SLAXX
Has there ever been an exploitation film about exploitation? I’m not sure. However, with Elza Kephart’s SLAXX, there certainly is one now.
Romane Denis (Slut In A Good Way) plays Libby McClean, a naïve but principled woman who finally gets the job of her dreams at Canadian Cotton Clothiers, one of those companies whose success is built on a buzzword heavy claims of social consciousness via buying their products. After a short prologue, Libby is shown happily showing up for her first shift which is an overnight stocking event for MONDAY MADNESS, a yearly sales event, that is also the launch of the company’s newest hot product — the Super Shaper jeans. Libby quickly meets the manager, Craig (Brett Donahue) and the other employees Hunter (Jessica B. Hill), Lord (Kenny Wong), Jemma (Hanneke Talbot) and Shruti (Sehar Bhojani) all of whom seem to be much more concerned with things other than giving her a new hire orientation. After the big pep talk when the store goes into lockdown, things start to get strange and people disappear. Soon it becomes clear that someone is stalking the employees, but who that someone is turns out to be something stranger than anyone could have imagined.
The film has many worthy targets that it takes aim at: narcissistic influencers, corporate stooges, cynical employees on the make, supposedly uplifting corporate culture, and crass consumerism. Generally, the targets of satires of consumerism are the buyers. The desperate people who only want to possess things even at the risk of their lives. The acknowledged apex of this subgenre is George Romero’s original Dawn Of The Dead. It is what most horror fans will name if you ask about the idea.
However, SLAXX is a rebuke of corporate culture much more than consumer greed. The true villain of SLAXX is the evil of capitalism and the exploitation of the workers and the customers alike. It’s a heady and hefty load for a horror film to lift, but director Elza Kephart, co-writer/co-producer Patricia Gomez, co-producer Anne Marie Gelinas and the cast and crew do so easily. It’s coated in a brightly lit mall store aura, but the satire is as deadly as they come. The darkness lurks in the storerooms behind the counters. If you’ve ever worked in retail, you’ve see all of this before.
SLAXX leaps out at the despicable corporate liars with all the right honeyed words on their tongue about fair trade and respect for other cultures and nothing but dollar signs where their hearts should be. A possessed pair of pants stalks the middle managers, duped employees and customers alike. It does so in a droll and knowing manner with great humor that doesn’t aim for the lowest common denominator. It cherishes the culture that has been robbed and really is adorable, for a film where the ripping of flesh and jetting of blood occurs with an appalling and delightful frequency. It’s funny and not in the franchise villain spewing a dorky catch phrase kind of way. The actors really make this work because without actresses as genuinely sweet as Romane Denis or genuinely bored as Sehar Bhojani, the film would have not been as successful. It’s all done with a low budget economy that is to be admired. Whatever the budget was, the film makers made the most of it.
SLAXX is right up there with corporate culture skewering comedies like Nine To Five and Fun With Dick And Jane, but with so much more gore and carnage. It’s as bold and pitiless as the Monroeville Mall segments of Dawn Of The Dead 1978, but with a critical eye on the companies who are ultimately responsible for consumer culture and its victims. It walks in that tradition, but brings originality, outrage, and pathos to the table.
The music supervision by Delphine Measroche (Buddha’s Little Finger) is subtle and works wonderfully to frame the scenes. From the upbeat mall store muzak to the ominous electronica behind the BOH murder scenes the music is excellently deployed. There’s also copious use of silence, which is a stark and marvelous choice by Kephart. Silence can actually be much more unnerving in a horror film than the most SCARY music. The cinematography is crisp and bright and draped with dark green shadows by Steve Asselin (Borderline). I have to give congratulations to casting here too. Maxime Giroux (Boost) and Andras Toth are the casting director and assistant and they did a fantastic job. The special effects team deserve applause as well since Jean-Francois Bruneau, Jean-Mathieu Bérubé, Carlo Harrietha, Marie-Claude Labrecque, Steeve Lavoie really made jeans look believable as a murder prone dance machine.
SLAXX is a murderously funny horror-comedy-satire with much more on its mind than the shape of your ass. Vengeance belongs to the apex predator which in this case is a great pair of killer pants.
SLAXX is now available for streaming on Shudder. Here’s that trailer. You might not be able to get thermal activated jeans, but you can enjoy a super mind shaping horror movie today. The film is brought to you by The Horror Collective and Elza Kephart’s Midnight Kingdom Films.