Samhain: Killer Cut

Director - Gabriele Rolland

Starring - Amanda Megan (Frosty's Revenge: Seasons Bleeding 3, Horrortales.666 Part 2), Scotty McCoy (The Body Count, Friday the 13th: Dead Before Dusk), and Tyler Ebert (Slasher Scotty, Friday the 13th: Dead Before Dusk)

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Some family isn't worth fighting for"

Format - Streaming (YouTube)

Rating (out of 5):

       I’ve reviewed more no budget slashers in my tenure at Horror Society than any other sub-genre. Hell, I believe that slashers are my favorite sub-genre in horror so I tend to go out of my way to find them to review. Back at the end of September I made a post looking for a few indie flicks to watch during my October horror binge but found myself overwhelmed with over 100 films sent over for review. One of those films was the slasher Samhain. This “Killer Cut” of the film was sent over and while I wanted to add it to my watch list immediately, I decided to watch the films in order that I received them which put this one near the bottom of the stack. 

       The film follows a group of nerds who hear a woman scream in the woods near their home. When they investigate they find a woman who was just attacked. They soon learn that a deranged man has escaped from an asylum near them and is leaving bodies in his wake. 

      No budget slashers are my bread and butter essentially. I fucking live on them and I’m a little more lenient on them than other genre films. I absolutely love these type of films so when I say that I struggled to finish this one then know that I seriously tried. I gave the film the benefit of the doubt but when the end credits started rolling I found myself asking “why?” Keep in mind that this is a different cut of the film known as the Killer Cut which was edited by the killer himself, Brett Harris, but I can’t imagine the original cut of the film being that much different. The acting in this one is pretty much nonexistent. It’s a group of what I suspect would be friends in front of the camera awkwardly talking. There is no attempt at creating characters and the dialogue is so forced it feels like THE scene in I Spit on Your Grave. I’ve seen backyard horror films with no experience and I understand that inexperience is common in films like this but the acting in this one feels like very little effort was put into it. The story for this one is not an original one but I love these films that fully embrace the slasher tropes that we grew up loving. A deranged man escaping from a local asylum is right up my alley. Sadly, that’s about the extent of the story that was thought ahead. We have a masked killer that carries on casual conversations with the would be victims, not plot of the film to follow, and characters with no development. Finally, the film has a few on screen deaths but they are indicative of the rest of the film. Doesn’t seem like a lot of thought went into their execution and nothing really stands out about them. Overall, Samhain: The Killer Cut is a rough one to sit through. I respect any one that picks up a camera and makes their own film but not all of those films are worth watching. I would like to see the follow up films to this one just to see how much everyone has grown since filming this one. However, this film is one to skip.