Troma’s THE SLASHENING: THE FINAL BEGINNING (aka THE GHOSTENING, 2020)
Directed & written by Brandon Bassham.
Starring Lloyd Kaufman, Jean Louise O’Sullivan, Addie Weyrich, Rasheda Crockett, Billy Bob Thompson, Caroline Cotter, J.W. Crump, McManus Woodend, Marcus Bishop-Wright, Jon Bershad, Justin James Lang, Amy Connerley, Jon Bershad, Katie Sicking, Carl Foreman Jr., James N. Boylan, Eliza Kingsbury, Patrick Foy, Jaime Lutz, Colin O’Brien, Madonna Refugia, Timothy Dunn, Rob Webber, Jack Frederick, Vincent Moore, Amanda Poryes, Matt Weir, Steph Shober, Laura Canty-Samuel, Louie Aronowitz
Five years after THE SLASHENING, a new group of soon-to-be-corpses, this time a group of people who have survived other encounters with serial killers, begin getting picked off by the bag-headed killer with various cutlery and projectiles.
If you’ve seen THE SLASHENING, you know the type of humor you’re in for with THE SLASHENING: THE FINAL BEGINNING. It’s crass. It’s tasteless. And it’s the type of humor I tend to find hilarious. Imagine a low budget AIRPLANE or NAKED GUN film without the big name stars, buy with big gross-out effects, and you’ll get the gist of the type of guffaws, titters, and teehees that will be pouring out of your face while watching this horror spoof. Even five years later, the folks behind the original SLASHENING still have what it takes to make me laugh. For example, to my knowledge, there’s never been a “docking” scene that ends with a nail-gun massacre…until now! It’s this type of grody comedy at play here and I love these guys for it.
Comedy is always subjective, so I can’t guarantee this will be your flavor, but THE SLASHENING: THE FINAL BEGINNING really worked on me. While slasher films are a bit passe these days, this film’s irreverent take on victim culture sure is as topical and biting as it comes. The film manages to be relevant in this PC culture, pointing out some of the more ludicrous and hypocritical aspects of it while dousing it in gore. Expect horn-dog male feminists, nonsensical folk music, entitled yelpers, and useless therapy—all proving to be the perfect fodder for the potato-sack wearing killer to massacre. Much like the first film, THE SLASHENING: THE FINAL BEGINNING also sports some great original songs parodying modern popular culture and trends.
This sequel definitely goes for the gold, as there is much more sex and gore than in the first SLASHENING. The real highlight was a chase scene using a split screen where we see through the sack-mask from the perspectives of the two killers chasing the same girl. It’s a scene that would make DePalma proud. It’s also got a memorable moment or two with the man himself, Lloyd Kaufman as a Jewish martial arts teacher. THE SLASHENING: THE FINAL BEGINNING manages to be clever in the way it makes fun of the genre, holding a satirical mirror to modern society while wading through all of that gore.
MLMILLERWRITES / MLMillerFrights 