DVD Artwork
A group of rowdy twenty-somethings rent a secluded cabin for some rest, relaxation and drunken frat antics. What’s a little beer guzzling, chest-beating and food-fighting though without a good old-fashioned séance complete with a hidden prankster looking to scare the pants off of his friends! Unfortunately for said prankster, an unnameable terror lurks within the confines of the cabin, toting a deadly sledgehammer and it is none too happy to discover people in its domain. Can this supernatural psycho be stopped or will they all fall victim to the crushing blows of an unearthly sledgehammer?
After years of mucking my way, review after review, through the sludge of indie horror cinema I’ve developed a mild distaste, to put it politely, for low budget SOV productions. I certainly won’t knock the hustles of the thousands of indie/low budget filmmakers out there who put their livelihoods on the line for their art but I find that I can no longer be as objective about SOV horror as I was once was. You wouldn’t know it now but, believe it or not, I actually devoured ultra low budget cinema at one time and it didn’t matter whether the film cost $5 or $5,000. That feels like eons ago now.
For some strange reason, despite my disaffection for today’s low budget SOV fare, I absolutely love the low budget SOV horror of the eighties. While I have many fond memories of wild VHS covers seen during my hour-long strolls through the horror aisles in the local Mom & Pop video rental shop, it was the big box indie horror that always caught my eye as they were bloodier, campier and just plain scary as hell! Naturally the gore was always off-the-charts with these films but, sadly, the quality varied and usually left quite a bit to be desired.
Sledgehammer is one of those hard-to-find SOV dealies one might have expected to see released by Camp Motion Pictures, had they resisted the urge to veer off into mind-numbing slop. I certainly wouldn’t say Sledgehammer is a “good” film, because it isn’t, but some of the effort on display is really quite impressive when you consider the limitations of the budget and technology at their disposal during the early eighties. An original score, impressive gore, an imposing antagonist and some reasonable acting make up for the the visual imperfections of the production and the quasi-mystical, and slightly confusing, nature of the killer. Even if director (and A.I.P. regular) David A. Prior hates this film, he seemed to be borderline disgusted during the extras interview, I can see why early SOV aficionados enjoy it.
Intervision’s release of Sledgehammer definitely does the film a great service as it looks nice and they offered up quite a few cool extras including two audio commentaries, two featurettes and the aforementioned interview with the director. That’s an impressive offering for a film that otherwise might never have been seen again had it not been for the dedication of those behind the theatrical screenings of this poopy pearl and those that released this DVD. If you’re a fan of this type of cinema, it’s a must-have release.
