The Slayer (1982)

Two couples become stranded on a rugged isle, and are haunted by a supernatural beast, drawn to the wife of one of the couples, who dreams of its killings.

Director:

J.S. Cardone

Writers:

J.S. Cardone (screenplay), Bill Ewing (screenplay) (as William R. Ewing)

Stars:

Sarah Kendall, Frederick Flynn, Carol Kottenbrook

Cast

Cast overview:
Sarah Kendall	...	Kay
Frederick Flynn	...	Eric
Carol Kottenbrook	...	Brooke
Alan McRae	...	David
Michael Holmes	...	Marsh
Sandy Simpson	...	Norman
Paul Gandolfo	...	Fisherman
Newell Alexander	...	Kay's Father
Ivy Jones	...	Kay's Mother
Jennifer Gaffin	...	Young Kay
Richard Van Brakel	...	Young Eric
Carl Kraines	...	The Slayer

Storyline

Four young people vacation on a barren island. One of them, a female artist, has dreams that depict ghastly murders. Sure enough, the fun begins when her boyfriend is found dead.

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | unknown killer | mysterious killer | dream | female artist | 

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Taglines:

Is it a Nightmare? Or is it...

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite appearing on the front and inside covers of the Arrow Video Blu Ray case, the creature's face is only shown for approximately 3 seconds of the film's total running time.

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Goofs

When Brooke leaves with diner, Eric had a cigarette in his mouth in the shot before, now he doesn't.

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Quotes

Kay: It's this place... It makes my skin crawl.
David: It's not this place, Kay, for Christ's sake. It's those damn dreams of yours!

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Alternate Versions

The version released on the Marquis video label is the full 81 minute version. The film was also released on a double-billed VHS cassette with Scalps by Continental home video, but the running time was shortened to 75 minutes. Interestingly, none of the violent scenes were altered.

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Connections

Referenced in Adjust Your Tracking (2013)

User Reviews

Nightmares Can Come True

The Slayer (1982)

** (out of 4)

Kay (Sarah Kendall), her husband David (Alan McRae), her brother Eric (Frederick Flynn) and his wife Brooke (Carol Kottenbrook) decide to go on vacation because of Kay's strange dreams that are harming her life. She claims that her dreams tells her things and before long someone shows up and starts picking them off one by one.

THE SLAYER is a mildly entertaining slasher movie that manages to have a few good moments scattered throughout its running time but at the same time there are certainly some flaws to be found with the picture. There were countless slash and dice movies throughout the 1980s and this here really isn't very popular and in fact it pretty much disappeared there for a while until Arrow Video remastered it and released and uncut version, which is what I'm reviewing here.

The thing the film has going for it are the special effects. This isn't really a flat-out slasher but we basically have a group of people being stalked by someone or something. This leads to some pretty good killings including three of them that are quite graphic when it comes to the blood. Fans of this type of stuff will certainly enjoy the effects and wish that there were more of them. I'd also argue that there's one intense sequence where the first victim is wondering around looking for something.

The performances aren't the greatest that you're going to see but I thought all four were good enough for this type of film and I'd argue that they were rather realistic when it came to the performances. They all seemed like actual siblings and friends and I thought this added to the picture. With all of that being said, THE SLAYER really doesn't have much of a story and sadly the majority of it is quite boring. This includes an extremely long sequence where one of the members goes missing and the rest walk around and walk around and walk around some more looking for him. This entire sequence was incredibly boring and just went on way too long.

It's really too bad that THE SLAYER didn't have a few more slayings because there's no question that these were the best parts of the film.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 October 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Slayer

Filming Locations:

Savannah, Georgia, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

The International Picture Show Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1