(Sledge)Hammer Time!!: Sweatshop (2009)

Sweatshop (2009)
Rating: **1/2
Starring: Ashley Kay, Peyton Wetzel and Brent Himes

What can you do with a hulking mountain of a man, an anvil, three rabid women and an abandoned sweatshop? An hour of waiting and thirty minutes of satisfaction.

Here we have a fun-hungry group of punk goths opening an abandoned factory for an impromptu party with disco balls, a life time supply of glow sticks and the whole barrage of ravers coming in later that night. Easier said than done, however, as while they prepare for their big gig, soured friendships, forgotten break-ups and everything in between rear their ugly heads to spark some drama, all the while a hulk in a welder's mask simply known as "The Beast" starts to pick them off one by one with his "sledge-anvil" and a trio of zombie-esque demon girls prowls the ground, making sure no one escapes The Beast's domain.

In terms of production, Sweatshop (2009) has a real decent look to it thanks to some good lighting, awesome camera works and tons of bloody-good practical effects, the latter being the film's strongest point. Clashing against these is a bare bone pacing that felt like forever, with dialogue upon dialogue flooding the running time with barely any characters to root for. We simply have a rave promoter and his buds talk, fix, make-out and repeating this cycle for almost an hour (or at least, it felt like an hour), dulling any bit of interesting character development down to hammy drama before getting the bloody-red juicy bits happen and The Beast makes his presence finally known.

By that time, the film really got its kicks going and as a gore hound and a slasher fan, I am glad all that waiting was worth the trouble; to put it simply, the film boasts some gnarly nightmare logic and the best gore shots as the casts get smashed away in the finest display of gore effects, merciless brutality and untamed grue from bodies splitting in half to heads being decapitated by the mouths. This all leads to a death porn-friendly finale that doubles the kill count digits as Sweatshop (2009) takes a swing at a rave massacre, an entire crowd of partying guests getting killed off by The Beast, teen by teen, smashed with that sledge-anvil in one bloody mayhem!

Bava, here's your nod!

With its pacing problem and uninteresting characters, Sweatshop (2009) is not entirely a flawless gem and may not be for every horror fan out there, though the purest of the blood-soaked pure would definitely appreciate the finale after an hour ho-humming the film's weak excuse of a story and come in terms to what this movie is willing to provide, such as the time to do a few nods to films like The Burning (1981), a little bit of Demons (1985) and even a couple of Friday the 13th sequels. In the end, Sweatshop (2009) is a fair shot at the genre; nothing new but a good curveball that has a grandeur moment of bloody redemption.

Bodcyount:
1 female accidentally shot to death

1 male missing, implied dead
1 female disemboweled, lower jaw ripped off
1 male decapitated by the mouth with a sledge-anvil
1 female had her head purred with a sledge-anvil
1 female crushed and bent in half with a sledge-anvil
1 female had her legs crushed off with a sledge-anvil, head crushed on the floor
1 male gets garden shears to the neck, decapitated
1 male skewered on the sides with pole
1 female gets a glowstick to the eye
1 male split down the middle with machete
1 female gets a machete to the mouth
1 male crushed with a sledge-anvil
1 female crushed with a sledge-anvil
1 male crushed with a sledge-anvil
1 male had his head crushed off with a sledge-anvil
1 male crushed with a sledge-anvil
1 male crushed with a sledge-anvil
1 female hit on the face with a sledge-anvil
1 female had her face crushed with a sledge-anvil
1 female crushed with a sledge-anvil
1 male had his head crushed with a sledge-anvil
A number of partygoers killed offcamera during a rave massacre
1 male castrated with box-cutter, left for dead.
Total: 23+