Sean Parker
We’ve been leaning into independent films distributed through Cranked Up for a while now. While still relatively new, Cranked Up has been putting out films for over a decade as the genre offshoot of Good Deed Entertainment. Though not every title has been gold, Cranked Up is a studio focused on championing great ideas and unique concepts. They brought us last year’s Fresh Hell Trilogy and Replicator, as well as Sheep’s Clothing, Ghostwritten, and Foil. Their films catch my attention whenever they’re ramping up a new release. That was, of course, the case with Gothic Slayers, a movie about a couple of mini golf employees trying to save their town from a demon-worshiping, soul-swapping, superpowered cult.
Ben and Dylan (Ben Getz and Dylan Eshbaugh) are drifting apart, but no one told Dylan. These high school best friends are discovering they are on two different trajectories, with Dylan content hanging out at the putt-putt hut all day with his best friend as the Randal to Ben’s chagrinned Dante, who vies for more than getting kneecapped with putters by young children and humiliated by the driving range instructors. The only solace Ben holds onto is the sequel release of the duo’s favorite arcade game, Gothic Slayers 4, a 2D platformer where players snuff out the goths from taking over their town. But when their friend Dougie (Sully Brown) gets kidnapped by a newly moved-in group of goths, Ben and Dylan must become the Gothic Slayers from their favorite game to get him back.
Director Caleb Haris unleashes an entertaining mix of fantasy action and side-splitting laughs with colorful direction, a magnificent cast, irreverent humor, and an exceptionally talented digital effects team. In horror, we typically laud the practical, but that’s difficult to do here. There are loads of fireballs and soul-sucking effects that would be tremendously impractical to pull off practically. The artistry is well attained for being a lower-budget film, occasionally rivaling the scope of bigger productions with nothing ever looking out of place.
Written by the film’s two stars Getz and Eshbaugh, Gothic Slayers is a mix of video games, fantasy, and nerdy teenagers, making it an insane mashup of Scott Pilgrim, The Knights of Badassdom, and Clerks, with perhaps some Adam Sandler classics, Onyx the Fortuitous and Dude, Where’s My Car? thrown in for comedic benefit. The character work crafted by the duo is also worth noting. The script, by itself, is light and fun but could easily fall into generic ’90s-styled horror-comedy fare if not for the casting of a terrific ensemble and the strong direction of the film. Everyone seems to be having a great time making Gothic Slayers, and you can see that in the solid chemistry between the group.
Moreover, the female leads, Samantha Rothermel and Piper Verbick, are both superb. Rothermel’s approach to an outsider longing for connection is captivating and almost in complete opposition to Verbick’s Jenny, who wants nothing to do with Ben and Dylan. Their differences work as both characters are eventually brought into the fold, and both actresses are supremely talented. Their character work is rivaled only by the duality brought by the insanely likable Daniel Yaiullo as the third point in a love triangle involving Dylan and his ice-cream-slinging crush, Jenny.
Music is another significant factor in creating Gothic Slayers’ appeal. The soundtrack provides effectual changes between genre shifts and tonal changes. The film showcases some impressive pop-punk and rock bangers with an infused tinge of synth. The songs help bridge Gothic Slayers’ storytelling, which occasionally moves from live-action into video-game surrealness. To that end, the film’s music unit knows how to guide a scene with the right balance. At times adventurous and whimsical, at other times brooding and tense, the music team crucially immerses viewers in Gothic Slayers’ atmosphere.
There was one interesting choice for all of the movie magic Gothic Slayers creates. Melanie Rosedale’s character, Maggie, is a preteen girl scout played by an actress who’s visibly outside of that age range. No offense to Ms. Rosedale, she portrays her character fantastically. Still, it seems that when Gothic Slayers decided to be a nineties horror throwback, they really chose to capture the casting associations of old-school horror movies, too. She joins the likes of Amanda Wyss, who was twenty-four playing a fifteen-year-old in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Carrie’s Sissy Spacek, who was a twenty-seven-year-old playing fifteen, and Danielle Harris, who was thirty when she played Annie Bracket in Rob Zombie’s Halloween. Good company, all the same.
What I’m trying to bridge here is that Gothic Slayers is a little on the familiar side, but the creative team behind the film makes many of the right moves to arrive at an enjoyable final product. They’ve brilliantly pivoted their most difficult sequences into a video game animation tie-in that is seamlessly woven into the story. Though the humor can be sophomoric at times, they managed to capture a few big belly laughs from me, particularly with a farcical dinner sequence and Yaiullo’s disposition as Jenny’s perfect boyfriend, who doesn’t see Dylan as a threat in the slightest. It may not be everyone’s taste, but if you’re a fan of any of the films I’ve already mentioned and in need of a good laugh, you’ll find a lot of enjoyment in Gothic Slayers.
Gothic Slayers is now available on PVOD from Cranked Up Films.
Gothic Slayers | Official Trailer HD | Horror Comedy Movie | On Digital March 4
Two putt-putt employees and best friends must face off against a demonic cult that has not only kidnapped their friend but also threatens to destroy their hometown.
