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Slaughterhouse (film)
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Wikipedia article
'Slaughterhouse' is a 1987 American black comedy horror slasher film directed by Rick Roessler and starring Joe B. Barton.
Plot
Lester Bacon is an old nut-case farmer living with his simple-minded, obese son Buddy. Both of them lament the fate of the old skilled hog farmer, now giving way to modern factory-type slaughterhouses. The father and son go on a killing spree against people who trespass on their property. In the opening scene, Buddy kills two teenagers, Kevin and Michelle, who are having some time alone in their car on a remote area of Lovers Lane.
The next day, Harold - Lester's attorney, along with his law partner Tom and the local police chief, Sheriff Borden, visit Lester at his house to offer him $55,000 to buy his property, along with the closed-down slaughterhouse next door. Lester is told that the demolition of the slaughterhouse would create employment opportunities for many people in town, as well as get the county tax assessor off his back. Lester grumbles about Tom's equipment and bad meat and says that he could do better with his hands, knives and fewer men. The sheriff tells Lester that the assessor's office is foreclosing his property and he has 30 days to vacate it.
Meanwhile, Liz - Sheriff Borden's teenage daughter - is with a group of high school friends planning to shoot a "horror video" and suggests that the area around the Bacon Slaughterhouse would be perfect. Her friends - Skip, Annie, and Buzz - wonder the whereabouts of Kevin and Michelle. Back at Lester Bacon's property, his son Buddy takes Lester to a room and shows him the dead Michelle and Kevin. Lester is a bit unsettled, thinking that they're neck-deep in trouble, but he tells Buddy that Tom, Harold, and Sheriff Borden deserve such a fate.
Deputy Dave, after being informed by the worried parents of Michelle and Kevin, checks out the docks and then goes to the slaughterhouse. He walks inside and calls for the two teenagers. As Dave finds a dead hanging cat, Buddy appears and kills him by shoving large metal sliding door on Dave's gun-toting hand, chopping it off.
Lester then calls Harold to tell him that he has accepted his sales offer. Harold goes to the slaughterhouse where both Lester and Buddy kill him. Buddy then puts on the dead Dave's blood-stained police uniform and goes for a drive in the squad car. Dave's girlfriend, Sally, sees him driving past and waves. Buddy gets her to follow him further down the road. When she walks up to the vehicle, she sees that Dave isn't the driver and flees back into her car. She locks herself in and cowers while Buddy tries to get to her. After Buddy smashes her windshield in, she tries to escape on foot, but Buddy catches up to her and slices her neck with a butcher knife. When Tom arrives at the slaughterhouse, Lester lures him to the processing room, where Buddy drops him into a saw machine.
That evening at the Pig Out, a town dance, the power goes out due to a rainstorm, and many people leave. Buzz says it's the best time for filming at the slaughterhouse. Skip then makes a $20 bet that the girls cannot last one hour at the slaughterhouse. Liz and Annie are dropped off at the place while the boys are sneaking around with masks used in Liz's video. Elsewhere, Sheriff Borden finds Sally's car with the damaged windshield and Dave's patrol car with the door open. The sheriff then goes back to his car and calls for backup.
Back at the slaughterhouse, Liz and Annie realize that the boys are outside trying to scare them. Liz looks for a way to get behind the two guys and scare them instead. The boys split up and Buzz gets inside the building. Skip is at the window, and Annie laughs until Buddy suddenly appears and whacks Skip. Annie screams and runs, but Lester appears and grabs her.
Liz walks to the front door and sees that everyone is gone. At the same time, Buzz walks into a room, hears a noise and gets hit in the face by Buddy. Liz finds a hanging Annie (still alive), as well as the dead bodies of all the other victims. The father-son duo is there and Buddy grabs Liz. Meanwhile, Sheriff Borden learns that Tom and Harold have mysteriously disappeared.
Buddy and Lester hold Liz down on a table, and Lester says that a meat cutter like himself and Buddy have the skills like a surgeon. Lester slices one of Liz's fingertips to prove to her that it is one of the most sensitive parts of the human body. When Lester turns and hears Sheriff Borden enter through the front door, Liz kicks Lester and runs away. She finds her father and runs to him. Buddy appears and the sheriff tries to shoot him, but he hits the blade of his meat cleaver. Sheriff Borden and Liz run outside into the rain. As Sheriff Borden pauses at his squad car door, Lester appears and stabs him in the back. Liz picks up her father's gun and shoots Lester. She then helps the wounded sheriff into his car. She also gets the keys to start up the car, just as Lester rises and knocks at the car windows. She turns around, shifts the car into reverse, and runs over Lester, crushing his head and finally killing him. The sheriff tells Liz to drive away and radio for help. Buddy suddenly sits up from the backseat and swings his knife at Liz. She screams, and the film suddenly ends.
Cast
* Joe B. Barton as Buddy Bacon
* Don Barrett as Lester Bacon
* William Houck as Sheriff Fred Borden
* Sherry Leigh (credited as Sherry Bendorf) as Liz Borden
* Jeff Wright as Deputy Dave Thomas
* Bill Brinsfield as Tom Sanford
* Lee Robinson as Harold Murdock
Release
The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by American Artists on September 11, 1987.
Critical response
The film received an unfavorable review from 'The Washington Post'. Stephen Hunter of 'The Baltimore Sun' compared the film negatively to 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974), and awarded it one out of five stars.
Home media
'Slaughterhouse' was subsequently released on VHS by Charter Entertainment. The film was released in a special edition DVD in 1999 by Program Power Entertainment.In the United Kingdom, the film was released on Blu-ray on February 23, 2015 as Number 05 of 88 Films' "Slasher Classics Collection" series. A restored 30th anniversary director's cut edition of the film was independently released on Blu-ray in December 2015, and is available via Amazon Prime.
Vinegar Syndrome released 'Slaughterhouse' on Blu-ray in 2017, from a 2K master direct, from a 35 mm interpositive and master magnetic surround soundtrack.
Sequel
In 1988, director Rick Roessler prepared to make 'Slaughterhouse II', a sequel that never reached past the script stage. A 2017 update by Roessler stated that he and Jerry Encoe (producer of 'Slaughterhouse') are considering a sequel or a new production tentatively called 'PREDITORZ', a zombie story set in the remote mountains of Goblin Valley State Park in Utah.
References
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