A possessed pair of jeans starts a killing spree at a trendy clothing store.
COMEDY/HORROR
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Slaxx (2020)Directed by Elza Kephart
Written by Patricia Gomez and Elza Kephart Starring Romane Denis, Brett Donahue, Sehar Bhojani, Stephen Bogaert, Erica Anderson, Hanneke Talbot, Kenny Wong, Jessica B. Hill |
Retail and Food Service jobs are the worst. Long hours, little pay, and no benefits (get fucked with your ‘store discounts’, you’re still taking my money so I’m just another customer). You’re often working for someone who only took this job to get through college to get their Bachelors and a ‘real job’ but wound up stuck there after buying in to the idea that this is where they were meant to be. They are thankless jobs where ‘the customer is always right’ and we’re supposed to give ‘service with a smile’ even though we become more of a misanthrope with each shift. Nobody else? Just me?
Patricia Gomez Zlatar and Elza Kephart’s hilarious, gory, and not so subtle comment on the world of fashion and consumerism takes shape (pun intended) with their film Slaxx. Welcome to Canadian Cotton Clothiers (CCC for those in the know), the premier retailer of “ethically sourced, fair-trade, organic” cotton that in no way participates in slave labor practices in third world countries to get their materials made cheaper to sell at a higher mark up. See that smiling young Indian girl who works for one of our many partners? You know she is earning a fair wage and is taken care of because we’re telling you. The CCC store is a plastic environment, a fake world they’ve created to sell you on the idea that you are helping with their mission to “Make a better tomorrow today” (their slogan) with each pair of $150 jeans you buy. What’s not to believe? This is where we meet Shruti (Bhojani), Lord (Wong), Jemma (Talbot), Hunter (Hill), new girl Libby (Denis), and their sociopathic, Patrick Bateman-esque manager, Craig (Donahue) as they eagerly await the arrival of the revered owner of CCC, Harold Landsgrove (Bogaert) and his exciting new announcement. The reveal is the revolutionary Super Shapers that were specially designed with only the highest quality cotton (from experimental crop of cotton in India that in no way contains the angry soul of an exploited young girl named Kreeta, that would be crazy) to create the first true one size fits all jeans. The majority of the characters are vapid and one-dimensional which, to me, is the point. These people are so consumed with the status of where they work and the pedestal it puts them on, though it’s more of a self-important one, that you want them to get what’s coming to them and boy does the blood fly! Slaxx is witty, funny, and doesn’t take itself too seriously even though it’s saying something about the consumer culture we all participate in and lie to ourselves that we’re part of the solution when really we are just a cog in the wheel that runs us all over in the end. This movie also has a cinematic first: a Bollywood dance number featuring sentient killer jeans! You have to see it to believe it and Slaxx is definitely worth the time but buyer beware, make sure your next pair of jeans make you look good on the outside and they don’t try to rip you in half! Slaxx can be found on Shudder so get to it! |