Rating: C+
Dir: Adrian Langley
Star: Shannon Dalonzo, Michael Swatton, Marianne Laver, Nahomie Masengo Malemba
I feel a little paternal here, since we showed the first Butchers at FearCon in 2020. Now it’s all grown-up and a veritable franchise. Like the journey of all children into adulthood, there have been bumps along the way. The second part was definitely a step down, but we still had to love it, like all our kids. This one does rebound in some ways: a change in setting from rural to urban injects new energy, and provides some fresh options. Though there are still issues. If you’re going to make a slasher movie longer than ninety minutes, you need to have a good reason. This runs 106, and does not have one, sometimes being irritatingly unfocused.
We still have Swatton playing a hulking, bald and near-mute serial killer, likely inspired by Michael Berryman, here called Bonesaw. However, he has changed hunting grounds from the Canadian forests to the urban jungle. Well, semi-urban. Spencerville is not exactly a happening metropolis. It has one all-night diner, whose count of customers never seems to surpass two (2). But it does have a strip-club, the ironically named Meat Market. Weirdly, the performers there never seem to disrobe, which surely goes against the whole point of having such a location in a horror movie. Anyway, Vina (Dalonzo) has just quit, after one too many arguments with the sleazy boss. Heading home puts her right in the cross-hairs of the psycho, who is also in the market for meat.
Meanwhile, Sheriff McConnell (Laver), about the extent of law enforcement in the area, is investigating a recent rash of unsolved disappearances. She figures there is a connection to a “pedo van”, seen in the area where people went missing. Though when Bonesaw learns this, he sets a false trail to send McConnell in the wrong direction, after the wrong white panel truck. I’d like to have seen more of these unexpected smarts from him, which go against expectations of a dumb mental defective. That would definitely be preferable to some of the sub-plotting, involving drug dealing, Vena’s love-life or a trip to a psychic. None of which are why we are here, and don’t add anything to the film, except for superfluous minutes.
Why we are here, is for the bloody carnage, and the film generally gets that right. There are some solid sequences of messy dismemberment, starting right from the off. It’s clear right from the off that Bonesaw is an inclusive serial killer, with both sexes finding their way onto his chopping block. The worst fate is, indeed, perhaps saved for the gentleman who gets his head sawn off with barbed wire [the second 2024 film to use this technique, after (Pri)sons]. When it sticks to these traditional elements, it’s clear Langley knows what he is doing, and there’s adequate amusement to be had. However, any attempts at depth don’t work, because trying to make an “elevated slasher” will almost inevitably be doomed to fail. Hopefully, Book Four won’t bother.