Death Stop Holocaust

Director - Justin Russell (The Sleeper)
Starring - Lisa Krenisky, Jenna Fournier (The Sleeper), and E. Ray Goodwin (Murder Machine)
Release Date - 2009
Genre - Horror
Tagline - " For two young women, an island paradise is about to become... A nightmare of terror!" & "They take em and they kill em"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     A title can make or break a movie.  When visiting any store that sales movies you can find a slew of horror films with violent titles, however, that does not make them good horror flicks.  Movies like Brutal, Borderline Cult, and Dead Season all sound like amazing horror films but they are not.  The title for this film sounded like some sort of torture flick that would ride the rail of mediocrity.  Aside from the Hostel series, I am not a fan of torture films.  After watching the trailer I knew this was nothing like that.  I liked the trailer for this flick a little more than I did for The Sleeper.  The trailer made the film feel like it had a little more emotion.  Horror thrives on emotions and that really excited me.  

     The film follows two girls, Elizabeth (Krenisky) and Taylor (Fournier), as they travel to Elizabeth's father's summer home.  When they are near the summer home, the pair encounter the locals acting strange and the arrival of a white van.  The locals do not bother the three in the van and let them carry on any macabre business they wish.  The three men wear masks; one is a pig, the other a horse, and the last has long hair with an unidentifiable mask reminiscent of Mick Thomson from Slipknot.  The men grab the two girls and kills Taylor.  Elizabeth is able to escape with Taylor's body and rush her to the hospital.  Once she arrives the nurse sedates her and the three men come and pick her up.  Once again she is able to escape and calls her dad before she is abducted one more time.  The three try to take her to an abandoned building to torture her but she is able to kill one of the men before she is subdued.  Her dad arrives but it is too late and finds his daughter dead.  He then kills himself while the two men watch.

     Writing this review is extremely difficult to do after reviewing The Sleeper.  Both films have the same redeeming qualities.  However, where The Sleeper hit with the 80's vibe, this film delivers that grainy and raw feel of 70's cinema.  Russell has a talent for creating that look and feel of decades long gone and I definitely await his future films.  The acting in this film is actually decent.  I was expecting no-budget grade acting and was treated to above par talents.  Most of the cast has no prior acting credits and this is a shame.  The lead actress is amazing and could make a name for herself as a scream queen and final girl.  The special effects are a bit of a disappointment.  In fact, the film does not offer any at all.  Some blood is smeared here and there and one throat is slit.  This film lacks those great kills scenes I was expecting to see.  Also, this is a little weak for a movie boasting the cover art that it does.  The killers are this movie's saving grace.  All three have a menacing manner that is lacking in recent slasher films.  Russell even left that element out of his most recent film, The Sleeper.  The killers bring about their own atmosphere that dominates the screen and really make this movie worth seeing.  Finally, the story is extremely unoriginal but executed flawlessly.  Russell is a great up and coming director and to date this is my favorite film by him.  This is one to own so grab yourself a copy.