Slice (2018) Movie Review

[Music] hey horror fans welcome back from two three seven back with another review and it's time for yet another review of an 824 film yeah I said I had more coming and this is another I guess you could put it in the horror category it says horror comedy but to be honest I think it's more of a comedy horror now I know it sounds like splitting hairs but those really are two different things uh real quick because I think a lot of people forget horror comedy is you know just a horror film that happens to be comedic like Return To Living Dead I Dead Alive Re-Animator Evil Dead 2. and a comedy horror is a comedy film first and foremost with maybe a more horror setting like Zombieland Shaun of the Dead Army of Darkness and I see this one labeled as a horror comedy but it really does feel more just like a comedy film or a comedy with the horror elements really a comedy told horror film and as far as 824 goes this is one of the few that I'm actually mixed on this is one that will be on my bottom 10 Countdown but as I've said before even a lot of those movies I still do like quite a bit there's only one a24 film I actually dislike uh there's a few that I mixed on like Tusk this is one I mixed on I'm really confused on how I feel about it and it came out in 2018 and it is the horror comedy comedy horror I don't even know if it knows what it wants to be slice now I had just heard about this film recently when I was going through a24's category and what I thought it was at first was like another 80s slasher Maybe midnight movie kind of throwback but done as a comedy revolving around a pizza delivery drivers now it still is but it goes so much beyond that to the point where it is a really cool concept it is a really fun neat idea but being a 24 it should have been it should have gone way more deeper and way more clever with it than it really is also it's only 83 minutes which is actually kind of a detriment just because of how big and ambitious this movie's trying to be so that that is one of the detriments if it sounds like I'm shaking a little bit it's because it's freezing it here so I apologize for that uh it was written and directed by Austin vesely uh and it stars I say Stars but there's so many characters in this that even the leads feel like they're not really in it that much uh zazzy beats who of course was in Deadpool 2 she was a joker uh Chance the Rapper who I'm not familiar with at all but also uh let's see Ray gray Marilyn Dodds Maryland Dodge Frank excuse me Catherine Cunningham will brill uh you get cameos by Hannibal Burris Tim Decker and Joe Kiri so but for all you stranger things fans and Joe carries only in it for like two quick scenes he's not really in it that much uh also Chris Parnell and Paul Shear so it is really made up more of a comedic cast and for the most part they do fine like Paul Shear was probably one of the funnier people of the movie it did have a lot of stuff that landed but I had a lot of stuff that didn't as well uh perhaps the best thing about this would be the score which was done by Ludwig gordonson and Nathan Matthew David apart from having a lot of a hip-hop soundtrack it has an awesome awesome 80s synth type score which yeah as soon as I heard it and I was still kind of in the mindset it was gonna be like this 80s slasher comedy I was like this is gonna be awesome I've already got this type of vibe it's put out by 824 it's gonna be super clever it's gonna be great and to be honest it feels more like an R-rated Goosebumps movie it looks like a Goosebumps movie it feels more the Goosebumps or Halloween Town or something along those lines even the special effects which are pretty awful especially all the CGI or even 2016 Ghostbusters level and I really hate comparing it to that but the special effects are kind of in that wheelhouse now where this goes beyond just an 80s style throwback slasher evolving pizza delivery drivers and what makes the ambition and idea and concept really cool is I don't know if it's the entire world or just this small town where this takes place but any kind of spook that you can think of is real and integrated into society ghost ghosts werewolves witches they're all just out and about I mean there's like a section of town for the ghosts as soon as people die we just see their ghosts and they're still part of society they just have like the pale makeup bags under their eyes one of them even works at the pizza place and so I was like okay it could have been even like Pixar clever I mean think about it like a Pixar movie whether it's toys cars bugs fish it does such a great job at making like it's funny because it's true way of just showing our society lived by whatever the story is and there's so much more to it and there's a murder mystery there's political conspiracy which is definitely why the like less than 90 minute run time is a huge detriment because there's so much is trying to tell that it feels half-assed but so I like the idea that okay there's this world just ghosts exists uh werewolves exist and no one really questions it it's just part of their life it does give off this Vibe of almost like the perfect like October movie like the perfect thing to watch around October and Halloween but the comedy is so there are a lot of jokes that land I mean the Apollo Shear is funny uh like I said but then when the comedy is bad I legitimately