Rent The Butcher (2006)

A film made up of moments from other films - The Butcher review by NP

Six stoned, horny twits decide to take a shortcut on their trip to Vegas. Rachel (Catherine Wreford), Liz (Tiffany Kristensen), Atlanta (Ashley Rebecca Hawkins), Sophie (Myiea Coy) and Adam (Tom Nagel), and squealy beefcake Mark (Alan Ritchson) are collectively furious when their journey is sabotaged by razor wire. Mark pouts a little more and almost instantly proves himself to be the biggest idiot of all in this lacklustre bunch. Whatever becomes of them in this ‘Wrong Turn/The Hills Have Eyes/Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ amalgam, it had better be nasty.

Despite peppering the fast-moving storyline with influences from more polished films, this soon becomes a little dull. The shrieking and witless attempts to escape the gang’s increasingly desperate situation becomes commonplace, mainly because as usual, the characters aren’t particularly interesting or likeable. Also, the audience is always one step ahead of them, making them appear stupid – but then, they were never presented as anything else.

Yet, ‘The Butcher’ moves along nicely, we don’t have to wait too long until horrible things begin happening, it’s nicely shot and competently acted. The young ciphers make a lot of questionable decisions, but despite their initially crass attempts to have a good time, are far from the worst I have seen of this type. There are also some nice twists along the way and some genuinely gruesome moments. The films makes absolutely no apology for blatantly taking ideas from elsewhere, and I quite admire them for such shamelessness. My score is 6 out of 10.