Slayers hits theaters, digital and on-demand on October 21, 2022.
Slayers is the latest addition to the “Influencing Horror” subgenre, which is growing rapidly due to horror’s ability to evolve with society. The more we obsess over digital borders and glowing screens, the more filmmakers will push their stories to expose the evils of social media popularity and zombie hunger for likes instead of brains. K. Asher Levin is co-writing a screenplay alongside Zack Imbrogno that revamps vampire mythology for the live-streaming era, complete with dub-step beats and gushing lines from Boomers like “YouTuber TikToker Cocksuckers!” It’s a fast-paced, younger generation-tuned horror flavor that fails bloodsucking tension by overdoing its Wi-Fi-connected commentary.
Elliot Jones (Thomas Jane) is a vampire hunter stalking one of America’s largest vampire syndicates. The “Stream Team” is a collective of online personalities who have just been invited by billionaires Steven (Adam Ambruso) and Beverly Rektor (Malin Akerman) to their compound. Professional gamer Z Flynn (Kara Hayward) and party girl Jules (Abigail Breslin) meet with the Rektors to discuss the opportunity of a lifetime – and that’s where the murder begins. goons waltzing straight into Steven and Beverly’s trap, which plays out like a video game as graphic overlays record every death.
The aggressiveness of Levin’s use of screen images like the death count, live commentary views, and a whole host of lightning-fast image flashes makes the film feel like a video YouTube – and not in a good way. Elliot’s status as a busy-bearded “vampire hunter” translates more to an old-fashioned grumpy narrator as he spends what feels like half the movie recounting conspiracy theories and background. history of vampires as strange B-roll montages rise to prominence. You learn how Joan of Arc was a killer and DB Cooper was a fanged villain, while Jane grunts through her Vampire Illuminati timelines that suck the air of live-action on screen. Every time Slayers finally approaches an element of violence or combat with the Stream team, Elliot’s narration rushes in and brings us to another lecture that, once again, seems made for a YouTube skit.
There’s nothing inherently awful about stylistic executions online – for example, I quite like filmmaker Joseph Kahn’s manipulation of graphics as an add-on to his films. Slayers falters because it’s a cover-up for lackluster storytelling as Elliot teams up with Flynn, who ditches Call of Duty tournaments for real crossbow kills. Maybe it’s because attention-grabbing talents like Abigail Breslin and Malin Akerman aren’t around for the long haul or because Slayers doesn’t have the budget to fulfill its “vampire science” aspirations. Instead of watching a character undergo a reverse blood transfusion, Slayers plays an impromptu instructional video with random public domain clips — stuff like that. It’s a fun gimmick if used sparingly, but the nature of the B-roll feels cheap and recycled, especially when implemented with such frequency.
That’s not to say Slayers is devoid of commentary. The idea of vampires preying on influencers to steal their global reach is brazen and smart, especially once the Rektors reveal their master plan. It’s more the way the sum of the footage is drowned out by soundtracks of obnoxious DJ air horns or the cheesiest dialogue imaginable for Elliot’s hardass elder. Levin attempts some kind of sleazy vaccine sub-plot pushed by the Rektors, but it’s disorganized to the point of being misinterpreted in the wrong light. Elliot’s arc as a vampire hunter – from fast-paced origin to climactic stalemate – feels so undercooked and rushed because the 90-minute film is a chaotic clip-show, wasting the few moments of gore and attack excitement that otherwise exists.
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