Review: Slaughterhouse Rulez

Director: Crispian Mills

Screenplay: Crispian Mills and Henry Fitzherbert

Year: 2018

Synopsis: An illustrious British boarding school becomes a bloody battleground when a mysterious sinkhole appears at a nearby fracking site unleashing unspeakable horror.

“Slaughterhouse Rulez” promises to be a new gem of horror comedy British films by reuniting Simon Pegg with Nick Frost, both protagonist in the popular “Shaun of the Dead” and with director Crispian Mills, with whom he participated in “A Fantastic Fear of Everything”, the debut film of Mills. With these people in the workgroup and an interesting story, the move establishes high expectations to those of us who have enjoyed their previous works.

The story of “Slaughterhouse Rulez” starts when Don Wallace is accepted to study in the prestigious Slaughterhouse School. Once he gets to the school, it is evident that this is no ordinary school and references to British movies related to schools such as “Harry Potter” and “If”, even with not so subtle nods to some of their characters. At the same time, we are introduced to the story of Meredith Houseman, interpreted by Pegg, who is not so happy being at the school and who is also losing his love. On the other hand, we have Woody, interpreted by Frost, who is in a campsite in the school forest protesting a fracking operation, the same that later creates a sinkhole that releases some violent creatures.

Do you get what the problem with the movie is? It principally resides in that the plot tries to take on too many stories at the same time. This ends up in chaos, as it does not allow for the stories to be well developed and cuts too much with the continuity of this development. The first 45 minutes of the movie are dedicated to somewhat develop these stories and leaves the viewer guessing where they will converge. The problem is that some don’t even get to converge, and it seems like they were added just to put some more comedy in the movie.

I don’t want you to think that this is an awful movie. If you can ignore the flaws of the screenplay, the movie can be very entertaining. The cast is charismatic and does a stupendous job, which is enough to keep you interested in the movie. Although the comedy moments are not as effective as intended, they are funny and the way the actors handle these moments is fun. Once the creatures appear the movie becomes plenty bloody but in an absurd and funny way. I liked the design of the creatures, who look ferocious without being absurd and with a unique image.

“Slaughterhouse Rulez” has a lot of wasted potential in the form of a great cast that understands and enjoys this type of movies and with many good ideas that were not correctly developed. With a more focused and better-developed script, we would be talking about a substantially superior movie. This movie is fun and is worth watching but is one of those than in a few months you would not remember having watched it.