Reeker is a film about a group of college kids on their way to some sort of drug party or festival in the desert… and it’s the third one of these films that I’ve seen this year. The kids are on their way, when one of the kids mentions all the stolen tabs of ecstasy that he has in his backpack. One of the girls in the car gets all bitchy and decides to leave his ass at a motel in the middle of the desert because she doesn’t like to roll around with drugs in her car… then their car runs out of gas. Soon the kids start seeing dead bodies and smelling something that is worse than Britney Spears’ cum-soaked underwear after a long night of partying. A killer is on the loose and they must figure out how to stop him… or they could just drop acid and fuck all night, but they want to live so there’s no chance of that happening.

The film is directed rather nicely by Dave Payne. Payne’s movie is a little slow at first, but the last half hour more than makes up for the excessive character development in the beginning of the flick. Payne’s visuals are interesting, even if they are a little pedestrian. The gore and violence in the movie is awesome, and even though there aren’t many special effects going on Payne maneuvers around this problem with creative camera angles and tension inducing imagery that makes it ok.
Payne has crafted a unique killer that is interesting and begs to be seen again, due to the director’s choice to not explain the killer in any way, shape, or form, which is the accepted formula for success in any slasher-based movie. You do want to be able to make a sequel after all, and an air of mystery that is solved is always a good way to keep fans coming back for more. It’s kind of like when you drop a huge deuce in the office bathroom. If you just leave it there, other people will be like “Check out what I found in the bathroom,” and everyone will come running to take a look. However, if you just stroll out of the bathroom and proudly announce your two-feet cheek tickler, everyone is going to ignore your brown bounty like it’s the plague. Payne’s visuals are interesting, even if they are a little pedestrian.

The acting was surprisingly better than I thought it would be. The cast seems perfect and every character plays their part with some skill. Tina Illman is fantastic as Gretchen, a no nonsense girl from South Africa that is the leader of the mostly vacuous group of college kids. Michael Ironside (Scanners, Total Recall) makes a well-appreciated appearance as a lost guy in an R.V. looking for his wife. The rest of the cast is pretty good, at least good enough to not drag down the movie. Derek Richardson (Hostel, Dumb and Dumberer), Arielle Kebbel (Soul Plane, A Tale of Two Sisters), and Scott Whyte (Dead Man’s Hand, Death Row) are all solid in their roles as disposable college kids. Devon Gummersall (Dead & Breakfast, The Anarchist Cookbook) is the lone dark spot in the cast, as his portrayal of a blind man was pretty weak and his presence left a small void in what is otherwise a well acted film.

The best part about Reeker is the killer. The killer is actually not seen for the majority of the movie, but when he is he is really cool looking. You’ll be wishing that they spent more time focusing on the killer because he is fascinating, even though he takes people out with spinning razor blade at the end of a pole. Again, the mysterious nature of the killer and his unexplained background are all intriguing and add to the enjoyability of the film.

Reeker is your typical slasher flick with a little bit of 2003’s Dead End thrown in for good measure. The film offers nothing groundbreaking, but the cool design of the film’s killer and the film’s adherence to slasher genre standards is actually refreshing when every indie slasher movie that comes out these days wants to be anything but a slasher. For this, Dave Payne deserves kudos for having the balls to say slashers are fine the way they are without tons of boobs and nonstop crude humor… even though I’ll never balk at tons of boobs or crude humor. As an added bonus, Payne is already working on a sequel, which I can’t wait for.

Final Synopsis: If you’re a fan of the moodier slashers out there, this one can work for you. If you don’t like slashers, you probably won’t like this. Reeker is worth seeing for the killer alone, and despite its slow beginning the movie really picks up the pace for the last half hour. For those versed in seldom seen horror movies, it reminds me of a cross between Creep and Dead End. Give it a rent if that sounds like something you might be interested in.

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January 7th, 2008
Categories: Horror DVDs . Author: admin

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