''Slaughterhouse Rulez'' is a 2018 British

comedy horror Comedy horror (also called horror comedy) is a literary, television and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as having three types: "black comedy, parody and spoof." Comedy horror can a ...

film directed by

Crispian Mills Crispian Mills (born 18 January 1973 as Crispian John David Boulting; spiritual name Krishna Kantha Das) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and film director. Active since 1988, Mills is best known as the frontman of the psychedelic ...

. Written by Mills and Henry Fitzherbert, the film's cast features

Asa Butterfield Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield ( ; born 1 April 1997) is an English actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Butterfield first achieved recognition as the lead of the historical drama film '' The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'' (2008). He continued ...

, Finn Cole, Hermione Corfield,

Michael Sheen Michael Christopher Sheen (born 5 February 1969) is a Welsh actor. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s with stage roles in ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1992), ''Don't Fool wi ...

, with

Nick Frost Nicholas John Frost (born 28 March 1972) is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He has appeared in the '' Three Flavours Cornetto'' trilogy of films, consisting of '' Shaun of the Dead'' (2004), ''Hot Fuzz'' (2007), and '' The World's ...

and

Simon Pegg Simon John Pegg (; born 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the UK as the co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom ''Spaced'' (1999–2001), directed by Edgar Wright. He and Wright co-wrote the ...

. ''Slaughterhouse Rulez'' was released on

31 October Events Pre-1600 * 475 – Romulus Augustulus is proclaimed Western Roman Emperor. * 683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba catches fire and is burned down. * 802 – Empress Irene is deposed and banished to Lesbos. Con ...

2018 in the United Kingdom and on 17 May 2019 in the United States and Canada.

Plot

After his father dies, Donald Wallace ( Finn Cole), a teenager from a working-class family, enrolls in an exclusive public school called Slaughterhouse, where he struggles to fit in. The school houses a few secrets, such as the recent suicide of a pupil last term, mysterious disappearances, an overzealous house prefect who descends from a long line of war criminals, and an enigmatic new sinkhole, caused by the Headmaster's (

) money-making scheme: fracking. Aggressive subterranean creatures emerge from the sinkhole and start attacking members of the faculty. Wallace then rallies a group of pupils to fight the monsters. The film ends with the monsters' defeat, the explosion of the school, and the remaining students walking away. Meanwhile, the Headmaster's dog, and Meredith, who survived the attack, witness the school's destruction.

Cast

Production

This is the first film from Stolen Picture, a film and TV production company formed by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The film was produced by Catalyst Global Media and Sony Pictures International, and was shot at

Stowe School The Stowe School is a public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13–18 in the countryside of Stowe, England. It was opened on 11 May, 1923 at Stowe House, a Grade I Heritage Estate belonging to the British Crown. ...

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of to the south of the town of Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, Windsor, Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park ...

, and

Chislehurst Caves Chislehurst Caves are a series of intersecting man-made tunnels and caverns covering some 22 miles (35.4 km) in Chislehurst in the London Borough of Bromley. From the mid-13th to early 19th centuries the "caves" were created from the minin ...

, among other locations.

Release

The film was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 31 October 2018.

Reception

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 film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "An uneven blend of horror and comedy that fails to satisfy on either front, ''Slaughterhouse Rulez'' aims for B-movie fun but doesn't make the grade." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 39 out of 100 based on reviews from 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". The film generated revenue of £737,670 from cinemas worldwide. Andrew Pulver of

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

newspaper gave it a rating of 3 out of 5 stars.

Marketing

The first trailer of the film was released online (initially via

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

) on 9 August 2018.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 6905696, Slaughterhouse Rulez 2018 films 2018 horror films British comedy horror films British high school films British teen horror films 2010s English-language films Films scored by Jon Ekstrand Films set in the United Kingdom LGBTQ-related comedy horror films 2010s British films English-language horror films