While watching Season 4, episode one of “Slasher,” a friend messaged me a sneak preview of what I’d see when I got to it later that night: “OMG. This is gory AF.” In other words, “Slasher” is back (now on Shudder, with the first two of the eight episodes available as a free-trial lure).
Wicked games
I wonder if creator Aaron Martin and his writing team purposely make every family member at the lakeside mansion in “Slasher: Flesh & Blood” unlikable so we can stomach the extremely gory kills.
The first two episodes feature three murders, and the least gory is the scene that inspired my buddy’s message: a boatman gets gutted like a fish, his intestines spilling onto the floor of the shack with a “plop.”
“Slasher” Season 4: “Flesh & Blood” (2021)
Shudder, 8 episodes (the first two are available)
Creator: Aaron Martin
Stars: Chris Jacot, Paula Brancati, David Cronenberg
So far, Season 4 has less to say than Season 3, which explores interactions of different cultures in a Toronto apartment complex. And it’s not as chilling as Season 2, which digs into deep-seated guilt. But I suspect this might be a thematically back-loaded season.
The members of the rich clan led by dying patriarch Spencer (David Cronenberg) must compete in a wicked series of games – with one loser eliminated each round – in order to secure his fortune.
Although better known as a director, Cronenberg adds legitimacy to the proceedings, as he did with his cameo in “Jason X” (or is that a bad example?).
Spencer speaks softly but has decades of experience wielding his corporate fortune as a weapon. The two generations in his wake love and fear him in equal measure.
Pulling the purse strings
“Slasher” doesn’t write likable people, but it writes plausible people. Through flashbacks and unsubtle performances, we believe that everyone will compete for the millions, rather than doing the grounded thing of saying “This family is ridiculous. I’m out.”
So far among this dozen-deep clan, we’ve learned that a grandson (A.J. Simmons as Vincent) was kidnapped 25 years ago, that another kid (Nataliya Rodina as Aphra) was adopted through suspicious channels, and that “the help” (Patrice Goodman as Birgit and Sydney Meyer as Liv) are the mistress and daughter of Spencer.
There’s one non-family member. Suspicious-as-hell end-of-life nurse Dr. Trinh (Jeananne Goossen) ironically has them all by the (purse) strings, leading this game.
Actually, Trinh would be suspicious as hell in a normal show. In the world of “Slasher,” she might turn out to be the straight shooter.
Killer concept
And, of course, a nonspeaking white-masked killer is roaming the grounds. (They are pretty grounds in woodsy Ontario, with woodpeckers and other fauna providing a natural soundtrack that nicely blends with a deep-in-the-register score.)
“Slasher” has never tried to reinvent the killer concept that dates back at least to Michael Myers, content to stick with what works. And to ask: “How gory can we make the kills and still be allowed to air it?”
They go right up to the line where even a veteran horror viewer like me says “This is almost too much” – especially the kill at the end of episode two.
But I can’t deny the mystery is juicy. Everyone has a motive, everyone has means and everyone has opportunity. On the latter two points, it might require that they’re teamed up with others. I expect that to be the case.
Who’s doing it?
OK, not everyone is completely terrible. I’m inclined to like Christy because I like Paula Brancati, a veteran of “Degrassi” and “Being Erica.” Appropriately, Christy is the wife of Seamus, played by another “Slasher” veteran, Chris Jacot.
Along with Sabrina Grdevich, a Season 1 veteran who plays self-centered Florence here, they are the three actors who return from previous seasons of this anthology.
Even though she’s been slashed (but not seriously wounded) by the killer already, I can see Christy – who isn’t part of the game, as she’s related by marriage – being the villain. Florence is too obviously mean.
I hope Christy – whether evil or neutral (how can we describe anyone in this scenario as “good?”) – will survive through episode eight. I don’t want to wallow in nasty people.
Pigeonholing “Flesh & Blood” one-fourth of the way through is probably a fool’s errand. It will have a dozen twists and turns before it ends. It will probably outsmart me. And it will certainly gross me out.
On the last point, no current horror series does it better.