Slaughterhouse (1987) ** (out of 4) Lester Bacon (Don Barrett) owned a slaughterhouse, which was pretty much put out of business after he refused to move forward with the times. Now a former worker is trying to take his property so Lester decides to send his obese and mentally retarded son Buddy (Joe B. Barton) out for revenge.Writer-director Rick Roessler only made one film in his career and this here was it. SLAUGHTERHOUSE is your average slasher film that was way too common during this era. For the most part fans of the genre will probably be mildly entertained by the film but there's no question that it really doesn't feature anything fresh or original. The entire slaughterhouse stuff appears to have been influenced by THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and the rest is your typical Friday THE 13TH stuff.There's really not too much plot here as those who harmed the owner, a bunch of cops, some teenagers and other find themselves at the old slaughterhouse where Buddy does them all in. The murder scenes are certainly the highlight of the picture and while none of them come close to the work of someone like Tom Savini, they're at least good enough for this type of low-budget movie. There's quite a bit of gore splashed around, which of course will please horror fans.Performances are pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this. They're really no better or worse than your average slasher. For the most part Barton is good in his role as the killer and he's at least entertaining enough. The biggest problem with the film is that the pacing is rather slow and the 85-minute running time really drags at spots. The fact that there's nothing original or fresh doesn't help matters either.

Lester Bacon (Don Barrett) and his grunting, meat-cleaver wielding son Buddy (Joe Barton) aren't very happy about the foreclosure of their abattoir and decide to use their slaughterhouse equipment and butchering skills to deal with the swine responsible. The meat-hooks become even more crowded with bodies after a group of teens visit the old meat-packing factory during a thunderstorm for a dare.With its all-pervading aura of death and decay and its hulking mentally challenged killer (mentored by his demented father), Slaughterhouse is clearly aiming for a Texas Chain Saw Massacre vibe, but at the same time it also caters for the audience of the day, delivering inane teenage characters, predictable jump scares, some reasonable splatter, a few pig-related puns (Lester is described as 'pig-headed' and calls his son 'hog-wild'), and a couple of typically cheesy '80s scenes in which the youngsters act all wild and wacky, their zany antics accompanied by a tacky pop/rock soundtrack.The result is a fun slice of stalk 'n' slash, a spirited blend of mean-spirited nastiness and tongue-in-cheek silliness that ticks all of the genre boxes with the notable exception of gratuitous female nudity. The suspenseful rain-drenched finalé is particularly well handled by one-time-only director Rick Roessler.

Horror movie which gives rise to a new horror icon: Buddy. Nice movie for horror fans. Otherwise: skip it. Has good scenery and some good acting by the baddies: pa and his son. The reasons for the kids to be there are obvious. I really like the scenes with Buddy. The actor has obviously put some great effort in it and I like the fact that the movie does not end with some stupid kids escaping.I liked some of the extras as well but the quality of the film showing Buddy meeting some fans is poor. Sad note: the obvious footage of Buddy on a short promotion tour shows Buddy walking in theaters with just a few visitors for movies. I really hope this was not where they were showing Slaughterhouse...Too bad no sequel was made.

I don't know whether to love or to hate this movie because, despite it being a obvious ripoff or omen to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" it wasn't all that bad. The one thing that it was missing tho was, female full frontal nudity, if there was some of that if the movie I would have rated it higher. The killer in this movie is a mentally challenged boy witch doesn't have anywhere close the the horror appear that "Leatherface does" and while running around he constantly makes pig noises which I thought was just stupid and didn't add to the scare factor of the movie. But it quite funny seeing how similar it is to the chainsaw movie. If you like horror movies you MIGHT like this. Give it a try