The story of a killer sloth terrorizing a sorority house should have the markings of great grindhouse satire all over it so it was rather disappointing when Slotherhouse (great title) played it too straight to ever be truly funny and was never actually very scary.
This is a film where a puppet sloth (and not a great puppet) kills sorority sister after sorority sister. A film like this needs to lean into its absurdity and find some way to cleverly play with expectations, perhaps comment on cultural references, and make us both laugh and be scared. Slotherhouse doesn't really do any of that. The film's plot is too vanilla, the killings aren't very clever, and while there were a few laughs sprinkled throughout, the script generally wasn't that funny.
Slotherhouse is a missed opportunity to do something truly bizarre and subversive. The premise itself is paradoxical, which gives the chance to take a worn out horror movie setting and breathe some new life into it. But this film isn't that. It doesn't even earn its rather sanguine we're all in this together message it tries to squeeze out at the end. It quickly wears out its welcome even with its short runtime.
Slotherhouse
Starring: Lisa Ambalavanar
Director: Matthew Goodhue
Writer: Bradley Fowler
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