In a mild attempt to cash in on the slasher craze of the 80's, writer/director Rick Roessler attempted to create his own horror icon. This icon, comes to us in the guise of Buddy, the retarded son of a slaughterhouse owner. Let's see how Buddy and his crazy shenanigans rank among some of the more familiar horror icons we've all come to know and love.

The story here is rather simple (shocker huh?). Lester Bacon (Don Barrett) and his son Buddy (Joe B Barton) are being hassled by the local big name slaughterhouse owner. Lester owns a prime piece of land with facilities that this larger slaughterhouse wants to purchase. Their offer isn't all that unreasonable either. Lester will get $55,000, a consulting position, and he can keep his home on the land. Of course, Lester refuses, and the sheriff forecloses on his property. Much of this doesn't make a lick of sense, we are never told why they foreclose, or the real reason that Lester won't give in and sell. They try to explain it by telling us that Lester is not happy with the other slaughterhouse's fat content in the meat? Whatever, I guess his intentions are good. The story goes on, and Buddy starts to hack and chop the locals, hanging them on meathooks, ala Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Lester wants Buddy to go after the sheriff and competing slaughterhouse owner, but Buddy doesn't seem to understand, for some reason he just wants to kill. Pretty soon, anyone who steps foot on their land, friend or foe, is not safe from the carnage. Including your obligatory group of thrill seeking local teens.

Slaughterhouse is not only a bad movie, it's a terrible movie. The effects are less than impressive and scares are non-existent. The ending is so abrupt, it looks like they just ran out of funding, and disguised it as an open window for a sequal, god help us. The presentation on DVD from Lucky 13 is another story. The print used was in great shape, no scratches or speckles to be found. There is grain present throughout, but I fault that on the low budget origins of the film, and the clarity of the DVD. For a film like this, maybe it's too sharp? Colors are a bit muted, but once again, this film was made for just over $100,000, by a group of amateurs, so there's your answer. Nighttime scenes are most troublesome, and there are plenty of them.

The ultra stereo sound is acceptable. For the most part the music and effects are pleasing. Surrounds are kept to a bare minimum but every once in a while an ambient sound will pop in here or there. Dialogue, doesn't fare as well. For most of the film, it sounds like much of the cast is talking through Dixie Cups.

The extras are abundant, this DVD is packed to the gills with extras. There is an audio commentary with Writer/Director and Producers, which is tough to listen too. These guys actually think they've made a real film, yikes. There are some deleted scenes which for the most part are worthless. Other extras include still galleries, 2 featurettes (which are pretty much just interviews) involving the Director which is blah, and one with the Executive Producer about financing which is really interesting. There are tons of DVD ROM content, including images and ad materials (in PDF form), more image galleries (also PDF), the original script, budget form and other official paperwork types, pretty interesting stuff for the most part. Now, for the most exciting extra of all, and this bit is almost worth the price of admission on its own. There is footage , a lot of footage, of "Buddy" travelling from town to town promoting the film. He goes to schools and malls and theatres showing the film, to sign autographs and meet and greet the fans. It's almost like a bizarre twist on the Heavy Metal Parking Lot theme. Some of the footage of him at theaters is nuts. At one point he walks in a showing of Slaughterhouse, at a local theater where there are no more than 10 people in attendance. He struts his stuff up and down the aisles, while the patrons just kinda shrug. See the problem is, he walks in during the opening credits, so these people prob have no idea who he is supposed to be. It's a mess, but the footage is hilarious. Hmmmmm, now I'm thinking, is it supposed to be hilarious?

Overall, Lucky 13 has put together a fairly impressive special edition of a film that surely does not deserve it. The transfer is lacking in some areas, but I feel Lucky 13 did the best they could with what they were given. Fans of the film (are you out there?) should be fairly content. I advise all others to first check out my review of Lucky 13's fantastic Bloodsucking Pharaohs In Pittsburgh DVD, and pick that up instead.

Click Here to order Slaughterhouse From Lucky 13.