Slaughter Day” (1991) Film Review

By: Joseph Perry (Twitter - Uphill Both Ways Podcast)

Microbudget shot-on-video horror movie Slaughter Day may be one of the least professional slices of fright fare cinema you will ever see, but at the same time, it is an absolute blast for that very same reason. Shot and edited in 1991 on consumer grade equipment by twin brothers Brent and Blake Cousins — Brent directed from a screenplay by the pair, and both star — this was, in my estimation, made by a group of guys who saw the first two Evil Dead movies and thought, “Heck yeah, we can make our own version, and add in action sequences!”

Set in Hawaii — you will know this from the several times that the main vehicle’s license plate is deliberately shown —  Slaughter Day finds brothers Blake and Jonah (the Cousins brothers) battling dark forces of evil after they discover a fellow construction worker huffing from a gas mask and reading The Necronomicon (more on that later in my review). 

Yes, there is much to laugh at for reasons unintended, but there is plenty to marvel at, as well. The Cousins brothers — who have since worked together in various capacities such as the 2007 zombie outing Rising Dead and the 2021 documentary Who Saw the Men in Black — obviously threw caution to the wind when it came to stunts for this film, including a fight in the back of a pickup truck as it moves down the road, and a stunt involving a multiple-story drop — seemingly without any safety precautions — should an accident occur.

The gore and lo-fi special effects are rather imaginative, and they are certainly abundant. This is where many of the movie’s highlights occur, including a person being folded in half and pulled through floorboards. I don’t want to give any more examples away, as a good deal of the fun is watching such events unfold unexpectedly. Well, okay, one more: The Necronomicon book with which one of the characters becomes obsessed is not a grimoire bound in human skin or some other diabolical entity, but rather a much more easily attainable copy of H.R. Giger’s 1977 book of art of the same name.

Slaughter Day is no smooth ride. With Brent shouting “Go!” repeatedly and other directions such as “Get out of the picture!” and the actors following suit, it’s easy to see that this was a from-the-heart effort probably never meant for commercial release. But here it is, available in as good a form as it can get on Blu-ray. It was made in 1991, but is the world ready for it? Maybe not, but for horror movie fans looking for sheer entertainment value, it is certainly worth a watch.  

Slaughter Day from Wild Eye Releasing and Visual Vengeance is available on collectors’ edition Blu-ray from September 13th, 2022.

Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast (whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-podcast/). He also writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom). 

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