Runtime: 87 minutes
Directed by: David A. Prior
Starring: Ted Prior and no one else anyone would have heard of
From: I & I Productions
The first ever direct to video movie... perhaps is is fortunate this wasn't also the last.
Indeed, last night I saw Sledgehammer, which was the first movie shown as part of VHS Night on The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs. As it actually has historical value as the OG shot on video production that was done privately rather than financed by a studio or some rich guy or some company/corporation (that of course received some sort of official release), might as well give my props to the genesis of so many subsequent independent DIY productions... even if many are not good, including this. In addition, this was the first of many productions directed by David A. Prior and starring his brother Ted. Apparently most of those aren't great either but I'll say more about that at the end.
The general idea of this was fine; I mean, they apparently were familiar with many of the cliches already present in the slasher genre. A 7 year old boy is locked in a closet by his abusive mother; as she boinks her lover, he somehow breaks out and kills them both w/ the titular weapon. A decade later, beer-swilling youths party in the same house & killings occur... at a glacial pace in between the L-O-N-G establishing shots of the house, slow killer walking, drunken buffoonery among buffoons, beer being poured on each other, mustard poured on someone, interminable food fights, Budweiser-fueled charades, someone who looks like a cross between John Holmes and John Oates, White People Dancing (a personal fave), allegedly at least one cast member who WAS in adult movies of the time, amazingly unerotic sex scenes, including one where Holmes/Oates was shown around his lady's fruitcage, a villain dressed like Nada from They Live, & more.
The movie is technically pretty bad with all its faults, the picture looking exactly like something recorded on one of the first camcorders on an early blank VHS tape, and even David A. years later was embarrassed by it. At least I could recognize what they were trying to do: a short opening that presents the killer's backstory, horny young adults, fake jump scares, a Casio synth soundtrack that I thought was cool, a séance, etc. Besides, I have seen some truly dreadful genre efforts, such as Night of Horror or Ax'em, both in that shortened version and its original The Weekend It Lives cut (I am apparently one of a few people on the planet that somehow have seen that). In comparison, at least they seemed like they tried here...
This is not funny-bad like the Priors' Deadly Prey nor is it so divorced from reality it comes off as a product made by alien beings (I am looking at you, Things... which was the second movie of VHS Night); I'll rate it as two stars and move on. Yet David A. was still able to find enough success to be in the business for years and make 50 some odd motion pictures. Also to his credit, I howled at some of the fake names used to disguise how much of the production was done by the director. The editor being “Ralph Cutter” and “Michael Watt, Lighting Technician” is cute, but there is also DAVID FUCHSIT, HARRISON BAULES, MIKE HUNT, I.C. KNUN and JAC MEOUGH.
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