Slotherhouse – Film Review

With its peculiar concept, Matthew Goodhue‘s horror-comedy Slotherhouse, with a script by Bradley Fowler, slithers into the genre, promising to mix laughs and scares. Sadly, this grandiose project fails miserably, tripping over its own lazy pacing and cliched storylines, leaving a picture that isn’t quite sharp enough to hold viewers’ attention.

Emily Young (Lisa Ambalavanar), a sorority hopeful, is the main character of the story. She adopts Alpha, a seemingly innocent pet sloth, in an attempt to gain popularity and become the head of the Sigma Lambda Theta (SLTH) sorority. But what begins as a charming story takes a sinister turn when Alpha goes on a killing rampage, eliminating sorority sisters one by one. The remaining girls, Madison (Olivia Rouyre), Zenny (Bianca Beckles-Rose), and Brianna (Sydney Craven), must battle the unexpected killer sloth to survive.

The performances by the cast are among the film’s noteworthy highlights. In the role of Emily, Lisa Ambalavanar gives a compelling portrayal of a desperate young lady divided between her ambition and the atrocities going on around her. The cast members’ chemistry is evident, giving the otherwise flat characters some much-needed depth. With her innate comic timing, Sydney Craven as Brianna steals the show and brings a few heartfelt moments of genuine humor to an otherwise drab script.

With its self-awareness, Slotherhouse is able to save some moments in spite of its flaws. Every now and then, the movie laughs at its own ridiculousness while charmingly adopting the B-movie look. There are brief moments of dark humor that make you laugh, and you have to give the movie credit for having the guts to address such a ridiculous idea.

But the film’s pacing is where it all goes wrong. The beginning of Slotherhouse is painfully slow; it takes too long to introduce the characters and establish the threat posed by the sloth. Without any significant plot advancement, the first act drags on, making the audience impatient and disinterested. The attempts at humor, which mostly center on puns about sloth, come across as forced and uninteresting and don’t actually make people laugh out loud.

In addition, the plotline is formulaic and predictable, with elements of previous horror-comedies mixed together. The story is unoriginal since it mainly uses tropes and cliches that are typical to the genre. The film makes weak attempts to create suspense and tension, frequently relying on jump scares that are more startling than frightful.

In addition, Slotherhouse‘s special effects are far from stellar. The sloth’s murders, which could have been graphically graphic, are done with poor computer graphics, which lessens the impact of the scary parts. The poor creature design and general visual effects of the film show how tight the budget was, which takes away from the intended fear factor.

Slotherhouse‘s special effects are far from stellar. The sloth’s murders, which could have been graphically graphic, are done with poor computer graphics, which lessens the impact of the scary parts. The financial limitations of the film are evident. Despite the cast’s admirable efforts, the film suffers greatly from its slow pacing, lack of creativity, and shoddy special effects. It wastes the opportunity to be a hilariously ridiculous farce, giving viewers a dull, unmemorable experience.