Some movies are just too weird and crazy to look away from. One of them being a film about a killer sloth. Slotherhouse plays with many different genres as it offers itself up as a slasher/animal attack flick you cannot miss. It’s completely insane. But what can you expect from a horror comedy movie with an agile, acrobatic, highly intelligent and incredibly strong sloth killing an entire sorority house in the most hilarious ways possible? If you saw the trailer and synopsis alone you know what to expect.
Not that Slotherhouse is without its flaws; it has some strange dialogue (which would be supremely awkward anywhere else but totally fits in this cheesy film). Nonetheless, at the end of day, Slotherhouse is one of the most enjoyable movies of 2023.
Animal attack movies have been extremely ridiculous and absurd over the past ten years. Examples include Sharknado, Lake Placid, Piranha 3D, plus this year Cocaine Bear (and we haven’t even mentioned Winnie-the-Pooh horror movie). However, few surpasses Slotherhouse in this regard. Even if you hate it, perhaps there isn’t anything like it out there anyway. The movie’s trailer and synopsis will never fail to intrigue you.The real depth into madness is unimaginable until you watch Slotherhouse.
Slotherhouse opens in Panama’s stunningly beautiful and peaceful jungles where we first meet Alpha (who gets named much later on) – our cute little serial killer. Alpha hangs onto a branch over a river in her quest to get some leafy food for herself but then she is snatched out of the tree by a hungry alligator which she quickly kills before continuing with her day.
Sad enough though someone poachers shoot Alpha with a tranquilizer gun in its back before shipping him off to America. There we stumble upon Emily Young (Lisa Ambalavanar), a college girl who bumps into an exotic animal dealer that eventually sells Alpha to Emily so as to increase her followers on social media and make her sorority president. And it didn’t take long before they were being slaughtered by Alpha the sloth in the most artistic and impressive ways possible. Not bad, right? Especially for a sloth.
Alpha might be the cutest serial killer ever seen in any horror movie, but that really isn’t saying much. But he is so adorable. The choice of using a practical build-a-bear type puppet for Alpha was sheer genius as it instantly enhances the viewing experience and also delivers an endearing yet unrealistic sloth which makes his silly killing spree more forgivable. It will also help sell merchandizes.
Those aren’t brutal killings per se; however, they are quite impressive. In this film, you will watch Alpha murder sorority sisters with shower loofahs, sleeping bags, surrounded by stuffed animals and many more. As if such a thing wasn’t enough, he even grabs a samurai sword and suffocates an unconscious victim with a pillowcase just to make him scarier than ever before. For Alpha, there is no morality whatsoever.
Although there are numerous slaughters, the movie does not have a lot of bloodshed. Nevertheless, Slotherhouse sheds much blood than 2023s M3GAN which was criticized for not being bloody enough though this is still less than what many people were expecting from it.
The movie really stretches the limits of sloths and almost any other animals possible acts. Somehow Alpha has all that speed to have an antelope’s as well as posting picture online with the ability to take selfies and can even drive a car. In another movie this would be too farfetched but in a film like Slotherhouse where stupidity is embraced, it makes sense. On one occasion, Alpha cracks open a beer before downing it. He’s fully immersed in the college life.
Truthfully speaking, we all just want some ridiculous killer sloth action and nothing else counts here. Nonetheless, there are quite many things here that truly shock you out of your comfort zone. Firstly, the movie is pretty hilarious at times. Moreover, it’s not one of those films that falls into “so bad it’s good” category. The movie knows what exactly it is.
Slotherhouse never pretends to be elevated horror and isn’t trying to pass itself off as a character-driven film with deep emotional moments; instead it provides relentless action paced comedy flick that filmmaker Matthew Goodhue and writers Cady Lanigan and Bradley Fowler gladly plunge into headlong. There are however some jokes here which are very funny along with absurd kills and infectious energy.
Another thing that surprises me about this film is how stylishly made it is visually. A small window will pop up whenever a new character comes on screen showing their social media bio so that we’ll get an interesting description about them for future reference by viewers. For instance when characters receive text messages or scroll through social media they appear on the screen performing these actions hence making this still look gimmicky and cliché. However, the character bios are fun.
The film also contains a scathing social media critique alongside an unexpected message about poaching and taking wild animals from their natural places in between all the bloodshed and killing. It’s a very important message which we didn’t expect to find hidden beneath all the sloth mayhem, and it comes across well, as the film is anything but preachy.
This does somewhat lift Slotherhouse’s message slightly above that of a brainless 90-minute animal attack/slasher movie with a killer sloth. This is something we are already quite familiar with, but it is great to see Slotherhouse go in that direction even if most of us are just here for the adorable murderous one.
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