Sweatshop, The Rave Party Massacre

After watching "The Human Centipede 2" (see my review last Dec. 8) I figured years would elapse before I saw a gorier film.  Not so.  That brings us to today's blog entry, 2009's "Sweatshop."  Unlike HC2, "Sweatshop" is IN COLOR!  Before we get to the film, where scores of ravers are turned into ground beef by an over-sized meat tenderizer, lets chat about the acting.  In this extremely energetic gore-fest, hats off to all the actors and actresses that made it possible.  My favorite was Julin (see my review of "Cherry Bomb" last Feb. 17).  She played Miko (pictured below), and I nearly cried when she got poisoned/hammered to death.  Ashley Kay (this being her first movie, in which she was also the make-up supervisor) and Krystal Freeman both had challenging dual-roles.  Under the direction of Stacy Davidson, all the actors/actresses turned in top performances.

Now, to the movie:  As the show opens, Ghost and Brandy (ViVi Sterling, see below picture) are scouting an abandoned steel mill for a rave party later that night.  In a most ironic scene, Brandy is killed.  Flash forward to the night, the organizers arrive and begin setting up.  Of course, the abandoned mill...isn't really abandoned.  Charlie (Ms. Kay) seems to be the supervisor.  She, and her "staff" have brought lights, sound systems, drugs, alcohol, a disco ball, their piercings and tattoos for a raucous evening.  As Kim (Danielle Jones) tinkers with the lights, she sees the face of a ghoul-girl (one of many inhabiting the mill).  Then Lolli (Ms. Freeman), while practicing her talents in a make-out both, is ripped apart by a beast of a man wearing a welder's helmet.  Her intestines and jaw go flying.  It becomes apparent that this mill is occupied by a beastly fiend wielding a giant hammer and his minions of mutant ghoul-girls.  DON'T YOU LOVE IT!!!

As in many of these films, the still-living are slow to realize that their friends have been mashed.  The death scenes are all intensely gory, many of the head and body crushing fashion.  Remember the skit in which Gallagher mashes watermelons with a sledge-hammer?  This film will remind you of that. Both Miko (Julin) and Lolli have elongated erotic dance numbers...which is unfortunate for them.  In every slasher (..or masher) film, pretty actresses who do erotic dances, end up discombubulated.  As the staffers are crushed, one by one, the revelers arrive.  Dozens of ravers are now dancing their last dance, as in this abandoned steel-mill, there is no safety in numbers.  As the ghouls and the beast start pursuing Charlie, they realize that this raver will not go down without a fight.  No longer a surprise to their victim, the dysfunctional dwellers now must hunt a gal with a will to live.

Will anyone survive this rave party alive?  Who are these creatures that are preying on the dancers?  Is western-civilization's close-mindedness regarding alternative arts an enabler to this massacre?  Not for the owner of a weak stomach, "Sweatshop"is available on Netflix.  Kudos again to stellar acting, direction, and gore-f/x, this is a first-class slasher (...or masher) flick.