cannot tell if it's just poor writing or if it's going for such a Cheesy B movie feel and it's super dedicated to it that even the bad jokes are intentional because there are a lot of bad jokes as well and for the most part like the back and forth dialogue outside of the jokes is pretty bland it's not very well written save for maybe the story which does not feel fleshed out at all and sadly even with the concept like that the most clever thing about it is probably the title slice this sort of Slasher now I can't really call it a slasher because there's so much more going on but the pizza delivery drivers be killed slice okay that that's honestly probably the most clever bit about it and being age 24 I would have accepted you know something like the lobster something really dry awkward uh almost like the office type healer I think that would have fit very well but yeah these pizza delivery drivers are being killed the Bayer played by Chris pardell and this sort of uh of activist group made up of stereotypical carrots are trying to make it sound like it's ghosts you know ghosts are kind of a marginalized trying to make it sound like they are responsible and coming to find out there you have not that it matters but the police seem to think that it's this werewolf played by Chance the Rapper who some years ago there was some more slags I think at the Chinese restaurant where this werewolf worked he ran away and now some years later it's this pizza place they think it's him so the police think it's this werewolf the the mayor in this activist group are trying to convince everyone that it's ghosts mainly so they could just tear down the strip mall for whatever reason and that's the thing you have these this seemingly of intricate murder mystery with conspiracy and motives but it doesn't feel fleshed out at all one thing I've heard a lot of people say is that yes the run time does hurt it but if this was like yo a six episode series or like a 10 episode limited series where they could really flesh out this world flesh out this murder mystery really get into the politics of this town and everything then it really could have stretched his legs with how clever it could have been and instead it just comes off as half-assed it half half thought out uh even the performances I'll say Chance the Rapper is one of the better ones I was expecting a lot from uh zazzy beats because I really like her and a lot that I see her in but even a lot of her seeds just like most people just comes off as kind of bored and you you have this journalist trying to solve it you have zazzy Beats kind of doing her old a vigilante type digging because her boyfriend is the first kill of the movie then you got everything going on with the mayor and I don't know if I should say spoilers because even though I didn't kind of my own fault I didn't know this was going to be the revelation however once this is revealed when you go when you think back to it it's like well that was [ __ ] obvious and then every reveal after that you you catch on to it before they even tell you the activist group are witches now one I should have been able to catch on to that because half the town is dead people there's a werewolf there's this group of women probably should have figured it was a covet so then I was like oh wow I'm stupid I didn't even catch on to that but then there's like scenes where this one chick that works at the pizza place as soon as they say like you haven't heard uh Astrid was killed last night oh jeez God oh um I have to grab something it's like uh okay you're it on it so like every reveal after this he was very obvious and then there's a this movie just keeps building to the point where I think it's just part of the Absurd like some of the comedy is just with how absurd this movie is like how this Pizzeria is built on a gateway to Hell which kind of doesn't really do anything but uh it's like it just keeps escalating and I think some of the comedy is just like with how gizzard's just brought a gag where the dead guy that works at the pizzeria he's talking kind of like Pascal from pet cemetery like the ground is hollow you must not the blaspheme you must like very sort of cryptic creepy ghost talk but everyone just especially Paul schreer just completely dismisses them like Joe please I'm trying to sell some pizza it it does have some funny moments like when they go down to the basement they find out a game from Hell there's some janitor cleaning we're supposed to believe it's a ghost and he's like ghost I'm not dead sees his dead body oh damn it and I mean it does get kind of clever like zazzy beats get stabbed she falls then stands up like well I just die it the camera literally goes damn it that sucks uh I'm even trying to think of some of the funnier one thing early on that did make me think okay this is gonna be very dry and I'm really gonna like it that guy Joe he's given another Pizzeria driver you know like the the ground is hollow and that's not what he's saying uh I'm just giving generic the spirits will rise something something is like oh in your order you forgot the delicious dipping sticks I was like okay that's awesome that's that kind of dry random kind of absurd humor I was hoping for hey granted it doesn't go to fart jokes or anything like that it doesn't go 2016 Ghostbusters but then you got the whole subplot of like the two detectives one of which