I'm back already! It is time for me to review something on Netflix's instant watch. I was considering a movie to watch, but I finished off the first season of the show Slasher today. Since it is an instant watch, I figure it qualifies, even if it isn't a movie. This was the first season of the show, which titled Slasher: The Executioner. It took me eight weeks to get through it just because I was only watching one episode every Thursday. I already watched the second season, but the two seasons aren't connected, besides having a few of the actors playing different parts. Let's see what I thought of this season.
Sarah (Katie McGrath) has decided to return to the town where her parents were murdered. On a Halloween night many years ago, Sarah's parents were murdered in their home by Tom Winston (Patrick Garrow), who became known as The Executioner. He says he killed these two people because they sinned, and cut Sarah from her mother's body. Sarah returns with her husband Dylan (Brandon Jay McLaren). Since they are moving into the very house that her parents were killed in, they don't get the best reception. Sarah has a few friends in town though, like Sgt. Cam Henry (Steve Byers) and Robin (Christopher Jacot). The town still has its dark secrets though and now someone has taken up being The Executioner in order to take care of those secrets. Does Sarah's return have anything to do with the new rash of murders?
Slasher: The Executioner was an improvement over the second season. The main reason I say that is because I liked the story a lot better this time around. I felt that the overall story was put together much better this time around. There is still a mystery going on as to who the killer might be. The original killer, Tom, is still in prison when Sarah comes back home, so obviously someone else has taken up being The Executioner. Unlike the second season, I didn't find that to be the main focus of the story. Who is doing the killing is always hanging over the plot and the character spend some time going over the facts to see who might be the killer, but I thought that the subplots were more important this time around. Each person that is being killed has to do with the seven deadly sins. The subplots have to do with these sins and we learn just enough about each character to find out what they did to sin. In the second season, the subplots had to do with trying to throw us off as to who the killer might be. One of the guys has been in jail and killed people, so a perfect suspect to the killings going on now, right? The problem with that is that once you catch on to it, it narrows the field more since you already know the writers are simply trying to throw you off. More often than not in this season, we discover why someone was killed after it happens. This added to the surprise of who was being killed next and why. The writers don't hold back all of the information about a character, but enough so that it isn't easy to eliminate that person just because we have learned to do so over the course of the eight episodes. Instead of "It could be this person because they did this in their past...Never mind, this person is dead now." it becomes more of "Everyone sins but who is willing to kill...Okay, it can't be this person now." Most of the time, the person killed by The Executioner wasn't someone I thought might be the person behind the mask anyway.
There is a subplot that is mentioned often about a teenaged girl who disappeared one night. It had a lot to do with her mother acting the way she does and I thought maybe that would be the end of that little plot. I thought there would be a conclusion, and I was right, but I was surprised as to where they went with this little plot. It actually ends up becoming a big deal for more than one or two characters along the way. One plot goes back to what a grandmother did while she was a teen. The subplots add to the story instead of trying to distract us as to who the killer might be. It puts puzzle pieces in place. I'm being a little hard on the second season since not all of the subplots were about throwing us off as to who the killer might be, and even when they did, they tended to still give more background information about the characters all the same.
I was really enjoying The Executioner and was often tempted to watch more than one episode a week, but I stuck to my guns about it. Even watching an episode a week, I still get burned out watching a series after a while. With each season of Slasher being only eight episodes, it is harder to get that burned out feeling. As much as I enjoyed this season, I was pretty disappointed with the last episode. Things wrap up, for the most part, by the end of the seventh episode. The last episode wraps things up a little further and all characters in the story find out who the killer is. There is a moment towards the end that is pretty tense, but I still felt let down by the episode as a whole.
The effects aren't as gory as they were in the second season, but there are still some pretty gory kills to be found. From seeing someone after animals got to them, a horrible way to die, to watching someone fall on a saw blade, there are some pretty gory things to see. The effects are well done on top of that and I think most people will enjoy them if you like your horror to be gory anyway. The saw moment is without question the goriest of the effects. The acting was also good. After a couple of episodes, I had to figure out where I knew Katie McGrath from. Turns out that she has a supporting role in the Supergirl series that has become a bit more popular over the two seasons I have watched of it. I liked her acting in the lead role, but I was a little worried that her acting isn't all that different from her character in Supergirl. It felt like the same character in a way, just in a completely different type of situation. I also liked her on-screen husband Brandon Jay McLaren. His character seemed to have more room for growth. A small-time news reporter trying to use this story to make it into the big league while also hiding a secret that could ruin his marriage. He is also trying to balance things between work and his wife since his wife is a big part of the story. There are some good acting performances from others as well as interesting characters to be found through the season.
Another thing that bugged me about Slasher: The Executioner was the reveal of who the killer actually is. It makes sense once we get to know his past better, but at the same time, it didn't make sense at the time of the reveal. I would get into why that was for me, but it would end up spoiling who was revealed to be the killer and I like my reviews to be spoiler free on the major points. Anyway, I really enjoyed this season. I liked the surprise of who died next and finding out the reason behind it. I'm going to give this season the same rating as the second season, even though I enjoyed this season more. If it wasn't for that last episode, I probably would have given this season a higher rating. It is still a fun watch though, so if you haven't had a chance to check it out, perhaps you should sometime.
