THE LONDON FILM REVIEW

                                                                           by David Ollerton

                                                                  16th June 2014                   

 

The Slayers - Portrait of a Dismembered Family by Alex Poray is an ultra low-budget British horror film with an intriguing premise.  Posing as a documentary in which "Patrick Slayer" is being interviewed over his claims that his family are a group of cannibalistic serial killers, we quickly learn that  The Slayer Family made national press headlines when Patrick, son of The RT. HON Stanley Slayer claimed his father killed a young woman during a satanic ritual - whilst Patrick was forced to film the murder.

 

Patrick's father, however, claims that his son is delusional, despite the fact that Patrick has a video which he claims shows the murder of their first victim.  Stanley says Patrick wanted to make a horror movie, and so with help from family, friends and bucket loads of fake blood - according to Stanley -  they did.  Despite The Slayers making national headlines when Patrick made his allegations, no charges were brought to bear for the simple reason that there was no evidence of the crime - nor a record of a woman called Anna disappearing.

 

In an amusing real life twist which mirrors the theme of the film, Alex and his film crew were mistaken for actually kidnapping someone whilst shooting their film.  Whilst in reality the difference between fact and fiction was quickly cleared up by the police, in The Slayers things are not so cut and dried.  It doesn't help that Patrick clearly grew up on a steady diet of EC Horror comics and played in a heavy metal band.    

 

The first half of  the film involves interviews with the monotone voiced, pig mask wearing Patrick who is convinced that his family are going to kill him, whilst on the other side, his father Stanley insists on discovering his son's whereabouts via the documentary crew, who have signed a confidentiality agreement.  The second half of the film displays the horror movie/evidence of the murder (depending on who you believe), becoming an English riff on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with the family stalking, capturing and tormenting their first victim (who Patrick claims was the first of many) - with the caveat that documentary makers have no way of knowing if the footage is real or fake.

 

The Slayers is a disturbing film that horror fans may well get a kick out of, and all credit must go to Alex Poray for doing so much with such a small budget.  The use of various grainy filters, black and white shots - and Patrick's creepy monotone voice - all create a distorted and grotesque feeling to the film, whilst the script, especially in its early stages, makes a stab at celebrity culture satire and some black humour before moving onto the main course (so to speak); the home video which Patrick claims shows the kidnapping and torture of the Slayer family's first victim.

 

So - an intriguing premise.  As a horror film, The Slayers managed to disturb and unsettle me far more than most studio "horror" movies manage to, though I should add that I'm not an aficionado of the genre.  Personally I felt the script lost its way around halfway through, choosing to focus on its Texas Chainsaw Massacre pastiche rather than building on the initial basic premise and  the conflict between Patrick and his father, which was where (for me) the real intrigue and story lay.  By the time the more gruesome elements of the movie are served up, the question of whether The Slayers - Portrait of a Dismembered Family is a dish you feel comfortable consuming will depend entirely on your personal genre leanings.

 

Overall, I've seen a lot worse done with much higher budgets, and although The Slayers wasn't quite to my taste (ok - that's at least the third cannibalism gag, I'm done) it may well gain an appreciative audience on the horror circuit.  The Slayers: Portrait of a Dismembered Family has been submitted to various festivals around the UK.

 

Footnote: I've refrained from putting a star rating on The Slayers - Portrait of a Dismembered family (and this isn't the first time I've done so) for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, horror is a highly subjective genre, and - secondly - so are star ratings (the latter of which are incidentally a continued bane of my existence).  As a result I've held off adding a star rating as I suspect genre aficionados will enjoy The Slayers: Portrait of a Dismembered family on its own terms.