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Sledgehammer

Written by David A. Prior

Directed by David A. Prior

USA, 1983

Genre movies from the early 80s were characterized by two distinct cultural events. First off, there was a glut of slasher films trying to capitalize on the success of Halloween and Friday the 13th. A lot of these copycat movies found a home in the burgeoning home video market, theatrical run be damned. That same VHS technology was now available to the layperson, allowing them to basically shoot and cut their own movie with tapes you could buy at a Radio Shack. This confluence of newly-available tech, a thriving home video market, and a collective cinematic bloodlust was the perfect storm that bore Sledgehammer, a compulsively weird Friday the 13th rip-off shot on VHS for next to nothing, and for good or ill, does nothing to camouflage it.

The film’s story line is fleshed out just enough...

I'm not sure why, but in the 1980's people sure seemed to have a thing for sledgehammers. There was Peter Gabriel's song, a TV series, and even a San Diego theatre group that formed late in the decade. But before all of that was writer/director David A. Prior's 1983 film Sledgehammer, the topic of this week's Motion Picture Purgatory.

Starring Ted Prior, Linda McGill, and John Eastman, Sledgehammer tells the tale of a young boy who murders his mother and her lover with a hammer. Ten years later a wave of teenage murders plagues the same area.

Intervision Pictures Corp. released this first shot-on-tape slasher movie for the home video market this past May featuring an audio commentary with director David A. Prior, audio commentary with Bleeding Skull creators Joseph A. Ziemba and Dan Budnik, "Hammertime" featurette with Destroy All Movies!!! author Zack Carlson, "SledgehammerLand" featurette with Cinefamily...