''The Slayer'' (also known as ''Nightmare Island'') is a 1982 American
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
directed by
J. S. Cardone. Set on a small island near the Atlantic coast, the plot concerns two couples who upon visiting the island get trapped there due to an oncoming hurricane. As one of the women knows from her plaguing nightmares that the island is dangerous, over the next three days they begin to be killed by something unseen. The film is notable for gaining notoriety and being classified in the United Kingdom as a "
video nasty
Video nasty is a colloquial term popularised by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that ...
" in the 1980s.
Plot
Kay is an abstract visual artist who has been plagued since childhood by a series of disturbing dreams. The intensity and frequency of the dreams have fluctuated over the course of her life, as has their content; some of her dreams are simply of glimpses of desolate locations that leave her feeling dread upon awakening, while others feature the gruesome deaths of her friends and loved ones at the hands of a supernatural force. Recently, her dreams have become more frequent and disturbing than ever, resulting in a shift in the quality of her work. Afraid that the dreams are aggravated by stress and depression, and fearful that her newfound success may be slipping away, Kay's family and friends plan a vacation for her to a small island off the coast of
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. Accompanying Kay are her husband David; Kay's brother Eric, who introduced her to David; and Eric's wife Brooke.
As the couples' plane prepares to land, their pilot, Marsh, informs them that he's just received notification that an
Atlantic hurricane has shifted course towards the island. Marsh hurriedly drops the couple off, telling them that he has to leave the island before he's stranded there. The couples discover that, against expectations, the island is deserted, and populated largely by derelict buildings and the ruins of a once-thriving resort town. Kay informs the rest of the quartet that the island is the place she has been dreaming about since childhood, and that they are all in danger if they stay. Unable to leave due to the hurricane, the others try to assuage her fears.
The following evening, David is murdered by an unseen assailant, and Kay dreams of waking up next to his severed head. That day, she finds David's decapitated body hanging in an abandoned
playhouse on the island. Eric believes that Marsh never left the island and brought the couples there to kill them, a supposition that is granted some support when Marsh is later seen on the island. Kay believes that the island has allowed her dreams to cross over into reality, and that the creature from her nightmares is responsible; a theory supported by the fact that the deaths only occur when Kay is asleep. During the night, Eric tells Brooke about Kay being given a black kitten for Christmas as a child and that it was found frozen to death in the family freezer two days later. Kay blames the creature in her nightmares for the cat's death.
As night falls, Eric goes to retrieve flares from a boathouse, and is murdered on the beach before being dragged into the ocean. Later, Brooke is attacked in the boathouse and impaled with a pitchfork. After finding their bodies on the beach, Kay barricades herself in the beach house and struggles to stay awake, incessantly drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes to remain stimulated. In the middle of the night, Marsh attempts to gain entry into the house. Kay shoots him with a flare gun which kills him and sets the house on fire. In the chaos, Kay discovers a flaming, skeletal creature waiting for her at the front door as she tries to flee.
As the grotesque creature approaches her, Kay (as a child) is woken up on Christmas morning by her parents, telling them that she had a nightmare. Kay's father then presents her with a black kitten, as Eric enters the room. Kay looks at the cat and becomes visibly frightened, as she realises that the nightmare she just had wasn't just a bad dream, but was a premonition of things to come.
Cast
Analysis
''The Slayer'' has received critical attention from film scholars and horror film enthusiasts due to its ambiguous sensibility, with part of its narrative being told in a non-chronological order, allowing for multiple mutually-exclusive interpretations supported by various elements of the script. The core events of the film which occur on the island have been noted by critics for their dubious nature, as they can alternately be interpreted in three ways: The events which take place are entirely part of a dream or
premonition
A premonition is a feeling that some event will happen, typically a forewarning of something unwelcome.
Premonition(s) or The Premonition may also refer to:
Film and television
* "Premonition" (''Alfred Hitchcock Presents''), an episode of ' ...
; a monstrous creature in fact exists on the island and is responsible for each of the murders; or the characters of Kay or Marsh are responsible for the killings.
[ Kerswell et al. 2017 (0:12:59)] However, the script does not resolve this fundamental issue, instead
referring back to itself.
[ Additionally, each of the characters in the film foreshadow their own deaths in dialogue which occurs in the film's first act.
]
Production
In 1981, writer-director J.S. Cardone was working at a liquor store in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
while attempting to break into the film business, and pitched the idea for ''The Slayer'' to producer William R. Ewing.[ The International Picture Company, an independent film studio based in ]Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, agreed to help produce the project on a budget of approximately $750,000.[
As a result of the studio's basis in ]Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, the crew scouted areas in the state to shoot the film, settling in Tybee Island
Tybee Island is a city and a barrier island located in Chatham County, Georgia, 18 miles (29 km) east of Savannah, United States. Though the name "Tybee Island" is used for both the island and the city, geographically they are not identica ...
