a chainsaw) is out of gas too. He carries a canister with gas with him and proceeds to fill the tank of his chainsaw. Erin waits patiently till he is done and then starts to provoke him. He chases her, thus leaving her boyfriend alone (he got hit with an axe in the belly so he is sitting in the car, bleeding). Erin runs away and the killer stops chasing her and starts cutting some trees - not trees in his way, he just stops and turns around and starts cutting trees, like he is doing it for a living and some chick is really not worthy of his attention, despite the fact he was chasing her for.... I don't know how long - from the editing one couldn't really tell - could be 15 minutes, could be hours!!! Now this guy must have a grudge against trees cause he does this on a few more occasions. Then Erin hides under a tree stump and actually falls asleep there. This is at night. She wakes up and the sun is shining. After a minute or a few the killer appears and chases her again. After a few minutes of running time - must have been around 5 - it is night time again and she is still running. I will save You the rest of the chase and I cut to the end - so far we don't know what is going on with Danni - but hey, he appears and he is still able after a blow with an axe in the stomach (or lever or whatever)and more than at least 16-18 hours without any medical attention to hop around looking for his girlfriend. She helps him and carries him to safety. Next morning - HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD - turns out that she was a killer in some subplot that I didn't really catch, or really care for.... but it turns out that she killed four people and they had to be five... and Danni should be the fifth. She kills him in the ambulance and leaves. Now what I don't get is if she wanted to kill him why save him in the first place????? And trust me the whole thing looks a lot more stupid when You actually watch it. Save your money and time - the great German horror movie - this is not.

Trash until it hurts..... Unreasonable, poor and shallow movie.

[lokalhorst · 1/10 · 2 February 2008]

It starts out as a typical horror-film story with the death of two innocents. After that it starts an attempt to tell a story. This however fails completely.

An incomplete background story develops and it is tried throughout the film in various small cut scenes to tell it. This doesn't work out because important parts of the story are told at the wrong time and at speeds that you are unable to follow.

The illogical and ludicrous plot reaches its height when a one day long getaway takes part in under one minute and the main figure just crosses a way of 500 meters before it gets dark again. There is also the feeling that the director has had to implement a certain person as later in the production as one character seems to be merely squeezed in at two thirds of the movies time.

The actors play is shallow and poor and their actions are nearly almost unreasonable. A good example would be the bald 200 pound killer cutting away a tiny shrub to make way for him - but this shrub is the only one on the whole clearing.

The splatter effects and the locations are nice though.

Only bright spot in the movie are the various sex scenes with quite good looking actors, and if this would have been a pornographic production i would have needed to say: Great Actors, Good plot. But as a movie its sadly just a waste of time to watch this pathetic effort.

A Texas Chainsaw-a-like German slasher

[Gunnar_R_Ingibjargarson · 5/10 · 9 February 2019]

A bunch of kids goes to the country side to have fun and encounter a crazy mass murderers. It follow a familiar US slasher pattern. It's noot good, but it ain't bad either.

A solid slasher film with some major mis-steps in its finale

[Jim-D · 6/10 · 28 March 2008]

I saw SLASHER in Germany last year and, while competently filmed, it has major problems that will unfortunately pull you out of the film before you have a chance to have fun with it.

First, the positive: The cast is uniformly good, and all of them are amazingly attractive. There is ample nudity from foxy women, and there is no shortage of bloodshed. The locations are beautiful and nothing seems forced. A cameo from Timo Rose regular Thomas Kercmar is also great fun.

But, as the blood begins to flow, the problems arise: First, the blood is a wee bit too pink-ish, and there are too many deaths that don't take full advantage of the gore. An experienced German FX pro like Olaf Ittenbach could have made mediocre effects into something special - and that's what we want from a movie called "Slasher".

The final chase scene is staged very poorly, with day turning to night, and vice versa, within seconds. One can argue that the heroine was running for days, but it doesn't come across like that and just elicits laughs.

On top of that, the film tacks on a twist ending that makes absolutely NO sense. It doesn't leave you wanting to re-watch the movie and feels extremely awkward. It turns a fun slasher movie into a convoluted mess, leaving myself and everyone else in the crowd rubbing our heads in utter disbelief.

But if you can get past the let-down of a final act, the film is shot quite beautifully and tries to be true to its 80s roots. Had the film just continued on as a straightforward slasher film without any twists, it would have been fantastic. When will filmmakers realize that we don't always need a twist - and sometimes its okay to just have the emotionless killer be an emotionless killer? For German horror fans, I think this film is actually a step in the right direction. It brings much higher production value to the horror scene than films by Andreas Schnaas, Timo Rose, or Heiko Bender, but could take a cue from their straightforward gore (a tried and true method of success). For American fans, you might be put off by how "Hollywood" this seems, but its still worth a viewing - just to see what the German horror filmmakers are up to these days.

6 out of 10. Let's see what the makers of this film come up with next.