IMDb user comments for
Sl8n8 (2006)

advertisement

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Index

13 comments in total

---

10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Slaughter night for a Saturday Night..... Allllllright!, 9 May 2007
Author: Greg (gregmoroberts@yahoo.com) from Oakville, Ontario

Quick! Name your top five all time favorite horror films from the Netherlands.

OK. How about just a top three? Top two? Any? Even I have to admit that when it comes to slasher flicks, the Netherlands sits on equal par with India and Madagascar as countries that I don't traditionally think of as great horror genre producing empires.

But then I got a surprise in the mail with the 2006 Netherlands slash and gash film Slaughter Night (Sl8n8). The films packaging caught my eye immediately with a young blonde in a red hoody sitting in a pool of water with a shotgun tucked behind her knees. Call me old fashioned, but this is the kind of box art that gets me to stop in my tracks when I'm scouring the video store shelves for a DVD to watch with the girlfriend late on a Saturday night.

But as we all know, box art does not necessary dictate good film so it was up to the first chapter of the flick to catch my attention.

Slaughter Night did not disappoint. It all begins in 1857 where a child murder has two girls bound in his wooden shack of an abode where heads of other unfortunate younglings lie perched atop spokes. It was as if Jason Voorhees' basement got pimped out by TLC's While You Were Out designers. The psycho is identified as one Andries Martiens and we later learn that before the death penalty was abolished in 1860, men accused of crimes were forced to go down into the mines and set off gas leaks that was 100% effective in dealing with their sentence.

All the movie has to do now is connect the 1857 death of Andries Martiens in the mine to a group of hot looking, expendable young things and you have a horror film that is the perfect compliment to the Pretty in Pink you had to sit through to get to your half of the double feature.

It all starts with the obligatory introductions that are quickly forgotten when an expected car accident leaves one of the starlings of the film (Victoria Koblenko) without a father figure. The accident is alarming and comes just one week after a similar shocking moment occurred in the opening set-up of Disturbia.

So, what better way to escape the memories of the horrific incident than to gather a group of friends and travel to a mine where her father was working on a book about the infamous Andries Martiens. Sounds good to me, and luckier still – that is exactly what happens. Cause let's face it, what's scarier than the ever running tunnels of a mine shaft. You don't have to look further than the overlooked 1981 film My Bloody Valentine to get the claustrophobic feel of being in a cold, dark and damp place where daylight is about as far away as me getting some action at the conclusion of this gore fest to understand how a mine shaft could be the perfect breeding ground for carnage.

Helping matters along is the Ouija Board that one of the expected victims brings along in an attempt to communicate with her father which coupled with their presence leads to a night that has moments that harkened me back to the glory days of Evil Dead where demonic possession of your best friends leads to some awkward moments of 'geez, I really liked you, but I am going to take you head off with a shovel'.

I must admit to sitting with a grin on my face for most of Slaughter Night and really, I have to definitive reason why. It's all been done before and without subtitles to boot. But this movie just got to me. The production values were good and the story was fun enough to sit back and enjoy while the body count added up like a tilted abacus. With enough decapitations to do five or six films, Slaughter Night delivers the goods and let's face facts…. how many times can you say that about a horror film you have never heard of? So for all you horror fans out there that rent and buy crap DVD after crap DVD based on cover art and quotes thrown on movie posters from reviewers that might not even exist, Slaughter Night is the perfect addition to any horror collection. It's gory. It's violent. And it's foreign, so at least you can tell your friends that you are broadening your intellectual scope.

www.robertsreviews.com

---

7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
hopelessly derivative plot, but done well enough, 13 May 2007

Author: movieman_kev from United States

Kristel (Victoria Koblenko) after a night out partying is on her way home with her father. He's angry that she keeps secrets from him and is not paying attention to the road which results in a horrible car crash which in turn takes her father's life. After the funeral Kristel goes on a tour of a mineshaft (Kristel's dad was working on a book about a serial killer, the mine being where said killer died). Long story short, the people taking the tour get trapped, they whip out a Ouija board for no reason whatsoever and release the body-hopping spirit of the killer. Yes, you've seen this scenario play out a thousand times or more. The film is hopelessly derivative and lacks any form of originality whatsoever. But what it lacks for them, at least it does it reasonably well. This is one of the films that when it's over, you won't think twice about. Victoria Koblenko is pretty hot though and it was a shame the makers of the film didn't put her 'talents' on display, if you catch my drift.

