Director Report Card: John Landis (2004)

18. Slasher

Directing seven box office flops in a row did something that dropping a helicopter on Vic Marrow and two kids couldn't: It ended John Landis' career. With no other options left, Landis would completely shift gears for his eighteenth feature. Landis decided to make a documentary. Initially, he set out to make a documentary about George W. Bush and the War on Terror, comparing the lying president to lying used car dealers. Instead, he found the used car dealers way more interesting. “Slasher” would be a co-production with IFC, back when that network was still the Independent Film Channel. Though not widely seen, “Slasher” would win the director his best reviews in years.

Despite the director's history with horror/comedies, the title of “Slasher” does not refer to a masked lunatic cutting up teenagers. Instead, it refers to Michael Bennett, a professional used car dealer. Used car lots all over the country fly Bennett in for special “slasher” sales, where vehicle prices are cut down to as low as 88 dollars. Bennett, an energetic and eccentric figure, puts on a theatrical and gimmicky show in the hopes of drawing in as many customers as possible. “Slasher” documents Bennett heading out to Memphis, Tennessee for a slasher sale over the course of one weekend during a blistering hot summer in the early 2000s. 

In “Slasher,” we see that the cars salesman's greatest asset is not negotiation skills or a quality product. It's showmanship. Bennett comes along with a crew of different men. They have a DJ blast music. Attractive women are recruited from the local area as eye candy. Bennett wears a tux and shouts exciting phrases into a microphone, like a pro-wrestler cutting a promo. Customers are lured in with the promise of an 88 dollar car but never know if they are getting the cheap deal until they find it. Bennett himself explains the tactic, that the customer can get caught up in the sensationalism and be sold on a deal that isn't as good as promised. One of “Slasher's” best scenes occurs near the end, when we see the woman who drove off with the fabled 88 dollar car... Which then becomes nonoperational after she brings it home. “Slasher” is a guided tour to how businesses can rip off customers.

The success of documentaries like this are depended entirely upon how interesting their subjects are. “Slasher” luckily has a fascinating central figure. Michael Bennett is introduced shaving with his wife's razor, much to his chagrin. He kisses his daughters goodbye before getting on the road, having a cigarette and a beer for breakfast. The gravelly voiced Bennett has a never-flagging energy while out on the lot, shouting catchphrases and always wheeling-and-dealing. His sense-of-humor is infectious, his constant energy hard to take your eyes off. In his downtime, he drinks alcohol like water and refers back to a past in prison. Despite obviously being troubled, Bennett's wife cares deeply about him and he talks often of wanting to return home. He's a multi-faceted, fascinating person.

Bennett's story proves to be a highly cinematic one too. Bennett getting paid by the car dealership depends entirely on him selling a certain number of cars before the slasher sale is over. So the real life story has a built-in time limit, leading to a great deal of suspense. This is especially true when sales start to slow down on Saturday. Seeing an empty parking lot, Bennett and his team performing for one or two people, is a discouraging sight. Yet “Slasher” has a triumphant conclusion too, sales turning upwards on Sunday and Bennett pulling it off. I know creative editing plays its role but “Slasher's” real story is still highly dramatic, full of natural tension and satisfying pay-offs.

In the past, John Landis has done a good job of adding a sense of character to his films by emphasizing the locations. In “Slasher,” Memphis is as much a character as any of the main players. Bennett and his friends met several eccentric locals, including a man who keeps beer-drinking goats behind his business. They eat lots of delicious-looking barbecue. Seemingly everyone in the town has a story about Elvis and the King's face is spotted on many buildings and businesses. Landis' camera also captures the less glamorous side of Memphis. We see abandoned, ruined buildings and the improvised people who live there. “Slasher” gives you a good sense of this famous, beloved city.

The focus on those ruined homes also roots “Slasher” to a very specific place in time. The film begins with a montage of presidential lies, winding through Richard Nixon insisting he's not a crook and concluding with Bush II talking about WMDs. While Landis' intention was to link full-of-shit politicians with shyster car salesmen, he instead ends up characterizing “Slasher” as a post-9/11, global recession era work. More than once, the owner of the dealership acknowledges that running a sale during a depression is tricky. Many of the customers come to the car lot with the intention of buying a vehicle. When the dealers see their credit, they have to turn them down. There's this fear that the car dealership may end up like any of the other defunct businesses that fill the area. “Slasher” is a snapshot of a time that has never really ended for a lot of people, of being broke in a broke town, when they don't even have the cash to buy a piece-of-shit car.

But don't get the impression that “Slasher” is a downbeat film. It's actually really funny. Bennett and his gang are colorful characters, prone to bizarre, digressive conversations. An early discussion about Bennett having to piss badly is responded to with blank shock. The closer relates a story about how he knew his wife was the woman for him when she tried to beat his ass. After the successful sale, “Slasher” amusingly continues on a little longer, showing the guys bickering and arguing as they get lost on the way to the airport. It's all natural comedy, arising out of eccentric real people just living their lives and being themselves.

“Slasher” represents Landis shifting, not just genres, but styles too. It was his first movie shot digitally and there's a certain kinetic quality to the often handheld photography. Despite the changes, many of the director's trademarks are still present. Befitting the location, “Slasher” has a classic blues/rock soundtrack that adds a lot of energy to the proceedings. (During one such musical montage, Landis makes sure to pause on a statue of the Blues Brothers inside a record store.) The editing is snappy, “Slasher” moving along at a quick pace like many of Landis' early, best films. The director also makes room for his trademark titillation, during Bennett's stop over in a strip club.

After having increasingly less success with traditional, narrative films, it's apparent to me that a change of scenario was exactly what John Landis needed. Compared to the increasingly awkward comedies he made in the nineties, “Slasher” is a breath of fresh air. It moves quickly, getting in and out in less than ninety minutes. It's consistently funny, interesting, and energetic. It also captures a time and place in an unobtrusive way. By the way, some people looked up Michael Bennett in 2016 and, if his LinkedIn profile is anything to go by, he's still out there, pumping up used car sales and slashing prices. [Grade: B]