By Eric Polk-
I conclude my month-long(well a month and two days)devotion to slashers with a little movie featuring the Raimi Bros and Bruce Campbell in bit roles(Don't let the dvd box cover fool you. They had little to do with this movie). Nevertheless, this movie directed by Scott Spiegel is a nice slice of 80s cheeseball.
A local late night supermarket is shutting up and the night shift are starting to restock the shelves ready for the next day.Just as the store is about to close Craig (David Byrnes), the former boyfriend of cashier Jennifer appears and the two have an argument. Worried for her friend, Linda presses her panic button and calls for help. Co owner Bill appears and a fight ensues. Craig escapes onto the shop floor and the night crew set out to track him down whilst Jennifer calls the police. On discovering him there is another scuffle before they manage to eject Craig from the store, after which he disappears into the night.
While the night crew are gathered the owners announce they are selling the store and the staff will soon be out of a job. The staff are assigned the task of marking down all the stock in preparation for the close.
Craig makes telephone calls to the store, unnerving Jennifer. The police arrive but do little to help and just tell the group to be careful.
Linda finishes her shift and takes some shopping out to her car but is stabbed by an unseen attacker. Bill spots someone trying the back door and goes out to investigate. He finds Craig watching Jennifer through the bathroom window. Craig clubs Bill over the head with a hammer.
Back in the store an unseen assailant begins to stalk the workers and the storeowner and kills them one by one. The killer dismembers his victims, leaving body parts around the store.
Realising that everyone seems to have vanished, Jennifer goes to investigate and discovers bodies in the storerooms. Terrified, she is attacked by the killer but manages to escape back onto the shop floor. Hearing someone at the door she attempts to attract their attention but they have gone when she gets there.
Craig appears and grabs her but she stabs him with a meat hook. Craig slumps to the floor. Bill staggers in and says Craig had attacked him outside the store. He calls the police.
Jennifer notices that Bill's hands are covered in blood and realizes he is the killer. Bill tells her that he could not let his partner sell the store so he killed him, and then just got carried away killing the others. Bill attacks Jennifer and chases her around the store. Jennifer is locked inside the building. A delivery man appears outside. Jennifer tries to get his attention but he is killed by Bill who had slipped outside.
Bill reenters the building and stalks Jennifer again. Jennifer is grabbed by Craig who tells her he saw Bill killing Linda and climbed into the building through the bathroom window to save her. Bill appears and clubs Craig to the ground with a severed head whilst Jennifer flees.
Crawling out the bathroom window Jennifer attempts to escape in her car but finds the body of Linda in there. Bill grabs her legs and pulls Jennifer under the car but she stabs him with the knife she had pulled from Linda. Jennifer heads to a phone booth to call the police where Bill reappears again and starts to smash the booth to get at her. Tipping the phone booth over he has Jennifer trapped when Craig appears and hacks him with a meat cleaver.
Unlike most 80s slashers, the twist ending is actually quite good. Very surprising. If you can get through the first slow 30 mins, I think you will enjoy this flick. There is great gore, some neat black comedy and another thing that works in its favor is the use of some great POV shots that will they don't add much to movie, are great to look at.
1 comment:
I recently read the book "If Chins Could Kill" by Bruce Campbell and learned that this film was made by his producer/friend Scott Spiegel, I'm curious to see how it turned out. Those POV camara angles were probably a Raimi influence.
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