Sunday 2 October 2016

Chewed Up VHS Part I

After listening to a lot of movie podcasts I've decided to have a little look at some documentaries that have passed me by in the last few years. A plethora of documentaries on VHS culture, horror movies, collectors, censorship, video nasties etc. have been released in the last 5 or so years. I've finally caught up with many of these titles and will do a mini review on a few that I've watched. Here's the first. 


Slice & Dice: The Slasher Film Forever (2012 Documentary)
Slice & Dice is hardly a revolutionary documentary. It's not particularly insightful or comprehensive about its subject matter. Even for the casual slasher fan there isn't anything particularly exciting or noteworthy to learn about the genre here. To combat the staid talking head formula they've framed each head inside a slasher motif ie. a cabin window or a rear view mirror. The most entertaining interviewee is Corey Feldman. I don't really know much about him or his role in slasher pictures, I think he appeared in one or two of the later sequels to Friday The 13th. He is entertaining despite or maybe because of coming across as someone who's been through some kind of trauma and/or addiction though.

The documentary makers go through a bunch of cliches such as the rules of surviving a slasher and how to be a final girl, like none of us had ever seen Scream. They didn't exactly enlist the sharpest of horror commentators for this film either, making analysis of the genre rather half arsed. Like a lot of the videos/films they are talking about here the best thing about this doc is the cover/poster (see above). I guess what kept me watching was the excellent slasher greatest hits clip show that runs throughout. Here's 75 minutes to pass the time or depending on how you look at it, waste it.

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