Following Melanie Lynskey's impressive debut in Peter Jackson's highly acclaimed Heavenly Creatures (alongside a young Kate Winslet), I expected fame and fortune to come easily for the talented actress; A-list status, however, has eluded her thus far—not at all surprising with cheap-looking shot-on-video stuff like Serial Slayer on her CV.
Melanie plays Lauren, one of a trio of work-mates who rather stupidly decides to hold a slumber party, despite a serial killer preying on young women in the area. Before the sun has even set, the three girls are terrorised by the crossbow-wielding maniac and must use their guile to try and escape.
Director Mark Tapio Kines clearly intended this film to be a work of suspense, rather than the trashy slasher that the title suggests, and instead of going down the obvious exploitative route, he attempts to make his film a tense, character driven piece that relies more on dialogue than T&A and gore. Big mistake! With a script than consists primarily of banal conversation between the young women, the film is more likely to bore than scare. Kines does handle some of the later moments of tension well, and the ending cranks up the excitement level a notch or two, suggesting that he knows how to handle certain types of scene better than others, but the majority of this film is a snooze-fest thanks to his poorly realised lofty pretensions.
Things would have been much better if there had been more action throughout, or better yet, if Kines had just relented, got Lynskey and friends down to their undies for a pillow fight (Mel's carrying a few extra pounds here, but she's still cute), and then had them graphically gutted one-by-one by the maniac.
Melanie plays Lauren, one of a trio of work-mates who rather stupidly decides to hold a slumber party, despite a serial killer preying on young women in the area. Before the sun has even set, the three girls are terrorised by the crossbow-wielding maniac and must use their guile to try and escape.
Director Mark Tapio Kines clearly intended this film to be a work of suspense, rather than the trashy slasher that the title suggests, and instead of going down the obvious exploitative route, he attempts to make his film a tense, character driven piece that relies more on dialogue than T&A and gore. Big mistake! With a script than consists primarily of banal conversation between the young women, the film is more likely to bore than scare. Kines does handle some of the later moments of tension well, and the ending cranks up the excitement level a notch or two, suggesting that he knows how to handle certain types of scene better than others, but the majority of this film is a snooze-fest thanks to his poorly realised lofty pretensions.
Things would have been much better if there had been more action throughout, or better yet, if Kines had just relented, got Lynskey and friends down to their undies for a pillow fight (Mel's carrying a few extra pounds here, but she's still cute), and then had them graphically gutted one-by-one by the maniac.