Not that one would know that Slash is a South African film from a cursory viewing – it seems to be making scrupulous effort to give the impression that it is an American-set film. It has imported a couple of American actors – James O’Shea and most notably Steve Railsback, but, apart from the British-born Zuleikha Robinson, the rest of the cast are all South African actors who are appropriating American accents; while the setting pretends to be generic American Midwest. One cannot understand why low-budget films have to go through this pretence of being set in America – Canadian genre films are the biggest offenders here – if a film is capable of holding one’s attention, is it not likely to do so no matter where it is set? Or is it that everyone fears that all-essential American audiences will not want to view anything that even vaguely takes them out of the comfort zone and away from the precious few things that they know about the world? There are times here where this does not work at all – the band members’ attempts to spout American colloquialisms often seem forced and strained. Many of the characters seem like cliches – like the hip streetwise Black character who has no real point in the film other than to keep making sarcastic comments about the backwoods hicks. (Not to mention how precious a line Slash seems to be treading in being a South African film that is trying to throw in anti-slavery rhetoric from a supposedly Black American man).

Neal Sundström makes numerous silly references to other horror films throughout – a copy of the Ghost Face mask from Scream (1996) and sequels is worn throughout, as well as a Jason Voorhees-styled hockey mask; the killer looks almost identical to the Creeper in Jeepers Creepers (2001); while there is also the famous “You want to see something really scary?” line that has been appropriated from Twilight Zone – The Movie (1983). Neal Sundström also keeps pulling daft red herring jumps – people being stabbed with collapsible knives by the Ghost Face, Steve Railsback pulling his shotgun, a joker coming up behind people wielding a scythe, and Railsback making a speech about his grandfather’s ashes and then upending the urn to tip cigars out “Just yankin’ your chain.”

In terms of atmosphere, Slash offers nothing remarkable. The climactic despatch of the psycho of the show is over quickly, followed by a predictable twist ending where such turns out not to be the case. In all, Slash emerges as little more than a generic blend of slasher film and Backwoods Brutality cliches, with some of the Midwest paganism from Children of the Corn (1984) and sequels also thrown in. The place for films like this is the 50c video/dvd rental bins.
 

Trailer here:-