Sweatshop and Expediting the Senseless Killing : A Movie Review

Director: Stacy Davidson.

Writers: Stacy Davidson and Ted Geoghegan.

This reviewer has seen far too many B movies. Right out of the starting gate this critic guessed the film's location, budget and formula within about ten minutes, based on the cast and some other info' on this film. These guesses were all correct. However, writers Stacy Davidson and Ted Geoghegan get very little right in their small budgeted film (less than 15K). There is no backstory to a murdering serial killer and his cave dwelling followers, Swearing is used in place of dialogue, while dancing scenes highlight the film's lack of depth. There is very little in the way of script and the characters are all despicable, for one reason or another. Sweatshop fails on so many film elements. However, some of the effects from Marcus Koch brought the film some horrific class, despite the Sweatshop's many flaws.

Let us see if the plotline can be broken down into one sentence: a serial killer lays waste to a group of illegal rave party hosters. That was easy. The story does not really experiment outside of this very bare framework. Either the budget or the imagination was lacking, or perhaps writer Geoghegan's previous work on International Playboys' First Movie: Ghouls Gone Wild! did not give him enough experience to properly flesh out a script. Either way, character's are shallow, the story is not really moving anywhere complex and very little is explained of the villain's motivations.

However the criticism does not end there. Much of the acting is poor. Julin (Boggy Creek) shows some personality, but her character is drawn poorly. As well, director Stacy Davidson seems to have a fascination with castration, as penises fall out of socks or fly through the air. One really begins to wonder what the fascination is with so much male genitalia mutilation. Either Davidson is envious of this male body part (see Sigmund Freud) or hateful of it (see Gloria Steinem).

Moving along, there are at least three dance scenes consisting of a couple minutes to five minutes or more each. Are these scenes moving the plot along? Are these scenes offering some sort of message? The answer is no to both of these questions and these scenes show the pointlessness of the creative message housed within the film's core. Finally, the characters have few redeeming qualities. There are the usual cardboard character cutouts here including: the bitch, the slut, the redneck, the airhead (sorry Julin), the bad boy etc. Also, these characters behave in disturbing ways e.g. prostitution, lying, stealing, back stabbing, while sometimes poisoning each other. In the end, you tend to root for the nameless killer, hoping the cast is reduced to zero in an expedited fashion.

The final ten minutes of this film saves itself from 28DLA's dreaded "Worst Films of 2011" nomination system. The climax is worthy of being watched by horror fans, as "The Beast" lays waste to a group of ravers with an anvil sized hammer. If you picture the ravers as the film crew, then you find some sort of twisted satisfaction from the previous wasted 70 plus minutes. Horror fans should avoid buying this film, but borrow their friend's copy to witness these few minutes of senseless, gory violence. Thanks Koch for making this reviewer laugh at some of your bloody creations.

Writing/story/plot: 4 (there is only the bare minimum of a plot here).
Characters/believability: 4.5 (dismal characters who only think of serving their gonads).
Makeup/effects: 6 (there are no real spfx here, but Koch's makeup is excellent).

Overall: 4.8 out of 10 (there are issues of dubbing in some scenes, this is one of the lowest scored films reviewed on 28DLA).

*released on DVD September 13th.

**the script used here was initially developed as a pornography film for a well known adult magazine (Geoghegan).

Another review of this film at Beyond Hollywood (James Mudge):

Sweatshop Reviewed at Beyond Hollywood

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Posted in: 2011,2011 release,dvd artwork,movie poster,movie review,plot,plot summary,serial killer