really wants Chance the Rapper to be the killer werewolf he holds a grudge because his dad was killed by a werewolf and he's super over the top like he's always just yeah you think so well I'll try to solve a case like and again I I really can't tell if if that is meant this movie really has to be stubbed because part of me wants to believe that all the over-the-topness and bad jokes is part of it rather than it just being a com part a comedy that's falling flat but ah I really did have higher hopes for this not too much I know this is one of the lower rated horror films by 824 but just the concept alone even what I thought it was okay 80s throwback Slasher uh delivery drivers okay awesome but then they set up this world where it's like Halloween all the time essentially where it's all dead people and werewolves or witches and I was like okay yeah awesome and I ate being a 24 it should be able to flesh this out in a very clever way but there's just so many characters and so much going on with so little time that it doesn't feel fleshed out at all and so then we get to the special effects where the witches constantly they they have the green light green electricity that literally does look straight out of like the Goosebumps movie or Ghostbusters 2016 I mean it is bad CGI uh Chance the Rapper we only see him as a werewolf once towards the end and that's really bad CGI and of course it takes like the Twilight route when he changes back is just kind of like the CGI transport back which I call blasphemy because I'm of the belief that werewolves turning into or Back To Human supposed to be painful as [ __ ] yes wolfband didn't do that but still that to me that's a werewolf uh I know it's a Cheesy comedy and to be honest one of the best parts is the ending the very ending is a sort of commercial for this new pizza place pretty much where all the characters are dead it is like this bad old TV green screen quality Paul shares like hey I'm Jack and I want you to come down to Jack's Perfect Pizza and everyone's just awkwardly like even zazzy beats is like all pies are hot something else something else and no employee burners is everyone's really dry and that you could tell they're reading off something is just this really bad ad that was the probably the funniest part of the movie that was the kind of humor that should have been throughout but yeah a lot of the comedy fell flat it really is a shame that it had this really cool concept of just this town with every kind of monster you can imagine mostly I don't think there's vampires or Guild people but and then with like a murder mystery that's very obvious and you're trying to incorporate conspiracy and politics and everything 824 should have had this in the bag this is what you could have pushed to two hours to really flesh all that out and one thing I have heard people say is it kind of turned with the concept and the route they're trying to go story-wise this should have been a very clever dry comedy maybe not dry but very clever but it ended up being just a rushed cheesy Stoner comedy like just the tone of it the tone and look of it feels more like a comedy horror than it does a horror comedy yo it does have more of like uh zombielated but cheaper type look to it like it doesn't even feel like a horror film but yeah not sure what else I could say about slice uh probably one of the more disappointing ones that I've seen not that my expectations were really high but I was kind of excited to see what a24 could do with this kind of material like Tusk is more of a horror comedy this I don't even know if this really knows what it wants to be between horror comedy comedy horror and maybe if it had just taken itself a little bit more seriously it also fleshed out the concepts a bit a bit more then maybe we really could have had something other than that the best part about it is the synth soundtrack that that was really the only thing that really made me feel like okay we're an 80s slasher film or 80s horror film that's really cool even the opening line by zazzy beats like right something to the effect of that I want to tell you a story a story that involves would you say a ghost a werewolf at a shitty pizza place like awesome that sounds like a good opening line but yeah the cast feels underutilized or bored and I feel like they should have just gone all out with everything like the the slasher death should have been bloodier gorier I mean go all out the I the ghosts were more like zombies really because the ghosts weren't transparent they just gave them like the pale makeup whatever wounds they had so they're actually more like zombies I guess but yeah it definitely gonna be in the top 10 worst or least favorite a24 films even though this is the film I fully dislike there's still only one a24 film that I do dislike and that'll be in that countdown so I have a few more of my a24 lists that I want to check out and review before I get to the countdown say collection videos but yeah this is for 2018's slice so uh thank you for watching

Channel: Blood Guy Reviews

Views: 79

Keywords: #Slice, #A24, #Room237Reviews, Slice, 2018, Movie, Film, Review, Room237Reviews, Room 237, Horror, Comedy, #Comedy-Horror, Comedy-Horror, Slasher, Ghosts, Werewolf, Witch, Funny, Disappointing, Worst, 10, 2010

Id: F6RueRSC_P4

Length: 23min 18sec (1398 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 21 2022