The one and only killer pants movie. There have been killer dress movies, yes, but the Canadian made single-setting horror comedy SLAXX (2020) is unique. Furthermore, until the film goes full camp it’s not bad, offering satire that’s mostly on target and some reasonably potent gore—but those superlatives apply only to the first half.
An eager young woman named Libby (Romane Denis) reports to work at a store run by Canadian Cotton Clothers, a trendy and (allegedly) environmentally friendly clothing outfit. Her fellow employees, alas, turn out to be standoffish and argumentative (screenwriter Patricia Gomez reportedly based the film on her own experience working in a clothing store).
But then one of those employees, a cute blonde named Jemma (Hanneke Talbot), tries on an especially trendy pair of blue “slaxx” and finds them too tight. The tightness gets so bad she bolts from a staff meeting in order to remove the pants, only to have them tighten to the point that they literally cut her in half. Hunter (Jessica B. Hill), another hot chick employee, is dispatched to look for Jemma and finds the pants, which Hunter unwisely tries on—and gets unwillingly thrust around and impaled on a coat rack.
Libby is the one to discover the slaxx’s crimes, and informs her boss Craig (Brett Donahue). His initial reaction is shockingly nonchalant, and things escalate further when a male employee named Lord (Kenny Wong) gets dismembered by the pants—and Craig, being a corporate shill, elects to cover up the deaths. The pants, in the meantime, take to running around the store with a mannequin torso balanced on their waist, in which guise Libby and her Indian pal Shruti (Shear Bhojani) attempt to communicate with whatever is possessing them. In so doing they learn a dark secret about CCC’s operating practices, which aren’t nearly as humane or ecologically minded as they seem.
Director Elza Kephart directs this low budget production with a fair amount of assurance. She favors wide shots that emphasize the CCC store’s gaudy-yet-staid interiors, and incorporate the pompous corporate slogans scrawled everywhere (“Theft Hurts Us All,” “Cleanliness is Everybody’s Business,” “Make A Brighter Tomorrow Today,” etc.). The viewers’ nose is all-but rubbed in the plasticity of the environment, with the performances underplayed and the scenery allowed to take center stage. That scenery appears to have been specially designed to intimidate the film’s diminutive star Elza Kephart, who’s seen holding too-large bags and being overpowered by doors and other objects.
Such subtlety, alas, doesn’t last. Lord’s mid film dismemberment by the Slaxx is so over the top it alters the tone irrevocably, and the special effects-addled scenes that follow are plain silly, imparting a none-too-subtle message. All suspense is deflated and plausibility is jettisoned as the Message overtakes the proceedings to the detriment of all else.
That being said, the message in question is a potent one (especially for left-leaning viewers): that corporations, regardless of whether their stated political positions are the “right” ones, are not our friends.
Vital Statistics
SLAXX
EMA Films/Telefilm Canada
Director: Elza Kephart
Producers: Anne-Marie Gelinas, Patricia Gomez Zlatar
Screenplay: Patricia Gomez, Elza Kephart
Cinematography: Steve Asselin
Editing: Mirenda Ouellet
Cast: Romane Denis, Brett Donahue, Sehar Bhojani, Kenny Wong, Tianna Nori, Jessica Bornais Hill, Erica Anderson, Hanneke Talbot, Stephen Bogaert, Jonathan Edmond, Elizabeth Neale, Alejandro Cadilla, Aris Tyros, Pritha Mazumdar