''L.A. Slasher'' is a 2015 American

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

slasher film A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...

co-written and directed by Martin Owen. The film stars

Andy Dick Andrew Roane Dick (born Andrew Thomlinson, December 21, 1965) is an American actor and comedian. Dick was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and joined The Second City and studied improvisational theater. Dick has had a long career as a stand ...

Drake Bell Jared Drake Bell (born June 27, 1986) is an American actor and musician. Born in Newport Beach, California, he began his career as a child actor in the 1990s, appearing on ''Home Improvement (TV series), Home Improvement'' (1994) and in severa ...

Mischa Barton Mischa Anne Marsden Barton (born 24 January 1986) is a British-American film, television, and stage actress. She began her career on the stage, appearing in Tony Kushner's '' Slavs!'' and took the lead in James Lapine's '' Twelve Dreams'' at ...

, and

Dave Bautista David Michael Bautista Jr. (born January 18, 1969) is an American actor and retired professional wrestler. Regarded as one of the most prolific professional wrestlers of his generation, he rose to fame for his multiple stints in WWE betwee ...

. The film was released on June 26, 2015 in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

by Arthur Jones.

Plot

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

learns that the city’s minor celebrities are being stalked when The Reality Star is found wandering the Hollywood hills wrapped in bloodied bandages. The self-proclaimed pop culture obsessed L.A. Slasher, a masked killer with a burning hatred for

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

, begins abducting and torturing various stars while amassing a large cult following that monitors his activities as he posts videos online. The Slasher stalks The Heiress as she dines with her friend The Socialite. After picking up a stash of cocaine from a pair of Drug Dealers in a cheap motel room, The Heiress is grounded by her parents for embarrassing herself while high at a family dinner. The Slasher abducts The Heiress from her room and later kidnaps The Socialite, as well. As the kidnappings and torture continue, the citizens of Los Angeles are interviewed about the actions of the Slasher; most people generally do not care and feel that society is better off without them. While The Actress hosts a party attended by her friend The Stripper, The Slasher nearly drowns The Teen Mom in a pool before abducting her. The Slasher releases video of the captive Heiress, prompting her parents to beg for her release on TV. The Mayor publicly decries The Slasher’s actions. The Slasher then forcibly kidnaps him after The Mayor has a drunken sexual encounter with two women in a car outside a sleazy bar. After taking a drive with The Actress, The Stripper ends up abducted by The Slasher. Meanwhile, The Producer plans on making a horror movie based on the crimes and The Slasher kidnaps him, too. Holding his victims captive, The Slasher forces everyone to perform humiliating auditions that he posts online for his followers’ entertainment. The Teen Mom is killed on camera with an ax while dressed as Marilyn Monroe. The Slasher cuts off The Socialite’s fingers. He then briefly attends a group therapy session at a Killers Anonymous meeting, but leaves before participating. The Slasher next abducts The Popstar at a boxing gym. After getting a haircut, The Slasher attacks The Heiress back at his lair. The Slasher then kidnaps The Actress while she searches for her missing stripper friend. The Slasher releases The Stripper in order to play a cat and mouse game. The Stripper escapes to an abandoned gas station with online-enabled cameras, but no one watching at home responds to her cries for help. The Slasher continues chasing The Stripper through the desert before finally running her over with his van. The Drug Dealers come to the desert looking for the location of an underground drug lab. One of the Drug Dealers reveals himself to be an Undercover Cop after calling in the discovery of The Stripper’s body lying in the sand. The other Drug Dealer shoots the Undercover Cop, but The Slasher then kills the Drug Dealer with a machete. The Slasher loads up his van with the remaining hostages and drives into the city. He meets The Reporter who has been covering his crimes for local newscasts and they kiss because she “understands him.” The police arrive at The Slasher’s desert lair with an ambulance. They discover The Mayor being held captive and forced to watch recordings of disgraced politicians making public apologies. The police also rescue The Actress. After making his escape with The Reporter, The Slasher uses a remote control to unlock the back doors of his van. The Producer, The Popstar, The Heiress, and The Socialite go free.

Cast

Marketing

A theatrical trailer was released on September 24, 2014. on June 24, 2015, the official theatrical poster was released.

Release

On February 9, 2015, Archstone Distribution had acquired all North American distribution rights to the film and planned to release the film through

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...

in 2015. The film was released in a

on June 26, 2015, with December 1, 2015 DVD and December 8, 2015 VOD releases to follow.

Reception

The film holds a 0% rating on the review aggregate

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

; the average rating is 2.5/10 based on five reviews. Camilla Jackson of ''

Fangoria ''Fangoria'' is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr. The magazine was originally released i ...

'' gave it a positive review of 3 out of 4 stars, describing it as a "colorful feast for the eyes." Clayton Dillard of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four stars and wrote, "It

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

inflates the meta conceit (already borderline overblown) of a pop-obsessed, sex-negative serial killer to excessive but trite proportions." Martin Tsai of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' called the film "vile" and "worthless", writing that it "actively wishes harm" on the subjects of its criticism.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 2735292 2015 films 2015 comedy horror films 2010s serial killer films 2010s slasher films American comedy horror films American serial killer films American slasher films Films set in Los Angeles Slasher comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language comedy horror films English-language crime films