Sweatshop

source: Sweatshop

OK, I can sum this up real fast. Run of the mill low budget slasher movies with suicide girls. HOWEVER, it has one awesome thing going for it. A HUGE HAMMER. Yes folks, the big killer smashes people to bits with a huge, and I do mean HUGE, hammer. Did I mention it was a huge hammer? I give it a solid 7 just for the way they handled all of the gore. Plot wise, ehhh, so-so. So lets see, mediocre plot, awesome death scenes and very nice eye candy (if you like suicide girls, I do). It's better than a lot of the other low budget crap out there. If you are bored, give it a shot. It will keep you entertained for an hour and a half. Oh, and you really want the killer to kill everyone, they are all rather irritating characters. Anyways, it's worth watching just for the death scenes.

Somewhere, someone said: "OK, let's find an abandoned warehouse, fill it with annoying, expendable young people, and kill them off in horrible ways! It'll be the best movie ever!" Then, 2 seconds later: "Oh yeah, and let's bring in a hillbilly and a huge guy with the world's biggest hammer (aka: a steel pole with an anvil on it)!". SWEATSHOP explores a man, his sledge-o-matic, and the punks he pulverizes. In between homicides there's mindless chatter and rave party decoration. These in-between times make up a lot of the movie. Gorehounds will rejoice, as the splatter quotient is quite high. The Beast (hammer man) and his female cohorts eliminate the intruders by means most grisly! Anyone looking for anything other than a slippery bloodbath could be very disappointed...

Like most splatter movies, "Sweatshop" features a melding of brutal violence with brutal tedium. This one also has sexy ladies and a little bit of nudity, but unlike the violence, that is not put to much use and is mostly negligible. This review could be used to describe basically any splatter movie. It's been the same story with every particularly violent slasher I've watched recently: from low budget affairs like "100 Tears" and "Headless" to better budgeted sleeper hits like "Laid to Rest" and "The Collector", these movies exist to show violence, and unfortunately, we still need things like plot and characters to string the violent scenes together. If only the people who make these movies could show half as much zeal for telling a cohesive story as they do for showing intestines falling out. The plot (not that you care) is about a few sexy Suicidal Girl types who break into a warehouse with their obnoxious male friends. Their reason for this is to start an illegal rave, so it's interesting that they are all dressed in punk style. Anyway, the warehouse is not unoccupied, there are at least a couple of assailants hiding out there, and you can probably guess what happens next. Interestingly (?) this one has more than just the usual one bad guy that slasher movies always hang their hat on. The bad guys in it look like something out of "Silent Hill" or "The Evil Within". There's only one bad guy who really got my attention though: a huge person wearing a welder's outfit and holding a massive sledgehammer. The conclusion, a must-see for anyone who hates ravers, is actually something special, but will you still be paying attention by the time you get there?

I really wouldn't say that Sweatshop came as a disappointment. In fact it was the complete opposite. Overall it isn't a good film. Its a movie that has poor acting and poor characters that you hate right from the beginning, but it feels very deliberate. The best thing about Sweatshop is that the most annoying characters are killed in phenomenal ways which gives you a strong sense of satisfaction! The last 15 minutes of the movie is where it really kicks in. Go and see Sweatshop if you are a fan of practical gore effects, because there aren't many movies out there that demonstrate gore as well as Sweatshop does!

I must admit that I was pretty thrilled throughout the movie. But there was missing something: A background story. Why was that creature in that old factory? What's its purpose? This movie shows basically a group of people which one by one gets killed by some mysterious monster with 2 survivors. Nobody knows why they get killed or even why that monster was there. Hold on.. Did I see more then one bad guy? Are there some more zombie-like creatures? Where did they come from? The story of this movie does not deserve any star. As well as the dialogs. Pretty flat. I rate this movie with a 4 because it still gives some thrill and keeps you excited. Oh. One more observation: showing some of the actresses topless does not fit in a horror-movie and does not necessarily make it a good movie. My hint: If you have nothing better to do and want to get thrilled, watch this movie. You will not want to watch it again and you will not recommend it to your friends. Still you will not consider it as a waste of time.

In the intro, some naked girl finds herself in some abandoned plant. A cop arrives. But there's someone else at the plant. Both of them don't end up well. Then a dreadful bunch of goth punks arrive to organize a party with lights and a dj at that same plant for some reason. The dialogue that ensues among all these people is mostly sex-related talk. Soon enough they meet two female ghouls with creepy teeth...and then the killer--some big welder dude who carries an anvil on handle with him. And then the killings start. Somehow the party still materializes, and then the killer crashes it. You kinda want Sweatshop to be a nice horror B-movie. Unfortunately, it's not. It's a struggling C-movie. What this movie has to do with a sweatshop, no one knows. Colored lights are annoying, the darkness is annoying, the characters are mostly lame, the voice recording and synchronization are off most of the time, the music is terrible. A party with electronic dance music is one thing. Another is some electronic industrial noise thing that no one makes let alone listens to. I take that back since apparently the songs here are from bands that do that kind of stuff. But, man, it's just not enjoyable. The sound effect are also dreadful, mostly the same 80s inspired synthesizer sound. This movie is proof that multitasking just doesn't work. The director is involved in every aspect of the movie--not a good idea. But that's the bad stuff. On the good side, we have the likable Peyton Wetzel and the hot Julin in the most enjoyable performances. These two are trying their best here. Then there's the fantastic gore, violence, and original death scenes. They're really good. The villain is also exceptional and has potential to turn this into a franchise. Overall, despite plenty of annoyances, the horror aspects nearly save this movie and the lovely Julin is a treat to see. I'm being more generous than necessary but the violence and gore make this movie worth a look.

Sweatshop is a pretty gory slasher film about a bunch of teens setting up a rave getting bumped off by a dude with a giant hammer. That's really all you need to know about the plot. The characters are mostly uninteresting but the redneck was amusing. The whole rave thing is an instant turn off. There wasn't much nudity and more would have been appreciated though the women in the cast were mostly nothing special looking. The main reason you're watching this is for the gore and while there are a few notable scenes, it's really not that great. A pulled off jaw and a head smashed through a grate are a couple of the better scenes. Most of the kills with the giant hammer itself are weak and not very graphic, mostly just the bodies being pushed down without much blood. The main villain was pretty cool. There were also these female zombie chicks roaming around not doing much. There's no explanation as to why they are there and they weren't utilized very well. The gore is still enjoyable and it's a fun film but I can't imagine how much more plentiful and graphic the gore would have been if was made by Olaf Ittenbach, Brian Paulin or even Andreas Schnaas. Imagine the ending scene of this film if was done like the endings of The Burning Moon or Premutos. It would have taken this film to a whole other gory level.

Just because this is a low budget movie aimed at "gorehounds" does not excuse the fact that it's still...well, bad. The acting is typical amateur level and the script simply consists of failed attempts at drama, which usually means one character talking about how another is a "b****" or how they don't "give a f****" or how this is some "bull****". Pointless. But what about the kills? They are inventive, to be sure. But who cares when the actors' reaction to the pain inflicted upon them is to scream expletives even louder? Did you just sustain a life threatening injury or did someone scratch your car, dude? Even the attempts at self-aware nudge-nudge humour fail. They're just juvenile. The reason I gave it a 2 is 'cause the best and only tolerable part about this is all the average-to-slightly-cute white girls flashing plenty of B-cups and the fairly sexy goth outfits and goth dancing.