While being on a mission in the South American rain forest, a team of commandos run into native vampires that can be out during day and survive in the sunlight. The team manages to kill a few of these blood-suckers, but at the same time, they loose some of their own as well. 6 months later, they're sent back to the rain forest to track down and rescue a scientist who happens to be the ex-wife of the leader of the commandos.
This is the second film by VanHook that I got to see and I think it'll have to end right there. While the guy makes some mistakes that can easily be ignored and that are forgivable, he also makes tons of them that are not easy to over-look at all. The script for this movie is absolutely terrible, the dialogue feels everything but natural and the acting - well, let's just say that it could've been better - a lot better. Still, Slayer might have a few things to offer that would provide some entertainment for those that are not as picky as yours truly, but if you want the least bit of intelligence in the film's that you're watching, then this is not a good pick.
Apparently this movie was made for tv, that is for the Sci-Fi channel and that channel has a nasty ring to it (and not the good kind of nasty). I guess the budget for Slayer wasn't very high, but taken that into consideration, I'd have to say that it still looks all right. Unfortunately looking all right is never good enough and while it might have a few things going for it, it at the same time has more things not working out at all. It deals with these vampires that has a new twist to them, that is, they can survive and be out in the sunlight. Not only that, but some of them seems to know kung-fu as well, unfortunately someone working on the film didn't know how to choreograph fights to make them look good.
 
So this team of commandos are in the South American rain forest to investigate and all of a sudden they run into these new kind of vampires. Casper Van Dien is clever enough to realize that, while they won't die if you just shoot them with bullets, they'll die if you put a stake through theirs heart. The vampires jump up and down, climb trees and buildings, and it looks like they're hanging from invisible bungee-cords. They literally bounce through the air and it all looks like an HK kung-fu production gone way wrong. What I would like to know here is that: 1. Did Mr. VanHook not see how bad this whole thing looked, and if he actually did, why didn't he make it look all right? Or scenario 2, that VanHook didn't even notice how bad it looked which would of course be even worse. Either way, even if you can get past it, it's a sloppy mistake that shouldn't have been there in the first place.
The blood is flowing plenty in Slayer, but at times it feels like they have these kind of blood gushing scenes just to show off some blood, even though it's not needed at all times. Again, nothing feels natural here and that made it quite hard to get into the movie. There are plenty of fights, but no real violence and the fights are predictable and you can't wait for them to be over. In the end you get to see the head vampire who's a little Spanish speaking man that transform into a huge plastic looking bat-like type of monster. Just before that happens, the guys keeps preaching till your ears almost bleed. I know that a lot of people enjoy these Sci-Fi channel type of movies and you'll probably enjoy Slayer if you've enjoyed the rest, but for me, personally, it's just not working.
Sorry to say, but this is not my cup of tea, and as a matter of fact, I don't even drink tea. It just has way too many errors in it accompanied by, for most parts, terrible acting and boring and mindless dialogue, that might is supposed to be clever here and there but that comes off as quite dumb. But if you're a fan of the Sci-Fi channel and enjoy those types of films, you'll probably wanna check this one out.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Kevin VanHook
WRITING CREDITS: Kevin VanHook
GENRE: Horror, Sci-Fi
CAST: Casper Van Dien, Jennifer O'Dell, Joyce Giraud
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 87 min
RATING: 3/10
Slayer Website/IMDB Click here
Slayer Trailer
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