Slice (2018)

Slice (aka Kingfisher) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Slice is a horror comedy too excessive to be coherent yet too wild to be unappealing. It spins a weird and unhinged web of a town that not only seems trapped in the 1980s but overwhelmed with ghosts, witches, and werewolves that it’s amazing the government and press continue to function with such residence. The plotting is also a wild mess of logic that is sure to send the heads spinning of anyone who looks too deep into the well of supernatural writing. But for how oddly ambitious the film tries to be, there’s something almost admirable about its charms.

The small town of Kingfisher has decided to deal with its ghost problem by moving all the ghosts into their own section of town. A string of controversy breaks out once a deliveryman of the Perfect Pizza Place has his throat slit while making a delivery in the ghost town area. Local reporter Sadie Sheridan (Rae Gray) plans to find out what’s really behind this murder and potentially expose the corrupt Mayor Tracy (Chris Parnell) for what he is really plotting behind the scenes. Then there are the employees of the Perfect Pizza Place which are rattled by the murder, leading to hot-shot pizza delivery veteran Astrid (Zazie Beetz) making a return to form. There’s also apparently a street battle for deliverymen with the likes of known werewolf Dax Lycander (Chance The Rapper) trying to tout quality Chinese food and avoid being a scapegoat for the murders. And then there are the activists protesting the pizza place before being built on a haunted burial ground.

This is way too much plotting, enough to fill an entire TV season and is somehow crammed into a tight 84 minutes. Keeping track of all of this is a bit of a chore but the film thankfully finds more romp in its staging than its plotting, even if it is adopting the quickly training kitsch appeal of the 1980s throwback vibe. I love the concept of how ghosts have become a problematic population of Kingfisher, resulting in darkly comedic scandals of public officials concealing their true identities of ghosts and witches in the name of civility. The haunted pizza place is a fun location which takes a while to grow on you but results in one of the most hilarious public access commercials for the business. Dax is an interesting character, even if it resorts to little more than showing off how crazy and cool it is to see Chance The Rapper in werewolf makeup. One of my favorite characters would have to be the reporter of Sadie, becoming fed up during the witch uprising that she’s forced to cover the sports column after the writer is murdered.

But it can’t be overstated how much the 1980s style nearly trumps the great ideas and really waters down a more original script into an uninspired throwback. It feels almost unneeded the way the film weaves its dated red jackets and analog televisions amid laptops and smartphones, weaving a confusing tapestry of when in time this story is to take place. It must be an odd dimension considering ghosts can still hold down businesses after being recently murdered.

Slice is such a strange picture in more ways than one that I still managed to find some fun in its warped little mess of paranormal and supernatural elements, spun into a weird little comedy of violence and politics. It’s not every film where you hear a werewolf stressing how important his dream is of supplying quality Chinese food and unbeatable prices. Such a scene doesn’t make the film a home run but it does leave a lasting impression.