FILM REVIEW: ​4/20 MASSACRE

BY JOE X YOUNG 

Hashy Slashy at its best.

 
This week sees the release from Film Chest of 4/20 Massacre on VOD and DVD. Straight up I have a confession to make as I have never smoked weed, am not into the culture which surrounds it and find a significant amount of stoner films to be rather basic, relying more on the fact they are Stoner films than on quality. Until now I also had no idea what the 4/20 holiday is. I will also go on record as saying that I don’t have a stick up my butt about marijuana, each to their own, as long as you’re happy…

4/20 Massacre was not what I was expecting, even though it does appear routine on paper. Five women go camping in the woods as part of a celebration of their friend’s birthday, there’s a mythical yield of high-class marijuana in the area, so they just have to find it yadda yadda yadda. Like I said, routine on paper as I’ve seen this plot several times before. Where this film deviates from the norm is in the overall production as Dylan Reynolds has made it is above average with excellent brutal and gruesome special effects.

The cast are also above average with a lot of very familiar faces:

Jamie Bernadette (I Spit on Your Grave: Déjà Vu, Killing Joan), Vanessa Rose Parker (Samurai Cop 2), Justine Wachsberger (Divergent), Stacey Danger (‘’Jean-Claude Van Johnson’’), Marissa Pistone (Raze), Jim Storm (Dark Shadows), Mark Schroeder (‘’Pretty Little Liars’’) Jim Round, Drew Talbert and James Gregory.

I would say that it’s impossible, for me at least, to pick an individual performance which shines out because they are all equally good and they turn what could easily have been an average slasher movie into something much more enjoyable.
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It is available right now, perfect timing if you actually want to watch it on 4/20.

80'S CULT CLASSIC GHOSTHOUSE IS GETTING REMADE!
MEET THE ARTIST: KIRSTY RICE