Shredder

Shredder (2003)

The movie opens up with a group of snowboarders “shredding” it down the mountain. In a refreshing bit of practical makeup effect work one of them runs into a wire that is strung across the trail and loses some fingers. While freaking out over his hand he is quickly dispatched by a mysterious skier dressed in black. The action then shifts to a group of kids (of course) heading off to the slopes for a weekend getaway. When they arrive they have a run in with the sheriff who warns them that it isn’t safe to be there. It seems some snowboarders went up on the mountain, in spite of the ban on snowboarding by the locals. While on the mountain they killed a young girl thru not following the rules and being reckless. With the motives explained the mysterious skier starts to kill them off one by one, including the sheriff! That is until there is just a couple left, but can they defeat the killer skier or will they also be wiped out?

God this movie reminded me so much of an 80s slasher, a bad one that is. The story is painfully obvious and easy to figure out. I knew who the killer was as soon as he/she appeared on screen. Not only is the killer obvious, but also all of the characters are standards for the genre. You have the love sick/sex starved boyfriend, the slutty girl with an agenda, the slutty stupid girl, a couple of stoners, and the “ugly” girl (who is actually quite gorgeous) that has a crush one the sex starved boyfriend. Plus this movie boasts some of the worst dialogue I’ve heard in a long time, and I watch tons of “camcorder” movies. Let me give you a couple of examples. “What country are you from?” “I’m from Europe.” Or how about the classic exchange. “You are all wet.” The “dumb” girl responds, “you can tell?” But I don’t consider any of this a bad thing as long as the movie delivers on the slasher film staples, gore and nudity. I’ll talk about the gore later on, but first lets talk some nudity. There is a bit in the movie, which is filled with beautiful women, but not as much as I was expecting. In fact I felt a bit cheated by the lack of T and A. Not to sound creepy but this is a slasher movie and I have some expectations.

The gore in the movie is surprisingly good. The filmmakers seemed to make a real effort to use practical effects, which I will give them serious props for. In fact with the exception of the last death, which is all CGI and looks shitty, I have no issues with the kills. You have fingers getting cut off, a ski pole to the eye via a video camera, a good knifing or two, and a drowning in a hot tube (which is fun, but awkward looking). Hell somehow the filmmakers even managed to shoot at night and have it look good, which is failing of so many independent productions. Technically this is a well-made movie.

So basically what we have is a mediocre production that has it’s moments. If they had only delivered some decent nudity and they would have been onto something. As it is I can’t be too mean to them because of all the practical effects. Worth a rental or a purchase if it is cheap enough. I picked my copy up for $3, which seems about right.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer