PopHorror Let's Get Scared
From director Dylan Reynolds comes 4/20 Massacre, a slasher romp about a few unlucky gals and their camping trip in the woods. Before watching this, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Could it be a campy, tongue-in-cheek gore fest, a straitlaced and serious no-nonsense slasher or a retro throwback to the days of ’80s horror?
4/20 Massacre plays out as a rather serious affair most of the time, with some little bits of comedy thrown in to the lighten the mood. The plot, which follows female friends going on a camping trip, has been tackled numerous times in the past, going as far back as 1980 with Charles Kaufman’s Mothers Day. All women horror films with strong lead characters, such as The Descent, have been successful, well made and entertaining. Many slasher films in general rely on a strong female character amongst a male and female cast, usually to stop the murderer.
In 4/20 Massacre, it seems this group of women friends require anything but a man. Three out of the five of the characters are lesbians, and I’m not sure if this is to substantiate this theory to the furthest realms of girl power, or if this is to speculate that they are vulnerable. Lead actress Jamie Bernadette (Killing Joan) starred in a similar film in nature in 2016 titled All Girls Weekend. Bernadette is definitely one of the strong points of 4/20 Massacre, as she has a great screen presence and plays a very strong female lead.
4/20 massacre tells the tale of four girlfriends, Aubrey (Vanessa Rose Parker), Donna (Stacey Danger), Rachel (Justine Wachsberger) and Michelle (Marissa Pistone), who are celebrating their friend Jess’s (Bernadette) birthday. For the sake of coincidences coming into play, it’s also April 20th and, to top it all off, they are heading into the mountains where ruthless pot farmers dwell, people who will commit any dastardly deed to protect their crops. Donna is the token stoner character. She happily and foolishly takes a backpack of stolen weed off a guy who is being chased by the killer, with no regard for the danger involved.
Before the girls arrive at their destination for their weekend, they encounter Ranger Rick (Jim Storm), who offers up some quirky humor. Storm’s character serves as the “Stay on the trail! Follow the signs! Don’t go messing around in those hills!” bad omen warning which the girls predictably do not heed. All the standard slasher scenarios are very prevalent and in full force here. Of course, with Bernadette being our self defense trained hero, she refuses to partake in the pot smoking festivities once 4/20 actually arrives, because slasher film rules state anyone who has sex and does drugs will die!
4/20 Massacre is a decent slasher film. It’s definitely not reinventing the wheel and uses many standard elements of similar films before it. The killer, who is referred to as The Shape (sound familiar?), is reminiscent, appearance-wise, of the killer in the movie, The Final Terror. 4/20 Massacre is shot well and the actors are good with this type of material, coming off as convincing enough in execution. There is some nice gore in the kill scenes, my favorite being when a character named Buddy (Mark Schroeder) gets his stomach slit open, causing his guts to run out on the ground. As they spill out over his shoes, he haphazardly tries to force them back into his stomach cavity with much dismay. If you absolutely love slasher movies, you’ll definitely want to pick up 4/20 Massacre to complete your collection.