3 out of 5 At least the Killer has a great costume
Sarah (Katie McGrath) has decided to return to the town where her parents were murdered. On a Halloween night many years ago, Sarah's parents were murdered in their home by Tom Winston (Patrick Garrow), who became known as The Executioner. He says he killed these two people because they sinned, and cut Sarah from her mother's body. Sarah returns with her husband Dylan (Brandon Jay McLaren). Since they are moving into the very house that her parents were killed in, they don't get the best reception. Sarah has a few friends in town though, like Sgt. Cam Henry (Steve Byers) and Robin (Christopher Jacot). The town still has its dark secrets though and now someone has taken up being The Executioner in order to take care of those secrets. Does Sarah's return have anything to do with the new rash of murders?
Slasher: The Executioner was an improvement over the second season. The main reason I say that is because I liked the story a lot better this time around. I felt that the overall story was put together much better this time around. There is still a mystery going on as to who the killer might be. The original killer, Tom, is still in prison when Sarah comes back home, so obviously someone else has taken up being The Executioner. Unlike the second season, I didn't find that to be the main focus of the story. Who is doing the killing is always hanging over the plot and the character spend some time going over the facts to see who might be the killer, but I thought that the subplots were more important this time around. Each person that is being killed has to do with the seven deadly sins. The subplots have to do with these sins and we learn just enough about each character to find out what they did to sin. In the second season, the subplots had to do with trying to throw us off as to who the killer might be. One of the guys has been in jail and killed people, so a perfect suspect to the killings going on now, right? The problem with that is that once you catch on to it, it narrows the field more since you already know the writers are simply trying to throw you off. More often than not in this season, we discover why someone was killed after it happens. This added to the surprise of who was being killed next and why. The writers don't hold back all of the information about a character, but enough so that it isn't easy to eliminate that person just because we have learned to do so over the course of the eight episodes. Instead of "It could be this person because they did this in their past...Never mind, this person is dead now." it becomes more of "Everyone sins but who is willing to kill...Okay, it can't be this person now." Most of the time, the person killed by The Executioner wasn't someone I thought might be the person behind the mask anyway.
There is a subplot that is mentioned often about a teenaged girl who disappeared one night. It had a lot to do with her mother acting the way she does and I thought maybe that would be the end of that little plot. I thought there would be a conclusion, and I was right, but I was surprised as to where they went with this little plot. It actually ends up becoming a big deal for more than one or two characters along the way. One plot goes back to what a grandmother did while she was a teen. The subplots add to the story instead of trying to distract us as to who the killer might be. It puts puzzle pieces in place. I'm being a little hard on the second season since not all of the subplots were about throwing us off as to who the killer might be, and even when they did, they tended to still give more background information about the characters all the same.
I was really enjoying The Executioner and was often tempted to watch more than one episode a week, but I stuck to my guns about it. Even watching an episode a week, I still get burned out watching a series after a while. With each season of Slasher being only eight episodes, it is harder to get that burned out feeling. As much as I enjoyed this season, I was pretty disappointed with the last episode. Things wrap up, for the most part, by the end of the seventh episode. The last episode wraps things up a little further and all characters in the story find out who the killer is. There is a moment towards the end that is pretty tense, but I still felt let down by the episode as a whole.
The effects aren't as gory as they were in the second season, but there are still some pretty gory kills to be found. From seeing someone after animals got to them, a horrible way to die, to watching someone fall on a saw blade, there are some pretty gory things to see. The effects are well done on top of that and I think most people will enjoy them if you like your horror to be gory anyway. The saw moment is without question the goriest of the effects. The acting was also good. After a couple of episodes, I had to figure out where I knew Katie McGrath from. Turns out that she has a supporting role in the Supergirl series that has become a bit more popular over the two seasons I have watched of it. I liked her acting in the lead role, but I was a little worried that her acting isn't all that different from her character in Supergirl. It felt like the same character in a way, just in a completely different type of situation. I also liked her on-screen husband Brandon Jay McLaren. His character seemed to have more room for growth. A small-time news reporter trying to use this story to make it into the big league while also hiding a secret that could ruin his marriage. He is also trying to balance things between work and his wife since his wife is a big part of the story. There are some good acting performances from others as well as interesting characters to be found through the season.
Another thing that bugged me about Slasher: The Executioner was the reveal of who the killer actually is. It makes sense once we get to know his past better, but at the same time, it didn't make sense at the time of the reveal. I would get into why that was for me, but it would end up spoiling who was revealed to be the killer and I like my reviews to be spoiler free on the major points. Anyway, I really enjoyed this season. I liked the surprise of who died next and finding out the reason behind it. I'm going to give this season the same rating as the second season, even though I enjoyed this season more. If it wasn't for that last episode, I probably would have given this season a higher rating. It is still a fun watch though, so if you haven't had a chance to check it out, perhaps you should sometime.
3 out of 5 At least the Killer has a great costume
