Slice (2018)

This one caught my eye when it popped up in Amazon Prime. It was one of those flicks that seemed to be a horror comedy based on the trailer and while those can go horribly wrong, I thought I’d give this one a shot. The worst that happens is I hate it and turn it off. Though I never turn off movies no matter how miserable they make me… Damn it!

Slice takes place in a small town called Kingfisher. It was home to a haunted asylum and there were so many ghosts hanging around that they actually have their own neighborhood. In this world everyone believes in and can see spirits. We also have werewolves and witches running around, so this town is used to the spooky stuff. But people still got to eat so Kingfisher also has a crappy little pizza place and it is here that things get interesting.

The action kicks off when a delivery boy is killed with the pizza in his hand on a porch in the ghost neighborhood! The police get involved and the rumors fly about a departed killer, aka. a ghost murderer. But one cop in particular thinks that a werewolf is responsible. Why? It’s too complicated to try and explain. Fast forwarding to the end there is a gateway to hell, some witches trying to create an army of ghosts, and the werewolf does show up, only he is a nice guy and not the killer. Not really a spoiler since this is obvious from the start.

Slice is a difficult movie to categorize. The movie leans more on comedy than it does horror. The jokes come quickly and most of them land. You have an excellent cast including some familiar faces like Chris Parnell and Paul Scheer in supporting roles. Both are very funny and help move the story along with small but important characters. I was also surprised by how much I liked Chance the Rapper as the lead character, Dax. The guy has some acting talent and is great in the movie. The pacing of the movie is perfect as it never dwells on anything too long. The eighty-three-minute-long runtime flies right by.

I do like the cast

I was a bit disappointed in the horror parts of the movie. The ghosts are okay, but the kills are all CGI and tame. We don’t get to see too much mayhem and while one of the main characters is a werewolf, we don’t get to see it until the very end. When it does appear, the makeup leaves a lot to be desired. Think a very simple face appliance and some furry gloves. Honestly Michael J. Fox’s Teen Wolf was scarier. The end of the movie has a gateway to Hell opening up and that is handled with some cringeworthy CGI.

The horror part doesn’t work too well, but the jokes do. Still I find it hard to recommend the movie considering the obvious flaws. While I laughed more than once and like the cast the movie isn’t that great. It is a totally harmless way to kill some time, but this isn’t something that I could every see myself watching again. If you get the chance to check it out for free on some streaming service, then I suppose it is worth your time. Though I wouldn’t spend any money tracking down a copy.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer