Slaughterhouse Rulez

image source

Slaughterhouse Rulez was released in theaters in Great Britain last year. To my knowledge, it hasn't been released officially in the United States, either in theaters or direct-to-video. This was a movie I watched on an airplane because I was curious about it. After a fracking accident, monsters are unleashed to wreak havoc on a prestigious English boarding school. There was actually quite a bit to this movie I genuinely really liked. For starters, the performances were pretty strong all around. The cast includes the likes of Asa Butterfield, Michael Sheen, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Margot Robbie. I will be completely fair. This movie probably isn't for everybody. The movie does have a tricky balancing act to work through. The first half is sort of a typical school comedy. The second half is more of the genre fair I went into this movie expecting. The people who want the genre-style second half may be put off by the first half's slower pace. The people who might want more of what the first half has to offer may be turned by the second half's off-the-wall violence and gore. However, I did still enjoy the movie I saw. The characters are generally pretty quirky (something I think surprisingly works in the film's favor). The film's visual effects are all practical, and I honestly really appreciated that. I will admit that the film's biggest wasted opportunity was the fact that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost only share one scene together. These two are one of the greatest comedy teams of the 21st century, so I would have liked to see them work off each other more in this movie. Margot Robbie probably didn't need to be in this movie. Her character really could have played by anybody, and the character never appears in person, only through a phone screen. To be fair, all three of them still do a good job with what they have been given . The lead performances by Asa Butterfield, Finn Cole, and Hermione Corfield genuinely work. They are the ones I think needed to work the most, as these three are the ones who anchor the film. I like that, for the most part, the characters actually have some depth to them. This is the type of movie that I could easily see becoming a cult film in the years to come. It's a movie that I fully recognize is far from perfect. However, I was genuinely glad I chose to watch it.

7 / 10