Slotherhouse
Second best isn’t good enough at the Sigma Lambda Theta Sorority House where the standing president “QueenBri” is preparing for her re-election campaign, assured that her network of sycophants will see to it that anyone foolish enough to challenge her will fail, a contest of popularity and influence where the winner is the most hated girl, never expecting underdog Emily to make a bid.
Adopting an adorable sloth named Alpha as house mascot, Emily suddenly finds herself riding a wave of attention, pushing her campaign although her best friend Madison has concerns about using a wild animal in this way, while the venomous Brianna sees only a threat to her power which much be eliminated, vastly underestimating the abilities of the apparently slow-moving and docile Alpha.
A tale of tantrums, tiaras and terror, Slotherhouse is directed by Matthew Goodhue from a script by Bradley Fowler, based on a story co-written with Cady Lanigan, the first question raised is who exactly the target audience is, presenting kool-teen speak more akin to a series of motivational slogans rather than anything resembling actual conversation and with the majority of the early kills of Alpha’s rampage taking place in montage when they should form the core of the film, working neither as teen comedy nor horror.
The second question is, taking place over the extended period of the fortnight long election campaign, why has nobody become concerned the absence of half a dozen sorority sisters or noticed the odour of rotting bodies in the upstairs rooms? Housemother Ms Mayflower (Tiff Stevenson) may be perpetually drunk and the other girls indifferent, but even accepting a sloth who has learned to surf the internet, use social media, play dodgeball and drive a car any film must employ at least a minimal of internal logic to work.
Populated by cookie-cutter characters, nice girl Emily (Lisa Ambalavanar), mean girl Brianna (Sydney Craven), loyal friend Madison (Olivia Rouyre) and kooky tomboy Zenny (Bianca Beckles-Rose) and filmed in Serbia where the only scene beyond the sorority house takes places in the strangely deserted shopping mall where Emily first encounters exotic pet smuggler Oliver (Stefan Kapičić), the largely British cast playing American characters exist in a cultural vacuum as pronounced as their geographical dislocation
With no existence beyond their online personas and their ceaseless bids for popularity, expending a single line on the idea of hierarchies and predators then never drawing a parallel between the jungle and the sorority house, the pools of blood are as shallow as the intentionally vapid sisters, Slotherhouse never as sharp as Heathers despite the claws, never as sinister as The Initiation of Sarah despite the red-robed ritual of the election, never as inventive as Gremlins despite obvious bids to be seen as such, with only the puppetwork of Alpha rising to the challenge, dopey-eyed, endearing and apparently indestructible.
Slotherhouse will be available on digital download from Monday 12th February
