"Slotherhouse" is what it is, and it's a lot of absurd fun

Slotherhouse (2023)

Just when you think you’ve seen every possible kind of slasher come down the pike, there’s "Slotherhouse," the most high-concept of high-concept movies that delivers precisely what it promises. It is, indeed, about a sloth clawing its way through a sorority house. Beyond being a buzzed-about trailer or just merely an outrageous concept, the whole movie is actually as much absurd fun as it sounds. It’s not going to live up to a gore-loving horror fan’s dream, but "Slotherhouse"—hah, that title will get you every time—is just about as cheerfully dumb and amusing as you want it to be with a lot of homemade charm. Also, a new movie villain emerges in Alpha the Sloth and may give M3gan a run for her money.

After an unexpectedly clever Panama-set opening involving our wild sloth, an alligator, and poachers, “Slotherhouse” plays like an earnest sorority comedy as much as "Happy Death Day" does before the time-loop killer shows up. We meet sweet, gets-along-with-everyone Emily Young (Lisa Ambalavanar). Like her late mother, she’s a Sigma Lambda Theta sister. Unlike her late mother, she’s not the sorority president — well, not yet. In the running for re-election is ruthlessly bitchy president Brianna (Sydney Craven). When Emily happens to meet an (illegal) owner of exotic animals, she’s convinced that a cuddly sloth as a sorority mascot is just what she needs to gain even more popularity and snag the tiara from Brianna for president. Dubbed “Alpha,” the sloth is quite an extraordinary animal (to the point of blowing a whistle during dodgeball, making its own social media account, and driving a sports car). Once other sisters start going missing, Emily will be the last to realize they’re all at the hands of, as one of the sisters says, “a cute Chucky.” You almost feel bad for Alpha, having to live with these cruel, pretty young women.

Director Matthew Goodhue and writer Bradley Fowler never pretend that their movie is a meditation on grief or anything less than ridiculous. Goodhue does whittle down the majority of his furry killer’s body count to a montage, but there’s still some tame macabre fun to be had. Roofies in a sister’s beer? Check! Zip up a sister in her sleeping bag and roll her off the roof? Check! Like the raising of a killer’s knife-wielding hand in a lot of slasher flicks, Alpha very slowly comes down with her claw for the first strike. For posterity, Alpha even starts posting her kills on her Instagram stand-in with the hashtag #LastSelfies. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: B -

Gravitas Ventures released "Slotherhouse" (93 min.) in theaters on August 30, 2023.