A diverse cast and some impressively gnarly gore isn’t enough to elevate a rote stalk-and-slash teen horror that tries, and fails, to make a statement
There’s obvious business sense behind the cyclical resurgence of the teen slasher, age-old formula cheaply reproduced by barely-paid no-names aimed at an easily devalued and underestimated younger audience. What’s less obvious is why in the age of low-stakes streaming, it’s taken this long for them to return from the dead once again. But after the success of 2017’s Happy Death Day and 2018’s record-breaking Halloween, we’re now in the middle of a full-blooded renaissance.
Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy (acquired from Fox/Disney) was a scary summer surprise, this month sees remakes of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Slumber Party Massacre land, along with David Gordon Green’s sequel,
Halloween Kills. Next January, Ghostface stalks his way back to the multiplex in a new vision of Scream. In the middle of that roar, consider There’s Someone Inside Your House, a barely audible squeak, like one of the many 80s sleepover cash-ins that were churned out just in case Freddy or Jason was rented out at the local video store. What makes it hard to enjoy even on that subterranean level is that those behind the film seem to think they’re doing something, that their four-alcopops-in
Netflix night-waster is The Slasher Film We Need Right Now – a lofty, back-patting gambit that sinks as the body count rises.