Slaughter Tales

Slaughter Tales is Johnny Dickie's director debut feature film. It is hard to talk about the film without mentioning the directors age, who was a mere 14 years old during the making of the film. The best thing about this project is not necessarily the film itself but the fact that someone at such a young actually did what many think about doing. Make a feature film. That takes balls and dedication, especially with the small amount of money that was put into Slaughter Tales.

Slaughter Tales is a horror anthology that follows a young man who is viewing a stolen VHS tape for the first time. This VHS tape takes us on a journey through a few stories of the macabre. The journey kicks off with a few trailers (à la Grindhouse). This may be my favorite part of the film overall and I think it would be cool to see Dickie go back and turn these crazy ideas into shorts or features.

One of the main things that you will notice upon first viewing is that the setting is almost always the same. Another thing is that there are only a handful of people in the cast. This may become tiring to some but the few characters in the stories keep things interesting with their colorful language and facial expressions (see commentary for a hilarious conversation regarding this). Another thing that catches the eye is the use of stop motion. This technique isn't seen often these days in horror and it is very interesting and somewhat surprising to see it done by such a young director. Also seeing Dickie doing dangerous flame stunts in his house is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. This kid doesn't read the warnings about playing with lighters and matches!

Overall Slaughter Tales is not a very good film from a technical standpoint. That being said if you are a fan of no budget cheese the fun factor within this flick is undeniable. Being a huge sucker for anthologies and cheese myself I obviously had a soft spot for this one. Slaughter Tales is a fun time from start to finish. While it may not have the best effects, or dialogue and plot, it makes up for it's shortcomings and then some with it's charm. I can't necessarily recommend this for everyone, but if you like anthologies and can deal with heavy doses of cheese then Slaughter Tales is worth a look.