A supermarket is closing
down for the night but beforehand a
troublemaking punk named Craig (David
Byrnes) has been harrassing his
ex-girlfriend Jennifer Ross (Elizabeth
Cox) who works at the store and creates a
riot with the other employees eventually
being chased out.
What makes things worst is that the head
employer named Danny (Robert Eugene
Glazier) announces that he is going to be
selling his store which upsets everyone
including his assistant employer Bill
Roberts (Danny Hicks) as he tries to
assure the employees that they'll give
them referrals to future jobs.
Jen is a little shaken up by all of this
and is getting calls from Craig making it
worst as well as hanging around the
store.
Liz tells her employee friend Linda
(Renee Estevez) that Craig and her have
been broken up for a year and served jail
time for accidentally killing a man.
Suddenly while the employees are clearing
things at the store a killer is hacking
them away in various gruesome murders and
Jen suspects that Craig is behind all of
this but again she finds that Bill is
still a little disturbed by closing down
the store for good as it owned it for
years with his partner Danny.
A rather pointless
slasher film by the makers of Evil
Dead 2. It has
many mysterious moments and is very
clever to have a killer in a big
superstore doing away people there one by
one but after watching it all the way
through you'll be disappointed and really
sad with an awful ending.
Yet, this film is saved from being below
average as the slashings were very
enjoyable to watch plus you don't spot
much killings taking place in a
supermarket like you'd see at a campsite
or highschool.
The gruesomeness was one of the film's
drawing cards as well as seeing the
alleyways at the store spotting many
cereal boxes and other things too. It
also was a good environmental feeling
before the killings happen with young
employees socialising and getting along
with one another as working employees.
The acting is not
too bad as we even have a virtual unkown
named Elizabeth Cox in the lead
role who does quite well with her
character as the troubled teen. It's
surprising she doesn't get much more work
but at times her energy lacks with the
screams and getting frightened.
Danny Hicks brings a nice charm to
his part as the assistant employee in the
film showing some great energy in his
part and characteristics but however when
he acts crazy it looked a bit rough. Of
course this is a b-film as well as it
being dated so it was fine for what it is
for this type.
David Byrnes had the right looks to
play a punk in this film as well as a
suspect for the killings. He even brings
some character to his role when he gets
abusive too. Sometimes it lacks now and
then but he seems to pick it up. A shame
he only had two roles in the trashy made
for video horror flicks like the
Witchcraft sequels afterwards
and was missing in action after that.
Billy Marti seemed charming in his
role as the hearthtrob in the film and
does what he had to do. However, he was
very slacking when he freaks out seeing a
murder.
We have producer/writer/director Sam
Raimi as the main supporting role
which is a surprise as he often gets cast
having small parts if he ever does get a
role. He breezes his way through well as
the quiet butcher but fans of his may be
disappointed when they find out what's
happened to him halfway through the film.
Eugene Robert Glazier brings a good
businessman attitude in the film as the
store owner Danny showing a good
bluntness and seriousness to his part.
Renee Estevez was only in the
first half hour of this film but seemed
to be the stories drawing card too as
well as this being her next slasher film
after Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy
Campers. I never found her to be
a terrible actress but she always seems
soft spoken with almost everything I've
seen her in. Yet she's passable in this
one and had the right looks too as
another employee. However, she
continued to work in more low budget
films that were non-horror as well as a
semi-regular in her fathers TV series West
Wing too as she was just
starting off in shows like this.
Burr Steers seemed a little too over
the top with his part playing a goofy
pothead type of employee in the film as
he didn't do much for me.
We have a goofy supporting role by Ted
Raimi who is unforgettable in
his scenes even if he had a few lines.
This is almost as
gory as and Evil Dead flick
as an employers eye is stabbed through a
paper spike
There is an eyeball in an olive jar
A kitchen knife is stabbed on a dweeby
employees head
Another employee is stabbed in the
stomach with the same kitchen knife
Someone's forehead is smahed off by a
machine
A hand is wrapped in a meat packet and
then placed in a lobster tank
A butcher is impaled on a meat hook
A nice teen is hit by a meat cleaver and
then is head is sawed in half.
A girls throat is slit found dead in a
car.
There's a decapitated head of the store
owner.
The killer is constantly stabbed with a
meat cleaver and a kitchen knife.
Yep everything you want in a slasher
film.
Evil Dead
2 writer Scott Spiegal tried
to take on this project by working as a
director as well as writing it.
He proves to be more worthy as a director
for this film than for his story with it.
He makes the film leaving you in wonder
at first as you think who is behind all
this madness at the supermarket.
There's a good shot on David Byrnes
standing in an alleyway with a shopping
cart standing there looking coldly while Elizabeth
Cox is collecting shopping carts and
then we have a good camera shot inside a
shopping cart strolling towards Cox
making it look eerie.
There's a good struggling moment between Cox
and Byrnes in the supermarket
with camera shots on the both of them.
But yet there's people like Danny
Hicks and Billy Marti
brawling with Byrnes which
looked a little weakly choreographed but
of course it's not much of the directors
fault on that as there's usually a
choreographer instructing on what needs
to be done.
We have a good goofy dialogue between Ted
Raimi and Marti about a
punk on the loose in the supermarket
showing some interesting humor in it.
There's some nice shots on a camera
looking up or down on cast members like Cox,
Marti or Renee Estevez answering
a phone near a checkout, putting away
change or cleaning stuff up.
There's good reactions on the young cast
when both Eugene Robert Glazier
and Hicks telling everyone about
selling the store with Hicks
trying to cheer them up.
We also get a good camera rolling back
and fourth with the cast discussing stuff
and about looking for work.
A nice camera shot on a hand opening up a
slide door to look at the bottom view on
the employees putting stuff away in the
supermarket.
There's a good dialogue between Cox
and Estevez when Cox
tells her about her break up and what
happened to someone as it looked still
and silent with a shot on Byrnes staring
outside of the glass door while they're
having the conversation and a nice quick
turnaround by Cox looking at the
glass door and no one is there.
We spot a good dialogue between Hicks
and Glazier with Hicks
trying to talk to him and Glazier just
gets blunt with him.
We have a good shot on Estevez
putting away groceries in her car and
looking a bit frightened hearing some
sounds and asking who is out there with a
shadow reflecting on her trunk door and
then a good shot on a knife raising up
and a hand grabbing her neck.
We have a good dialogue between Marti
and Cox near a register and
then kissing one another which looked
nicely romantic on two teenagers.
We have many good shots on cast members
like Burr Steers and Craig
Clark getting their feet dragged to
a deadly machine in the meat shop.
There's good shots on Cox hiding
in a meat room showing the hallway with
the butchered meat giving it a nice dark
feeling.
Sometimes his direction lacks when he
coaches the actors freaking out while
getting killed too. But he does show
great scenes of them getting hacked away
which saves this film from bombing
especially showing the shadow of the
mysterious killer.
Oh and he shows neat shots on Ted
Raimi chopping away and packaging
stuff for the next day listening to his
walkman.
The music is is well
composed by Georgia Robertson
which is another point for this film as
the sound effects are cheesily great for
a slasher film with the deep icy sounds
of the keyboards and other neat musical
instruments involved with this film like
some suspenseful classical music with the
screechy music and the piano playing too.
There's also the odd heartbeat sounds
packing up the suspense during the quiet
moments.
Some of this was reused in the exploited
thriller Bedroom Eyes II
Mr.
Abernathy: Hold hands, you lovebirds!
Linda:
This creep keeps calling, he's driving us
nuts
Linda:
[Making out with her co-worker on one
of the checkouts] We're gonna get
into so much trouble
Jennifer
Ross (After a butchered piece of
meat on a hook slides towards her) Ugh...
Not funny Randy!
Bill
Roberts: I couldn't let ANYONE get in
the way... and... I guess I got a little
carried away!
Bill
Roberts: Don't you see??? I'm
just crazy bout this store!
|
