THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE KILLER * Australia 2020 Dir: Sam Curtain. 78 mins
A passion for slaughter keeps Box (Craig Ingham) in line at the local abattoir where he can quench his thirst for blood. When Nathan (James Mason), a young parolee arrives in town, Box is instructed to take him under his wing, and soon the two men bond over a murder. Unable to resist the bloody temptations, the two form a friendship revolving around their sickness for killing. A friendship which is bad news for everyone in town.
Overall, this was a pretty underwhelming genre effort. As a build-up of the relationship between the two that eventually leads into far darker and crueler actions the more time they spend together, this has a lot to like with the brutality in these scenes serving this one quite well and giving this one quite a lot to enjoy when it shows them killing and carving up victims with their skillset as a butcher. However, the film seems to jump the gun with the serial killer aspect since it’s an immediate jump to that solution to their problems rather than doing a gradual build-up as we get so little info on Box before the incident that starts them on their killing spree so everything stands out even further. As well, with a real lack of interest in who they are since neither men are that interesting or charismatic before they start killing the film is a slough even at this length which is a bit of a problem that this kind of film.
Review by Don Anelli
THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE KILLER is available on Amazon