Sweatshop (2009)

Directed by Stacy Davidson [Other horror films: Domain of the Damned (2007)]

I wasn’t impressed with Sweatshop the first time I saw it. Aside from the gore, it has nothing going for it. Seeing it again, well, I pretty much feel the same, and though I do think a bit more highly of it (Sweatshop has some really solid gore effects), I still don’t think it’s a particularly good movie.

Primarily this is due to the plot and characters. I don’t even have anything against the spirit of the plot, to be honest. It’s bare-bones, but that doesn’t matter near as much as the fact that there are no likable characters. Like, none. Literally zero. Some people might not care, as that means you can see people dispatched with gory glory and not shed a tear, but I still like to have someone to root for, and there was no one you could really do that for in this movie.

Also, I would have liked some backstory on the killers. There’s three or so – one is a huge, hulking hombre who wears a welder’s mask and carries around what I’ll call a hammer (it’s not a hammer, but I literally have no idea what it is, and so I’ll just refer to it as a hammer, as the poster does), and also some demons. I mean, they’re probably not demons. They’re disfigured women who act exactly like the possessed from The Evil Dead, so I’m guessing off-screen, someone read the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.

I just wanted something. Even some half-assed scene where one of the characters finds a newspaper clipping about a giant kidnapping two girls 25 years ago would have been something. But we don’t get any explanation at all about the nature of these killers. If it was just the huge, hulking guy, I probably wouldn’t care that much, but adding in some supernatural elements with the demon girls demands some type of explanation, and it bothers me they didn’t even try.

As for the performances, well, given that none of the characters are likable, it’s not easy for individuals to stand out. Some did, of course, but I’ll preface this by saying their characters were mostly horrible. It’s Peyton Wetzel who made the biggest impression on me, and that’s largely because he looks very similar to Jensen Ackles’ character in Ten Inch Hero (among one of my favorite non-horror films). Naika Malveaux looked cool, Danielle Jones looked cute in glasses, and Brent Himes played a redneck with perfection. Melanie Donihoo was also okay.

It’s not the plot, characters, or performances that anyone is coming to Sweatshop for. It’s the gore. And for a lower-budget film, the gore is damn good. For a little taste, you have a couple of decapitations, people smashed with the hammer-thing, some impalement, a glowstick in the eye, some fingers cut off (one by one), and some legs being smashed with aforementioned hammer-thing. I think the best piece of gore here is someone’s jaw being ripped off. It showed great detail, and it doesn’t look fun.

There’s also a bit of a massacre at the finale. See, the primary group of characters were setting up for a rave party-thing, and the party does indeed occur. There’s another guest, though, being the hulking hombre, and so much like Jason introducing himself to the teens in Freddy vs. Jason, the hulking hombre (who is referred to as The Beast, but that doesn’t seem strong enough), just absolutely massacres them. A lot of great gore just in that scene alone, and it’s a good time.

Obviously, there’s a lot about Sweatshop I don’t like, and great gore can only do so much to improve the film’s disposition. If you want to see great gore, though, give Sweatshop a watch. If you want memorable characters or an interesting take on the horror genre (à la You Might Be the Killer or Hush), then look elsewhere.

6/10