My grade: C-

Tartan's DVD Extras (R1): Making of documentary; outtake reel; theatrical trailer; and trailers for "H6", "Hillside Strangler", "Sheitan", "Bloody Reunion", and "Perth"

---

8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Not a great movie, but gore hounds and horror freaks will have fun., 2 April 2007

Author: massaster760 from United States

In 1857, child murderer Andries Martiens, is sent into a mine as a punishment for his crimes. His punishment? He must detect dangerous methane leaks by setting them off...personally.

On a ride home from a club, Kristel Lodema confronts tragedy with the sudden death of her father in a freak car accident. In a attempt to learn more about her recently deceased father she travels to Belgium with a group of friends, to pick up her father's last manuscript. Coincidentally, her father used to work in the same mine that Andries Martiens was executed in.

The new tour guide convinces Kristel and her friends to go into the mine for a guided tour. A tour which unleashes a great evil and ends with many, many, grisly murders....including plenty decapitations! Slaughter Night is (as the name suggests) a slasher flick. In all honesty, the film is kinda like a combination of The Descent, and the original Evil Dead....although Slaughter Night isn't as good a film as either of those Horror classics. This is not to say the film is bad, but it's just not anything all that special.

The performances themselves aren't bad, the direction is good. The editing needs some work as many scenes set up without proper introduction, and the killer seems to pop out in too many different areas, far too quickly than is humanly possible. If you can set your brain on vacation, you might come out liking this film.

That being said, let's make this really simple.

If your a fan of trashy horror films, and love watching stupid teens get sliced and diced. You'll love this movie. SL8N8 features some of the most gruesome deaths i've seen on film in recent memory. Boat loads of gore, with little or no hard substance. And if that's your stuff, then don't hesitate and pick this film up! If your looking for a good, solid horror film with character development and a strong plot with strong performances, go watch The Descent or something comparable. Because SL8N8 is NOT a Horror masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. It's just a fun Slasher Flick with more than it's share of brutal violence.

**I do wish to caution those who might be upset by violence involving young children, because Slaughter Night features a few scenes of grisly violence involving children.** But if you can get past that, check this movie out. it's just a really fun, gory horror film from the Netherlands.

---

7 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Flawed, but technically well-made Dutch horror, 23 December 2006

Author: Camera Obscura from Leiden, The Dutch Mountains

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Kristel Lodena (Victoria Koblenko) travels with four friends to a deserted coal mine in Belgium to pick up a manuscript her recently deceased father was working on. He was researching a case of a serial killer, Andries Martiens, who died in the mine shafts a century earlier as a 'vuurman', a person sentenced to death, but given a last redemption by working in the mines. After a guided tour in the mine shafts, the lift breaks down, and the group is trapped. Out of boredom and under the influence of XTC one of her friends suggests doing a séance with the Ouija board of Kristel's father (which she apparently took with her for the guided tour in the mine shafts). A bad mistake, that naturally ensues in one big murderous nightmare.

The premise probably sounds a bit sillier than it actually is. When watching, it's works well enough to drag you into the story, although it's spelled out a bit too explicitly in the beginning, like the makers weren't sure the audience would understand. Technically however, this is a well-made film, with a surprisingly captivating horror atmosphere. Thumbs up for the choice of locale in the mines and the production design. In that respect, it might even be considered a small landmark as Dutch horror is concerned ( admittedly, an easy benchmark). At the time of writing, I have yet to see "Doodeind", the other Dutch horror production, released in august this year, also starring Victoria Koblenko.

