FrightFest review – Slay
A highly-coloured, inventive slasher film which sticks closely to ‘the rules’ – it’s another picture where a friend group spend a weekend in a luxury holiday home in the woods and are assaulted by a masked psycho (wearing a Nicole Kidman over-the-head number) – but has a lot more plot complications than usual, drawing on April Fool’s Day and Election as much as Scream and finding new things to say about social media stardom. Yes, almost all the ingredients have been reprised multiple times but director Kyra Elise Gardner – working from a script by familiar character actor Jimmi Simpson (who cameos) from a story by Catherine Clark and star Zoey Luna – whips them up in a fresh omelette.
Chloe (Luna), who has been on camera since birth, has come of age as a social media star (he show is called So Chloe) but now wants to quit that to be taken more seriously as a scream queen by doing a bit in a regional horror movie. Her mother (Aya Cash) is supportive but still busy keeping the Chloe show on the road, which extends to care for a complicated entourage. Chloe is the sort of person who has a girl best friend (Malina Pauli Weissman), a guy best friend (Sean Giambrone), a trans best friend (Reise Alexander), a stoner afterthought (Ruby McCollister), an actual boyfriend (Beck Nolan) and her own set of ‘Wonder Twins’ (Talia Jackson, River Alexander). She’s the centre of an unmanageable whirl, with longstanding in-group tensions she is too self-absorbed to clock, and there’s a sense that her new direction is her only way of breaking out of it. A Citizen Kane-like montage gives Chloe’s story so far and incidentally highlights a range of suspects for later, then a talkshow spat is followed by a murder in the gang … who still take a van trip for their weekend break, which knowingly parallels the early stretches of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or Cabin Fever, and settle in for a memorial party with pranks, revelations and probable emotional fall-out.
Another murder precipitates a messy siege, but the terror campaign isn’t what it seems to be … only maybe it is … and the runaround the cabin suggests that someone’s well-laid plan of revenge is going way off track and that conspirators are working at cross-purposes. In many ways, this crew are as hung up on themselves as the shallow influencers slaughtered in a wealth of recent pictures but the sharp writing has a sweet side – even Chloe isn’t a total ego monster, and there are quite touching moments between the friends in distress, along with a sense that where this crowd have got to is a way from an idealist activism (a pink hat period) which was directed at making a better world rather than getting likes. It’s a good whodunit, too – various fringe, mostly parental or disapproving adult figures could easily be under the Mr Nicole bighead though the final culprit (as opposed to final girl) is logical and interestingly developed.
Slay has the expected gore moments – as usual, the woods are filled with mantraps – but also a lively soundtrack, amusing banter/slang, unusual horror references (a fancy dress session features American Psycho and Girl Walks Home Alone at Night costumes), neat little character beats (in a film rife with pushy, abusive or neglectful parents, one unexpected kid has loving and supportive folks) and a party feel which goes against the grim ‘n’ gritty vibe of too much samey downer horror. Yes, these people will exploit their trauma to sell merch – but that’s a better use of it than turning evil.
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