Slaughter Disc | Digital Retribution DVD Review

Slaughter Disc (2005)
By: Devon Bertsch on July 17, 2006.

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Steel Web Studios (USA). All Regions, NTSC. 4:3. English DD 2.0. 90 minutes

The Movie

Cover Art

Credits

Director: David Quitmeyer
Starring: Caroline Pierce, Robert Williams, Kreg Klearley
Screenplay: David Quitmeyer
Music: Peter J. Gorritz
Tagline: Porn Kills
Country: USA

Slaughter Disc is the directorial debut of David Quitmeyer, a man who must've been a fan of horror porn like Hardgore (AKA Horror Whore) and Sex Psycho (AKA Really Scuzzy Gay Sex Scene That Won't Stop – okay, not really, but it SHOULD be), as well as Aristide Massaccesi's inconsistent forays into the sub genre. My favourite of this type of film will probably always be The Geek, but for entirely different reasons than why I liked Slaughter Disc. All the aforementioned titles really only work on a 'What the hell were they thinking?' level, however Quitmeyer has managed to keep Slaughter Disc a serious horror film.

Slaughter Disc opens with a clip of clown porn, presumably from Clown Porn: The Movie, a film Quitmeyer's had involvement in. A porn/sex-obsessed guy is watching this clown film when his girlfriend comes over and busts him pleasing himself when he was supposed to be picking her up. Furious at his lack of respect for her in general, she storms off.

Rather than pine, the guy hits the local porn store, where he learns about a new porn star who is making splatterpunk porn. Her name is Andromeda Strange, and her films are only available on her website. The guy of course orders it, but when the disc arrives it looks odd (well, the people in the film say it looks odd, I say it just looks like one of those clear discs you'd get on top of a bundle of recordable discs). He plays the disc anyway, which features a menu somewhat similar to Slaughter Disc's own. He selects a scene of Andromeda stripping, fondling herself, and then fucking a weird dildo until she bleeds. While this is pretty simple gore, I found it the most disturbing, yucky, and effective part of the film. After that, Andromeda breaks out a razor and starts cutting. The guy finally gets creeped out and turns it off. But the film won't stay off, and eerie things begin to happen to him and those around him.

Slaughter Disc was made for about $9,000 (US), so don't go in expecting great acting. The lead performers are mostly okay, and quite decent considering the low budget and the film's content. Keep an eye out for the actor who clearly thinks a take is ruined because of some dropped change and looks at the camera.

The film is unfortunately padded, including the porn, and sometimes the padding is accompanied by an annoyingly recorded voice over. But the film also has some nice touches of humour, and I really liked the progressive makeup of Andromeda.

Now, for the porn. Yes, there is some. However, it's often done somewhat artsy, with negative space elements and movement motion often being distracting. I guess the idea is that the Andromeda Strain DVD would be designed to disorient, but I think this would frustrate those who just want to see what's going on. I also found the stage blood just made some scenes look painful to me. It may be just some fake blood spat on a guy's dick, but it still LOOKED like he was rubbed raw in the end, and that just made me wince. I know, I know, I'm a big porn baby. Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the footage for a quick one off the wrist, but there are certainly two full on hardcore scenes, including the all essential money shots. Because a character, for the bulk of the film, is viewing the porn it does feel slightly out of context with the main plot, similar to the feeling the hardcore inserts in Caligula created.

Video

Slaughter Disc is presented at 1.33:1. There are some occasional glitches, the image can be a bit hazy, and there is video grain. All to be expected on a low budget film shot on MiniDV, though.

Audio

The audio track is a two-channel mix, and is very loud. Dialogue can be hard to decipher, and the audio is also occasionally affected by glitches.

Extra Features

The DVD features an extras menu probably inspired by Sid Haig's rantings on the House of 1000 Corpses menu. For the smaller extras, there's a two-minute photo gallery; The Curse of Slaughter Disc, which is a list of how Murphy's Law hit the production; and a teaser trailer for the film. Also included are roughly five minutes of outtakes, and yes, there are porn outtakes. Some of the outtakes are funny, some are not, but none are too annoying. The main extra is a 26-minute behind the scenes, which includes extra glimpses at the porn, but also goes into detail on the makeup and FX. I didn't mind this behind the scenes at all, but that may just be because there was a bit more porn.

There're also three Easter eggs. From the extras menu, press right on the ? (this is the back icon) to highlight a $ symbol. Press enter to see an ad for andromedastrange.com, which will take you to a Myspace page for the character. Press up from the $ to highlight an @ symbol. Press enter to see a public service announcement about how porn kills. Press left from there to highlight a 3. Press enter to see 4 ½ minutes of footage presumably cut from Andromeda's DVD within the DVD.

The Verdict

I guess it's very easy to say Slaughter Disc is like Ringu with porn, but Quitmeyer is adamant he had the idea 15 years ago. You know, back when Ringu was first published in Japan. The story may seem familiar, but it is the first movie I've seen that successfully merged horror with porn without becoming a farce or just awful. Because of the subject material, Slaughter Disc is far more a horror movie than a porn, and a film that even has something to say about sex addiction. It does sacrifice eroticism to be a serious horror film, but since usually these hybrids go the other way, I'm okay with that.

The Rating