As the previous commenter noted, the shaky camera moves during the action scenes underground are quite annoying. A bit too much, while the fight scenes usually stay in one spot, so in this case the shaky camera only makes us aware of the cameraman jumping around, or was this an arty innovation to make us aware we are in the process of watching a film? It almost feels like the cast is on the verge of breaking through "the fourth wall". They don't, thankfully, since the film is not self-referential in any way, and for no clear reason we get also get a continuously shifting perspective from the camera's viewpoint, almost if the narrative point of view is switching from time to time. From pursuer to victim and back again, a bit haphazard, so it seemed.

After a while, some plot holes and improbabilities put me to the test. The lift suddenly started working again, but - in good horror fashion - most of them didn't go out when they got the chance. One of them (Kurt Rogiers) was axed in the shoulder (seriously hurt), knifed, banged up, smashed through glass windows multiple times. He was a complete mess. Yet, a few scenes later, he was in fine shape again. Furthermore, for some unexplained reason, our heroes mysteriously transform into blood-thirsty zombies after being killed. And after the abrupt ending, we are left completely in the dark about what happened. A bit frustrating.

Leading lady Victoria Koblenko gives a surprisingly restrained and very convincing performance. This was my first experience with her in a feature film and some of the bad press she received in the past, seems completely unjustified to me. Even considering this is a relatively undemanding role (dramatically speaking, not physically), I think she could easily hold her own against many other "respected" actresses in the Netherlands. With some reservations, this film does offer some good old-fashioned scares, and generally delivers, dripping with horror ambiance, and once it gets going, the action is lively and entertaining enough to put you in a pleasant delirium.

Camera Obscura --- 6/10

---

8 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
So-so Dutch Horror, 12 October 2006

Author: coz1kan from Netherlands

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I was looking forward to seeing this movie. I'll give a standing ovation to ANY Dutch genre movie. I would like to see more commercial / entertainment oriented Dutch movies being made. And i would LOVE to see a GOOD genre movie. Sl8N8 was not bad but also not nearly as good as i hoped it would be.

It starts pretty good:

*SPOILERS*

I've seen many horror films but it's pretty rare that you see the killing of a child. And this is how the movie starts - they kill a child! My hopes for a raw and gritty horror movie seemed to be answered but then the camera started to shake. And oh-my-god did it shake. I couldn't see what was happening anymore. Then we get a very very very long introduction of our lead character with a lot of cheap and false "jump" moments. (But the car crash scene was very well made.) Then, finally, we get to the 'horror'. This was what frustrated me the most. The characters were, i hate to say, silly. The shaking of the camera only got worse. The plot, who the killer was and how exactly he took control over his victims, was unclear. The actions of the characters were unbelievable. And what's up with all the fades to black?

Despite all this, there were also some good points: the most important being that there were, for a Dutch movie anyway, pretty nice gore scene's. The basic idea was nicely done. In between the mess, that this movie unfortunately was, there were some nice intense scene's.

So for that, and the support of a Dutch genre movie, i rate this 6 out of 10. It's more a movie to watch on DVD then in the cinema.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Not bad, for Dutch horror, 15 March 2008

Author: jesper_doolaard from Netherlands

The feeling I got after this movie was (surprisingly): hey, this is not bad! Not bad at all - for Dutch horror. I must admit that I've never seen any other Dutch horror-movie to compare it to ('De Vierde Man' comes to mind, but that's a movie from the mid-'80s and i'd rather call it 'mystic' than 'horror') - but that doesn't matter much. What dóes matter is that this movie isn't bad at all.

All and all, the story-line is nothing spectacular. In fact, it's all been done só many times that if somebody'd quickly sum up the events of this movie, you'd expect it to be extremely boring. However, it's a fact that most of the time, in horror, clichés work great. And because the horror-genre isn't so terrible overdone here in the Netherlands, the people that made this movie have a fresh(ish) approach to all those clichés, and turn it into something that's quite enjoyable to watch.

So, strangely enough, here we have a film that's stuffed to the brim with cliché (even the most corny horror-line ever ('we're gonna have to split up') is used) but that's still enjoyable to watch on an otherwise lost Saturday-evening. And not ónly because it happens to be Dutch.

---

Sl8n8(Slaughter Night), 5 June 2008

Author: Scarecrow-88 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In 1857, child murderer Andries Martiens(..who was a practitioner of black magic using the heads as a means for traveling to hell and back so that he could retrieve information from his evil parents on where his inheritance was)was sent into a mine as a fireman to explode methane. His demise(..the myth of his death from the duty of the fireman may or not be the truth;if you survive the explosion of methane, wearing a suit which protects you from flame, then you are set free)brings notoriety to the mine in present day where a guide, once a worker, takes visitors on an excursion 200 feet underground on a tour, explaining the duties and dangers of this line of work. Five Dutch teens + a counselor and two of his troubled youths take the tour into the mine. Kris(Victorio Koblenko)was having an argument with her father over her future when a truck crashes into their car, ending in an explosion which kills him right before her eyes. The mine tour, where Martiens legend lives and breathes giving the guide a spook story to tell, is in the vicinity of where Kris needed to retrieve a manuscript her father was working on regarding the notorious killer..this is where she finds a Ouija board, the manuscript, and a music box of Martiens(..which may have something to it Martiens would've been interested in getting back). On an audio tape, played through a cassette player where her father was putting together a background of Martiens, we learn of why the killer needed 8 heads, and was willing to kill peasant children in order to do this. When the grounds keeper locks the gate leaving the tour forgetting about the last group of the day, they find that the lift which brought them underground isn't operational. Finding an access elsewhere to pursue help, the guide informs the group to stay put. Gathering around the Ouija board, the group summon Martiens evil spirit with all hell breaking loose as he can move from human host to human host seeking 8 heads so that he can exit hell. Once a devastating avalanche collapses the guide's exit, he's attacked by Susan, one of Mark's(the counselor)kids leaving the group to not only fend for themselves, but stuck with having to find another way out. Maybe, Kris can summon her father's spirit the same as Martiens for answers..

Dutch supernatural slasher with those possessed by the killer's spirit resembling those victims from "Night of the Demons"..pale skin, discolored eyes, and snarling shark-like teeth. The setting is just perfect for a slasher, though..inside an abandoned, labyrinthine coal mine, with the lights flickering, where, as the tour guide said while showing the gang around, that if you get lost, you get dead. When violence erupts and the possessed person attacks, the directors'(Frank van Geloven & Edwin Visser)camera is frenzied, shaking all over the place, I guess trying to capture the frenetic nature such situations might produce. The cataleptic state of their camera during these attack scenes as our victims run for their lives(..or try to defend themselves)might alienate many viewers. The cast of characters might be Dutch, but that's where it ends..this kind of cast could star in any Friday the 13th movie, and we'd not know the difference except that they speak their native language. Kris is given development because, as you know slasher fans following this genre for ages, she's the "final girl" who is appropriately established, as is the counselor(..cleverly saved from death numerous times). The film goes out of it's way to keep those two alive at the end while others are mincemeat. One poor possessed soul gets half her head taken off by a spate which separates it from the rest of her body, flesh is ripped away from one fellow's limbs before getting his throat sliced just as he's about to hit pay-dirt from the mine, one gets her head blown apart by a shot gun blast after dying from a spear plunged through her, etc. I think slasher fans, if they can look past the bonkers premise and stupid characters, might enjoy this one. That is if they can handle the spastic camera work..

---

3 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Now, THIS is good Nether-Horror!, 13 January 2007

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It's remarkable what one inventive idea and a little less pretension (and, of course, about half a million Euros more budget) and accomplish! "Dood Eind" and this "Sl8N8" got unleashed more or less simultaneously in The Netherlands – which is quite a big event for a nation with almost no cinematic horror reputation – but they're two entirely different films. The former is a complete bunch of uninspired nonsense that I hope to forget as soon as possible, but the latter actually is a morbidly fresh and effectively gross shocker that'll certainly appeal to a much larger group of horror fans. "Dood Eind" lacked a good basic idea, if only a simple gimmick, that gave you the impression you were watching a special film. "Sl8N8" on the other hand has a remotely original premise and it at least delivers what everyone expects, namely loads of gore and nasty set pieces. Although definitely not without flaws, the script is compelling and several sequences are literally oozing with suspense. Following the tragic death of her father in a car accident, Kristel and four of her friends travel to a closed Belgian coal mine to pick up the manuscript he was working on. Her father was investigating the life of an 19th century serial killer who practiced black magic and decapitated seven children in order to walk in & out of hell. After he got arrested, the killer - Andries Martiens – also served as the last Vuurman; meaning he could evade his death penalty by running into the coal mine to allow the gas to explode with a torch. Martiens died, but his murderous spirit is about to be set free by Kristel and her friends visiting the mine. The death sequences are immensely spectacular since the killer takes over the bodies of the teenagers and uses typical mining tools to commit his ghastly crimes, like pick-axes. The mine itself is a fantastic setting, as it's a dark labyrinth filled with dangerous traps and there are almost no exits. And even long before the lead characters descent into the Belgian mine, "Sl8N8" already featured at least two very efficient jump-scenes. The movie opens with a flashback on the day of Martiens' arrest and he actually decapitates a child on screen! How many times have you seen that happen in recent horror films? The other jump-moment involves the aforementioned car accident in which Kristal's father dies. It's very gritty and quite frightening, I assure you. Like so often the case in horror films nowadays, the cameras are frequently hand-held which results in hectic and unclear footage that negatively affects the atmosphere. I don't really know why many directors opt for unstable cinematography these days. They probably think it increases the involvement, as if you'd feel like you are in the mine yourself, but the end result is more annoying than it is suspenseful. The last fifteen minutes of the film contain too many weak twists and implausible escape attempts, but you'll easily forgive all that because it means more excitement and fun.

---

2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Decent slasher with some good gore effects, 4 June 2007

Author: quinnox-1 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This was a tolerable horror movie based on the ghost of a serial killer come back to life. It's basically a slasher movie with a supernatural element as the ghost goes from person to person possessing them. The atmosphere was well shot with a creepy and claustrophobic old abandoned mine. The special effects of the ghost when he would move from body to body were good and the gore effects were better than average. And it wasn't a nasty gore but a cheesy type popcorn gore which was a pleasant development. The acting was merely sufficient with some forgettable and undeveloped characters. The pace was done at a good clip with few slow moments. The movie keeps your attention and has some tension but not enough to qualify as anything noteworthy. One weakness is one of the characters is very annoying and self-centered that later on does something heroic (in saving another guy that he almost got into a fight with earlier and seemed to despise) which was totally out of character and inconsistent.

In short, a satisfactory but unexceptional horror movie.

---

3 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Standard horror movie but not from Hollywood, 9 January 2007

Author: edingjan from Netherlands

I have seen this movie and must confess that it is nothing more and nothing less then a standard horror movie. The storyline is thin, but is that not always the case in a horror movie? The budget was not a Hollywood budget, as you can see in the movie. But i watched the movie in one track and i was not bored in the 90m minutes of so. Victoria was great in this movie and i hope she will make more movies in the future where we can see more of her. Go rent this movie in the DVD store,watch it, enjoy it and forget about it. It is not a movie where you will talk about the next day. I give it a 6/10, and a 8/10 for victoria (when will playboy call her?)

---

---

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Ratings	External reviews	Official site
Plot keywords	Main details	Your user comments
Your vote history