'Red Velvet' Review

Sex and vivid violence has etched its way into the horror world with a film called 'Red Velvet.' This sexy horror film is directed by Bruce Dickson, 'Red Velvet is not your run of the mill slasher flick, the film itself switches the mechanics and delivers a nicely arranged horror piece, simply the film is almost like two separate movies going on at the same time, nicely paced film that keeps you interested for the time being with an eccentric killer on the loose, who wouldn't go crazy seeing some gruesome carnage spilled across the screen like grape juice on a white rug. Red Velvet is not all about gore which we see in a lot of movies lately, the film has a very intriguing, campy atmosphere which balances between slasher and story, however the camera work was as bad as carving a pumpkin blindfolded, to much switching back and forth between both stories, I felt that could have been minimized, don't forget this is a low budget film, accept it for what it is, a crafty, stylish slasher.

With the smell of fabric softener in the air the film starts off in a laundromat: this is part one of the film, there is this guy, Aaron (Henry Thomas), and a girl, Linda (Kelli Garner), each of them are poking fun at each other and digging into each others personal lives like a course of acupuncture. Linda, the snappy blond, is a girl that snorts when she laughs, has a dumb ass boyfriend and bullies her newest friend Aaron, you can tell at this point, Aaron is thinking about bending this girl over the washing machine and spin cycling the cockiness out of her. Instead of Aaron listening to Linda's banter he starts telling her this story about a bunch of campers that go to a party and get slaughtered. Aaron's story is very similar to our beloved horror gems of the 80's, the story is focused on a ski masked killer with Mickey Mouse ears that runs rampant through the woods picking off the party-goers like cops crashing an under aged drinking party. Throughout Aaron's story he grows a relationship with Linda and the on- screen appeal between the two characters works well.

Needle skipping to the horror based part of 'Red Velvet', the film jumps to the party-goers arriving to a lake for some adolescent fun, Here, the film looks very reminiscent to Friday The 13th, a deep contrast of decaying trees and brush blanket the scene and make it very atmospheric.

A gratuitous sex scene is shown moments later, this chick is riding this dude like a kid jumping on a pogo stick, the duo are going full force and a brutal murder is taking place, not knowing what is going on, we see for ourselves, that this guy is being bludgeoned to death by, what it looks to be, a killer in a rabbit suit. Now that's some old school slasher cliche put in check: Young adults go to the woods, tits come out and a murderous rampage. The film takes it's shots and while not ridiculously gory, there are moments of ballpin hammers smashing a skull and a person literally being sawed in half like like a hot knife through butter.

What I liked most about 'Red Velvet', is that its an alluring film and the two separate parts of the movie work very well, because being a new film that it is, it takes us back to an era of an 80's style slasher. As 'Red Velvet', is a story within a story its not crafted to actually scare its viewers. An atmospheric, hemoglobin tale, that may not be for everyone, certainly deserves credit for it's decorative presentation capturing a very different take in the horror genre.

I Am What I Say I Am 'RATED R' [JohnnyHorror]