As the sequel hits demand, we take our first look at the 2014 original that missed our radar, six years ago.
Its amazing when we think of it that its been eleven long years since we have had a new Friday the 13th tale, with poor Jason being trapped in the bottomless pit of legal court cases, when all we want is to see the hockey masked unstoppable killer go on a gory but fun murderous rampage.
His spirit is still kept alive thanks to well made fan made films like the much acclaimed “Never Hike Alone” and of course and the more high profile studios releases like Adam Green’s Hatchet, which that itself as taken over the blueprint horror mantle of “crazed lunatic in the woods”, hacking to death, young, stupid teens.
There is something quite delightful about David Ryan Keith’s The Redwood Massacre, that borrows the very foundation success of Jason Voorhees and will no doubt appease those, desperate for some old fashioned slash.
This film itself oddly was missed by us in 2014 and only came to our attention as news broke of a sequel (already out on demand), that will see horror icon Danielle Harris, jump in and battle this new forest bogeyman.
Any horror starring Harris, grabs our immediate attention and for a website that prides itself on watching any horror release, especially of the slash genre, it is embarrassing to write that we have never seen or heard of the original, hence this sudden watch and quick review, before we embark on the sequel.
As you can tell by the above poster, The Redwood Massacre does not pretend or want to be a high art horror, with its dark heartbeat dipped into pure 80’s nostalgia that will delight those who miss those golden days, but will leave those who love nothing but the new craze of slow burn horror, twiddling their thumbs and questioning why they are watching.
Like all simple basic slash films, this entry wastes no time in getting down to business, with a young woman running around the woods in sheer terror as the opening credits roll, being stalked by an unstoppable killing machine that shows no remorse when they swing their blade.
His design, a stitched up brown sack cloth is more of an upgrade to Jason’s mask in Friday Part 2, but to be fair the design is fantastic, even though the obligatory head tilts, should make Michael come out of the shadows and sue for copyright.
As for the plot, well what do you expect for a film of this nature? High complex twists and turns? Basically its what we have seen countless times before, a bunch of hikers decide to camp on the same site where a local farmer slaughtered his family over twenty years ago,
Of course, the killer shows up and blood and guts is lavished and splattered onto the screen, much to the delight of all the gore hounds out there as the film, without question boasts a pretty good bodycount.
There is nothing on offer that brings anything new to the well established genre and there has been much better offerings over the past few years, but if David Ryan Keith sole intention was to bring an old slasher to die hard fans, then he has truly succeeded.
No one asked for a Scottish version of Camp Crystal Lake, but now its here, we were more than delighted to visit this camp of blood and with a sequel now out, we are expecting a bigger and gorier follow up with the added bonus of Harris in tow…..
The fact we can’t wait, means that The Redwood Massacre has more than done the job it set out to do!
Hacked 2 Pieces 