Short Shear Terror Double Bill Edition: Slasher Studios' Teddy and Popularity Killer (2011)

Teddy (2011)
Rating:***1/2
Starring: Keegan Bergen, Kirk Gilbert and Mike Goltz

I saw the Studio's marketing and I like what I saw. The moment Teddy finally goes online, I took a look and it didn't disappoint. Though short and very unoriginal, it plays its cards right: the story basically revolves in a simple situation where a group of teenagers accidentally ran over a cooky old man, who they then dispose nonchalantly into the woods .What they weren't expecting is that their crime didn't go unnoticed and now the man's grown-up retarded son is out to get them.

All packed in measly 12 minutes, Teddy nailed everything a slasher flick has to offer; good blood, outrageous sex, a cheesy array of characters including a decent looking killer to thin down the numbers. Its technically all we love in a slasher movie, with a production value so decent, it's completely bearable, down to its professional looking editing and camera work. The gore effects could have done a little more grue but any film that could make a shovel beheading as effective as they did it here earns good points in my scorecard!

Polished through and through, Teddy is one short flick any slasher fans can and would enjoy.

Bodycount:
1 male ran over by a car
1 male gets a tiki torch to the arse
1 female beheaded by the mouth with a shovel
1 male gets an axe thrown to his head
1 female killed offscreen
Total: 5

Popularity Killer (2011)
Rating: **1/2
Starring: Courtney Ellen Bay, Matty Dorschner and Jennifer Frey

Looking back at it, the 90s was never the messiest era for slasher flicks. It's a (normally) subtle decade of witty humor, pretty teenagers and often tame murders backing up a rather simple story, often enriched with self-references to appear smarter as doomed teens try to analyze their deadly situation and avoid as many clichés as possible to stop their gruesome fates. (And, often than not, this fails, of course) Popularity Killer is an attempted throwback to this era of bodycounter movies from the same guys who brought us Teddy. Sadly, it only half-works.

After a gruesome murder of one of their friends, a popular figure in school, a group of friends nestled one night to watch some scary flicks after they figured out that the killer's only targeting anyone in the "It" crowd. That turns out to be a wrong assumption as the killer suddenly targets their group, one by one snuffing them out.

Now, see, the self-referential humor here isn't as catchy you would expect it and the murders are indeed messy for knife kills, but the execution of the idea comes off kinda rushed. Editing and camera work are still good, but the acting is very flat and the gore effects looked too standard. 

Popularity Killer simply fails to make up for its entertaining opening, leaving the mystery surrounding on the killer's identity coming off rather dull. Not necessarily bad as it's still the usual slasher stuff, just barely making much of an impact. Worth a look.

Bodycount:
1 female knifed through the head, exits to mouth
1 female knifed to death
1 female knife through gut
1 male had his neck cut with a knife
1 male knifed to death
1 female gutted with knife
Total: 6