One of the most shrewdly wicked movies I’ve seen in this decade has come to home viewers. If you think films like Saw, Hostel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Friday the 13 weren’t gory enough then seek out Butcher Boys on your cable TV for a sick roller coaster ride into the world of depravity. This shock fest will certainly drain your senses. Available starting Friday September 6 only from Video On Demand. Trust me! You won’t want to see this one alone.
Searching out every unimaginable sordid thrill and bringing it to the screen writer Kim Henkle who gave the movie world Texas Chainsaw Massacre tries to outdo his penchant for the macabre with Butcher Boys and he does. The screwy thing about the script however is that it’s based on a short story by the author of a children’s tale “Gullivers’s travels”, Jonathan Swift. The story is called “A Modest Proposal” and Swift’s yarn involves a tongue in cheek parody on cannibalism, but in Butcher Boys they take his tome to another level.
Two college age couples race away from an accident involving a dog being hit in a depressed area of San Antonio, Texas. The dog owners give chase and we find the couples ensnared in a isolated warehouse district with a number of men slowly catching up in the chase. Two boys and one of the girls get cornered and Sissy (Ali Faulkner) finds her way into a catacomb of hiding places trying to hide from her aggressors. When she finds out what the men are really after, she switches her strategy to run for your life.
Much like the film Cabin in the Woods, this movie becomes a battle of wits as Sissy tries to avoid death and dismemberment. Director Kim Henkel takes his audience to a nerve racking level of terror much like he did in Texas Chainsaw Massacre with many scenes of gore and killing. He moves his characters around a labyrinth of rooms each creating a feeling of dread as Sissy avoids horrors she never dreamed possible. He makes his protagonist work hard for her scale pay in this low budget gore fest, but gets the job done with a lot of edge of your seat thrills.
Ali Faulkner who finally got a break playing Bianca in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 does her best to keep the fright barometer high in this shock fest of a B movie. Grabbed, hit, pounded, scratched and pulled around the ugly mess within the warehouse, her Sissy becomes the focus of whether she will escape from being the prize dinner for some wealthy customers of this makeshift cannibal’s restaurant. The blood runs deep with each step, at every turn and on the plates of the patrons and Faulkner proves she can keep up with the best of the victims in most all the high profile slasher films.
The cinematographers are the real stars of the film keeping their camera rolling with the constant changeups in scenes, honing in on the gore, keeping startling scenes a surprise and providing the video for the action to be displayed in bloody color on the home screen. It’s not an easy task for any camera crew, but with the extensive scene changes, lighting challenges and repetitive camera angle shots that are abundant in most all films of this genre I have to say they did an excellent job.
Butcher Boys has been rated R by the MPAA for strong violence, language, some sexual content and nudity. While most of the movie is tolerable for horror fans, the film gets so gruesome it may make even the most diehard thrill seeker turn away from the screen.
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Ali Faulkner, Johnny Walters, Derek Lee Nixon, Tory Tompkins, Gregory Kelly
Directed by: Duane Graves, Justin Meeks
Writer: Kim Henkel
Genre: Horror, Action
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, language, some sexual content and nudity
Running Time: 1 hr 26 min
Opening Date: September 6, 2013
Distributed by: Phase 4 Films
