This week on my Scare-A-Con New England preview, yours truly will be sharing my thoughts on one of the films that will be playing at the film program at the convention. Sometimes watching an interview may get me interested in watching a film. This was the case with “4/20 Massacre” after listening to the director and a couple of members of the cast talk about the film on a recent “Wicked Horror Show” episode, I decided to check this one out.
The film is about a group of women who go on a camping trip on the weekend of 4/20 for a fun weekend. But things take a terrifying turn when they stumble onto an illegal marijuana operation. Soon, they are stalked by someone who is sadistic and hell bent on protecting the operation at all costs. Can the women find a way out of the woods before they all go up in smoke? The film stars Jamie Bernadette (I Spit on Your Grave), Stacy Danger (The Neon Demon) and Jim Storm (Dark Shadows).
Usually any horror film that deals with marijuana in the plot or subplot comes off as stupid. Look at some of the Evil Bong films or the Friday the 13th remake for examples of how the marijuana plot or subplot goes off the rails. The only time that it doesn’t do that is “The Cabin in the Woods” even though the main character is a stoner and everything worked perfectly in that film. When I finished viewing 4/20 Massacre, I was surprised at the end of the film that this was very good considering this felt like a serious film especially towards the end than most stoner horror films.
One of the things that makes this film good was the way writer/director Dylan Reynolds directs this. I liked how he makes sure the dialogue scenes are interesting to watch. Whether it’s the way that the scenes were shot to how he gets the performances that he needs to make this work, everything works very well as I was interested in everything that was going on in the story. The other thing that Reynolds does well to make sure that he has an effects team to make the gore effects very good. There were a couple of death scene that standout whether in a creative way or an emotional way. It was the effects of it that generated a reaction that is needed for those scenes to work.
The cast in the film was very good as they had chemistry with each other and worked well with their characters. It made the film entertaining as this has some very good performances from Jamie Bernadette, Vanessa Reynolds and Stacy Danger. They did a good job making sure their characters were interesting while interacting with each other and other cast members. It helped with making this film an entertaining one.
Dylan Reynolds’ screenplay was very good. I liked how the female characters in the film weren’t the stereotypical kinds that you would see in other slasher films as they come off as strong female characters. It made the film work well as they were different and I didn’t have to worry about annoying or clichéd characters appearing that would usually slow down a film like this. I wished more slashers had these kind of strong and non-stereotypical female characters as the genre and especially slasher films should appeal to everyone. Also, I thought the death scenes had a certain intense or emotional feel to them. This helped kept my interest with the story. It’s something that is needed for you to be invested in the material of this or any slasher film.
This is one of the better stoner horror films to come out in a while as it has strong characters and creative death scenes. “4/20 Massacre” is slasher film that you can get high too.
“4/20 Massacre” will be screening on July 16th at 5pm at Scare-A-Con New England which will take place in Framingham, MA at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center.
If you can’t make it to Framingham, MA, the film is currently available on DVD and VOD.
Review Rating: Four Stars
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