Written by: Ryan Dailey
Slayers comes from the same place as Grimcutty in that it is a very mediocre film with an underlying message of what is wrong with the influencers on The Web, the gullible, young followers and the generation that came before them and pits them against an army of the undead.
Steven Rektor (Adam Ambruso) lures the brain-dead group of Internet celebrities to his mansion with the promise of gross riches in order to steal their followers and expand his ever-growing vampiric empire.
Elliot Jones (Thomas Jane) is a cantankerous, older Slayer that plays into the stereotypical role of the “get off my lawn” old man that sounds like Christian Bale’s Batman on NyQuil.
The story of Slayers is as cookie-cutter as it gets, the only interesting angle being that the filmmaker added a John Walsh, America’s Most Wanted angle to his back story. Elliot’s daughter, Molly (Julia Sandstrom) and her friend Alexx (Emmy James) are lured to a hotel suite by Rektor, under the ruse that he will sign their band after listening to their demo.
Murder and carnage ensue, setting Elliot on a path of revenge. As fate would have it, Rektor is also the producer of the afore-mentioned America’s Most Wanted style program of which Elliot is the host.
The majority of “The Stream Team” are either turned or consumed, leaving pro-gamer/streamer Flynn (Kara Hayward) to battle alongside Elliot.
When the audience is not distracted by the video game-esque heads-up-display that pops up on screen every time a dead body, human or vampire, hits the ground, they are treated to the constant and unfunny degradation of The Stream Team.
This film could have been a great study in how to bridge the generation gap and provide a perfect example of overcoming age discrimination under the guise of a fun vampire movie but it unfortunately falls short.
The younger actors give decent enough performances and Thomas Jane does the best he can with what material he has. Kudos should be given to the filmmakers, however, for having the courage to poke fun at a generation that gets triggered so easily.
Slayers, as a concept, would have worked better as an independent graphic novel or comic book series. This would have given the lore a chance to expand on characters and story exponentially, as well as have the out of place video game HUD device make more sense. More backstory would also have made the deaths of the streamers a bit more impactful as opposed to being shallow, one-dimensional vampire fodder.
Slayers is a movie that is not going to age very well at all, but it is the type of movie that one may dig out of the collection from time to time as a palette cleanser after binging any number of well-made, serious vampire movies that are out there.
Stalkers is available on DVD and major streaming services