SLAUGHTERHOUSE
Or "Laughterhouse", whatever. I must be easily amused.
This is definitely the most enjoyably cheesy old-fashioned slasher flick I've seen in a while. Sure, all the slasher flicks I've seen in a long time have been only marginally better made than an Arch Deluxe, but still, this one's so chock-full of cheese and enjoyable crap, and I couldn't help but smile throughout.
A taxed-into-bankruptcy slaughterhouse owner gears up his huge, obviously retarded son Buddy against those who, he perceives, have put the kibosh on his business and way of life. I say that Buddy is obviously retarded because he thinks he's a pig - if he were just crazy, he'd think he was a bull. So basically, it's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, without the chainsaws (yes, there's even a pretty good one-liner to that effect) and needless to say less style and atmosphere.
A bunch of teens work their way into this mess too, although the movie could easily have done without them. The opening is hilarious - it features a POV shot of Buddy closing in on one victim while he swings this cleaver that's about the size of a tennis court. It goes WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH through the air each time he swings it, and for some reason he's doing that long before he's even remotely in range of the victim. Then we're treated to a whole lot of slaughterhouse stock footage, set to chuckle-inducing dixieland music. Nice little shot of a pig's asshole getting flame-sterilized in there.
One of the more disturbing trends in 90's filmmaking is the editing of whole movies to look like rock videos. (editors must be likely to contemplate suicide when they're told they'll be working for Michael Bay and will have to cut about every second and a half) This has one sequence like that set at a dance (the KFAT "Pig Out" party), except it's edited to look like a distinctly 80's rock video. (hey, the movie was from 1987, it does have an excuse) Pretty funny nowadays - I have to wonder what the intended effect was in 1987.
There's other strange and enjoyable things in this movie which aren't to be missed if you're gonna see it. It has possibly the best "person gets killed/food item being cut into" edit I've seen. As mean as it sounds, this also has the homeliest leading lady I've ever seen in a slasher flick. And there are lots of impossibly bad pop songs by a band called Vantage Point (who I only hope was never signed), although the score has its nicely weird moments, like one chase scene set to the score of banging pots and pans (!). And it's kind of a gimme that there's gonna be lots of cheesy "pig" puns, like "You've gone hog wild!" and "You won't feel a thing. We do things kosher." If you watch it with friends, you can bet on how long it'll take before somebody brings up the ol' "This little piggy" thing.
Nah, this ain't the Citizen Kane of slasher flicks, but it's at least the Hot Shots! Part Deux. Not to be seen sober.