Las reglas de Slaughterhouse

A new outing by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg and the team.

If you like their work you will enjoy this, it had a tight script and whole cast got behind the material.

I enjoyed it from start to finish not so many belly laughs but plenty of lighthearted humour. I agree it's not everyone's cup of tea but what is!

This was a real mixed-bag of a film. Tries to be a horror-comedy without being particularly scary or funny and uses elements we've seen from stories set at boarding schools like this many times before.

My main issue is the film's first half which does a rather sloppy job setting up the overall story, characters and elements that lead to later payoffs. It also treats the audience like they're stupid at points, showing flashbacks of scenes that literally occurred five minutes beforehand as if we've already forgotten them. This combined with awful dialogue and an odd structure make the first 45 minutes an extremely tedious watch.

When the second half kicks in with the proper introduction of the creatures it becomes a lot more enjoyable, as it truly embraces the gore-fest it becomes. On a production side it's all fairly competent with decent direction and visual effects for the most part. All the acting is fine, with the ever-charming Simon Pegg and Asa Butterfield putting in the best performances.

Overall, if the film had a better script with some more interesting characters who don't all have surface-level motivations then this may have turned out to be a enjoyable experience. Alas, it feels like a wasted opportunity.

As one who loves 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz' this was a bit disappointing. Pegg, Frost, and Sheen play supporting characters more or less, while the students are the main cast. They unfortunately don't bring enough comedy or drama to make you feel invested in them. And it feels as though two thirds of the movie goes by until something actually happens and it gets going.

Wasn't terrible or anything, but as a comedy/horror it just doesn't have enough of either.

This film seemed to be running in a lot of directions at once without getting anywhere.

It oscillated constantly between trying to be a farce, a horror flick, a comedy, a romance, a social commentary, and an environmental movie.

The problem is while it was bouncing around trying to condemn fracking, homophobia, teen suicide, classicism, British imperialism, private education, capitalism, and a bunch of other stuff, it gave short shrift to character and plot development.

The saddest part of all this is they had some stellar actors to work with, including: Michael Sheen, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Margot Robbie.

With that kind of star power this should have been a slam dunk, but it simply wasn't.

Instead of a hilarious horror comedy; this ended up being a big tangled mess of missed opportunities.

Between the plethora of plot points and the massive cast of characters, there was simply too much going on for the audience to get much out of the film.

When you're asked to care about everything and everyone all at once, the sad reality is you end up caring about none of it because Slaughterhouse Rulez never gives you a chance to get invested in any of the storylines beyond the surface level.

It's too bad someone with a stronger vision who understands that less is sometimes more had not gotten ahold of this script.

If someone had simply paired it down to a more streamline concept, this could have been spectacular.

Instead, it mostly ended up being a slightly frustrating and therefore largely forgettable mess.

Whereas this misses the vital team members of the cornetto team namely Nira Park and the combined writing efforts of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright it still produces the goods.

In a way I wish I hadn't read the other reviews - sure people must've seen a different film!? But here goes mine ....

So basically this film is a combination of the style and horror rom com of Shaun of the Dead and the 1960s dark rebellious movies such as IF , Unman Wittering and Zigo , Goodbye Mr Chips . If you've seen those films you'll get the comedy cues . If you haven't you might struggle . It also has more than a little parody of Harry Potter.

What was good about the movie ? Casting - casting a female lead who's actual name is Harmoine was genius ! Simon Pegg and Margot Robbie's failing romance . The matron was a great casting real St Trinians styling .

What was not so good ? Martin Sheen and Simon Peggs characters seem to merge into one the scripting could have been better here . It couldn't be described as horror the creatures weren't at all horrific . At times it laboured and you felt you wanted the film to end quicker .

The themes were reluctant aspiration , good over evil ,failing and seemingly unobtainable romance . Bullying . Deceit . Parental pressure . Isolation and abandonment. Tradition vs contemporary and changing times and accepting of LGBTQ's etc

It was a story of symbolism and the changing landscape of the economics of the country , whereas public schools were originally for the male elite to be shoehorned into their roles of leading the country the Slaughterhouse school ( looking a lot like Stowe ) has to reluctantly adapt itself to accepting girls and foreign students to prop up its finances .

Then there's the more sinister side of the headmaster's dealings with unethical corporations and the final retribution of triumph of good over evil.

Horror fans might be disappointed by the lack of actual horror - it certainly wasn't a movie where you'd jump out of your skin but it wasn't a bad movie and is an enjoyable watch if you go there with the right expectations . The comedy propped it up .

Pad.A 8/10 Padreviews