, east of Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
. Upon arriving at the island—which at that time was largely uninhabited and dilapidated—Cardone recalled it fit perfectly with the vision he had had for the film while writing the script.[ Filming took place in the winter of 1982 on Tybee Island with additional photography in Savannah.][
]
Release
After the film's production company, The International Picture Show Company, went bankrupt, the film was acquired for distribution by 21st Century Film Corporation.[ It was subsequently given a brief theatrical release in October 1982, showing in ]New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in an edited rough cut that had not been color-corrected.[ This print of the film would later be used for VHS releases in the mid-1980s.][
]
Critical reception
Allmovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
wrote "''The Slayer'' boasts some effectively eerie atmosphere and a dark, downbeat attitude. Unfortunately, sluggish pacing eliminates the tension that might have been established between the minimal cast and the sinister deserted-island setting." Gordon Bowker of ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' deemed ''The Slayer'' a "boring horror film for hit-and-run bookings." In his 1989 video guide ''The Horror Film: A Guide to More Than 700 Films on Videocassette'', James Mulay notes: "Director J.S. Cardone manages to present this overly familiar material with considerable flair, considering his low budget, and the film does have a genuinely surreal, nightmarish quality."
Film historian Adam Rockoff praised the film's special effects, and called it a "straightforward, sophisticated, and unexpectedly well-acted film." Film historian John Wiley Martin called the film "a pretty modest, sub-'' Repulsion'' exercise in escalating alienation from the point of view of a troubled young woman." Scholars David Kerekes and David Slater praised the film's opening sequence and noted elements of German Expressionism
German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...
present in the film, but added that the latter portion of the film paled in comparison to its opening act.
Home media
''The Slayer'' was released in the United States on double feature
The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.
Opera use
Opera ho ...
video format by Continental Video alongside another feature: '' Scalps''. It was cut by five minutes or so, in order to make room for the second feature, but all the gruesome scenes and violence are intact.
In the United Kingdom, the film was initially released uncut on pre-cert VHS format in 1983. However, it was subsequently seized and banned by the BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
and placed on the infamous "video nasty
Video nasty is a colloquial term popularised by the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) in the United Kingdom to refer to a number of films, typically low-budget horror or exploitation films, distributed on video cassette that ...
" list in October 1983 in jurisdiction of the then upcoming Video Recordings Act 1984
The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon ...
, which stated that all video content must carry a classification for home video releases. Films which contained extreme or excessive violence, gore or sex had to be edited to fit the 18 classification or banned outright. ''The Slayer'' was removed from the list in April 1985.
The film received a 14-second cut version by the BBFC when it was picked up by the now defunct Vipco (Video Instant Picture Company) for VHS distribution and released on March 1, 1992. This VHS would later become a collectible after going out of print
__NOTOC__
An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book ...
, with an average resale price of $75 in 1996. On August 13, 2001, Vipco released the film complete and uncut on both VHS and DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
, from their "Vaults of Horror" collection. On October 13, 2003, Vipco again released the same uncut version on DVD-only format for their "Vipco's Screamtime Collection" which contained newly commissioned artwork that differed from all previous releases. Although the company was popular, it was also criticized for stating that their DVD releases were digitally remastered, when in fact they were simply VHS transfer prints, which unfortunately led ''The Slayer'' to remain in its cropped 4:3 aspect ratio. Vipco's company dissolved in 2007 and distribution rights were later held by the defunct Cornerstone Media for a brief time under their subsidiary Beyond Terror, releasing the film on DVD on February 15, 2010. However, Cornerstone Media made the film available only with updated artwork; the disc itself is from Vipco's Screamtime Collection release, which is something the company did with all titles they picked up from Vipco. The inserted discs were perhaps Vipco's unsold or refurbished copies.
Arrow Films
Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. It sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online, and also operates its own subscription video on-dema ...
released the film on dual format Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
and DVD in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2017, and in the United States on August 29, 2017. The set contains a 4K transfer of the film and is available for the first time in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and contains English Mono uncompressed PCM audio and English subtitles for hard-of-hearing. It includes several interviews with cast and crew members as well as three audio commentaries.
See also
*Street art
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...
*Exploitation film
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
* Horror-of-personality
*Slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
*Kerswell, Justin, et al. (2017). ''The Slayer''. Audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
(Blu-ray). Arrow Films.
*
*
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Slayer
1982 films
1982 horror films
1980s horror thriller films
1982 independent films
1980s mystery films
1980s psychological thriller films
1980s serial killer films
1980s slasher films
American slasher films
American serial killer films
Films about nightmares
Films directed by J. S. Cardone
Films scored by Robert Folk
Films set on islands
Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state)
Video nasties
21st Century Film Corporation films
1980s English-language films
1980s American films