Slaxx Review: A Horror Film With Style and Satire

Release date: March 18, 2021
Running time: 76 minutes
Starring: Romane Denis (Slut in a Good Way), Brett Donahue (Private Eyes), Sehar Bhojani (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Stephen Bogaert (The Umbrella Academy)
Directed by Elza Kephart (Go in the Wilderness).

A possessed pair of jeans is brought to life to punish the unscrupulous practices of a trendy clothing company. Shipped to the company’s flagship store, Slaxx proceeds to wreak carnage on staff locked in overnight to set up the new collection. 

Slaxx has a definite sense of style and satire.  Being a film about fashion, it makes sense that the colors are bright and vibrant.  The clothing pops and feels like the film has an overall more colorful palette than I am used to in this genre.  But it also has plenty of style from the characters as well.  Playing into the satirical nature of the film, the characters have exaggerated, over the top fashion personas that also help to bring the satire to life.  And the film itself deals with themes in a quirky, biting way, from sustainable causes, to fashion in general, and corporate culture, the film definitely has something to say. 

The acting and the characters are good and bring this film to life.  There is a diverse cast of characters that touch on all sorts of tropes in retail and fashion.  And although this is a horror film involving an indiscriminate pair of killer jeans, it also stays mostly on the thriller side.  There is some suspense and a lot of gore in this, but as with everything in this film, it can feel over the top.  Spouts of blood and severed limbs aplenty shine through in this fashionable fright fest. 

However, the movie's main antagonist is a killer pair of jeans.  It is clever, but also can feel very ridiculous when put in motion.  I appreciate that the ridiculousness might have been just an extension of the overall satire, but it does come off as strange during the movie.  Seeing an animated pair of jeans performing some of the aggressive things that this villain does just doesn't invoke much fear.  And although I appreciate the message that this film is trying to convey, I feel like it doesn't highlight the underlying morality enough.  It comes in occasionally but it really is only a brief sequence in this slim horror film.

Slaxx is a horror film with style and satire, using its quirky characters and ridiculous villain to deliver a biting message about corporate culture and exploitation.

Rent it.

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Slaxx is available to stream on Shudder starting March 18, 2021.