Can you Survive the executioner?
Slasher follows the story of Sarah Bennett, who moves back to Waterbury, the town she was born and into her family home. Shortly after however, people start to die. “Everyone in this town has a past, not everyone has a future.”
Slasher essentially gives exactly what the name implies, an eight part slasher show but based on the ideology of Se7en. The world of the slasher flick is a well established one and we all know the rules that tend to be followed, as defined by the Mack Daddy of slasher flicks. However in “Slasher” a lot of them are thrown out the window, anyone seemed open to a quick stabbing. However other rules are followed to a T.
Reportedly the series will follow in the footsteps of American Horror Story in the fact that each season will be a self contained story, probably featuring the same actors in different roles. In this season Sarah Bennett’s parents were killed before she was born, the police found the killer, dubbed “The Executioner” holding her in his arms after he forcibly removed her from her mother’s womb.
Sarah is now moving into the very house her parents were killed in (and seems very nonchalant about it). Shortly after she moves back to town, copycat killings of townsfolk start occurring based on a secret each had that was representative of one of the seven deadly sins. The tagline of the shows states “everyone in this town has a past, not everyone has a future” and it’s a great setup for misdirection. Misdirection is the lifeblood of slasher flicks as the quality is based on how well the murderers identity is kept secret, we all have our theories right from the first episode and in this show everyone is a suspect, everyone could be a victim with twists galore either incriminating or killing off possible suspects. The seven deadly sins angle is solid, however outside the main Executioner story there’s an interesting side story of a missing girl, Ariel, set as an undertone throughout the series and for a few episodes it blows the main story out of the water.
The cinematography in Slasher is a bit of a toss up. It’s occasionally outstanding, although it’s not consistent. In one scene, a shot can be stunningly captured, the camerawork, lighting, set design all used to convey a feeling of dread or isolation. Then in the very next scene have a death straight out of a Rob Zombie movie.
Now, the acting is pretty good throughout the show. I think the majority of the actors should be able to hold their own playing different characters across different seasons; some characters have a tendency to underreact to situations. However I think it says more about the writing than the acting, I guess time will tell when it comes time to review season two. Strangely, I preferred the series on my second run through, it allowed me to watch some characters more closely and in some instances their actions reflected motives later in the series that I didn’t appreciate on the first watch.
Just a quick FYI, while there’s no spoilers in this paragraph I will be commenting on the end of the show. So you can just skip over this, or if our web developer would be nice enough just to hide from the end of this sentence to the end of this paragraph that would be good too(he wasn’t). The ending of Slasher is easily the weakest part of the entire show and then I have absolutely no idea what the Sweet Valley Fuck was up with the very last scene, it seems completely unnecessary and feels like a failed attempt to generate interest in season two. Absolutely godawful. The last half of the final episode was so disappointing, rushed and generic that it felt out of place with the rest of the season.
Alright, that’s the end of the talk about the ending segment. So all that’s left is the wrap-up. As a fan of the slasher genre I tried to judge the TV show by its own merit, without bias from the legacy of the movies it was inspired by, and trying this I can say that Slasher is… okay. It’s not gonna blow your socks off but it’s good enough that you’ll want to pay attention to each episode. Maybe not one to binge watch but one to watch if you’re stuck.
