A
As the new academic year starts, the members of Sigma Lambda Theta, a university sorority, are excited about rush week and the upcoming election for sorority president. Brianna, the popular mean girl, is expected to win for the third consecutive year. However, Emily is determined to become popular in this world where one’s worth is measured by social media likes and followers. In an attempt to gain attention, she adopts a three-toed sloth from a questionable exotic animal importer and brings it to the sorority house. Little do they know, the sloth named Alpha is actually a dangerous killer with sharp claws and surprising skills such as driving, using a computer, and taking selfies.
As the above might suggest, the very premise of this film is fantastically daft – so silly that one can only imagine that director Matthew Goodhue and writers Bradley Fowler and Cady Lanigan cooked up the idea while bingeing lord knows what infernal substance. Perhaps someone dared them to make a horror film with the most unlikely species they could think of, and after dismissing platypuses (already used in Phineas and Ferb), echidnas (Sonic the Hedgehog), and dwarf lemurs (Madagascar), they settled on sloths.
Unfortunately, Slotherhouse falls short of being truly humorous, despite its easy target of the American college Greek system. It may have benefited from more revisions to achieve a biting satire similar to the New Zealand film Black Sheep, which successfully blended comedy and horror. The limited budget is evident in the film’s setting, mostly confined to two or three locations in Serbia, and the use of British actors to portray American sorority sisters. However, the actors, particularly Ambalavanar, EastEnders veteran Craven, and Bianca Beckles-Rose (who plays the comedic butch character among the female leads), deserve recognition for their committed performances and ability to maintain a serious demeanor while delivering screams.
Source: theguardian.com
