The Good the Bad and the Macabre: Shredder (2003)

Shredder takes many things I enjoy about post-Scream era slashers and 80s slashers and puts them in a blender. Time is given early on to get to know the characters. While the acting and characters aren't the best, they are far from boring or bad. There are many tropes and character moments that that feel like something from Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. Other elements such as some meta humor feel like something from Scream or the post-Scream era. The kills are inventive at times and bloody. The idea of a killer going after snowboarders is something original. The ski lodge location looks real which adds some authenticity. While the actors look like more of the CW type that you would be accustomed to seeing in this era of slasher movies. I also think they captured the cheesy acting feel you have in most 80s slashers. The result is one the funnest and one of the best slasher movies of the early 2000s. I watch this every year around the start of winter.

The setup is classic slasher movie fare. The movie starts with a POV fake out that turns out to be the main character sneaking up on his girlfriend while she takes a shower. Cole (Scott Weinger, VOICE OF ALADDIN!) is in a relationship with Kimberly (Lindsey McKeon). His plan to have a romantic getaway at a ski lodge is foiled when Kimberly invites several of their friends. The outgoing and liberated Robyn, the punky Pike, also Kimberly's cousin, the videographer Skylar, and fellow snowboarder Kirk. Kimberly has plans to meet up with famous snowboarder Chad, who ends up being the one we see get killed at the beginning.

What I do like is some of this set up being something other slashers have done. Someone filming with a video camera on a bridge reminds me of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Speaking of Texas Chainsaw, picking up a hitchhiker near a gas station could not be anymore like it. The idea of this local legend about drunken snowboarders killing a local girl, and then someone wanting revenge when more snowboarders come to the closed down lodge is similar to Friday the 13th. The Sheriff showing up and telling them they shouldn't be there and then getting killed is similar to things that happen in both of the first two Friday the 13th movies. Not only that but it has some of the same meta humor that the Scream movies have. There are some moments like a person getting killed while they are stoned, or one person saying they are a virgin so the killer won't kill them that feels more like movies from around the time when this was made. The rules the killer goes by are as follows:

1. Always ski in control. Be able to avoid other people or objects.
2. Do not disembark from a chairlift except at a designated area.
3. Observe all posted signs and warnings. Keep off closed trailers and out of closed areas.

So the killer throughout kills anyone seemingly violating these rules but there are also moments where the killer messes with people just for violating the rules and kills anyone at all who snowboards, which is actually part of a well written twist.

The second kill doesn't come until past 30 minutes in or so, so there is time given to the characters. The Sheriff shows up one night while they play strip poker and tells them they can't be there. Both Robyn and Kimberly flirt with the cop and Cole pays him to go away. Kimberly has inherited the lodge. The locals however are not having it. Bud, whose wife was killed by drunken teens, blames snowboarders for the accident and doesn't want them anywhere near the place. Bud is like Crazy Ralph of this movie, but also plays a bigger role.

There are some character moments I enjoy. That first night Kimberly sneaks off to go sleep with Christophe, the European hitchhiker they picked up. Robyn beats Kimberly to the punch however, and has sex with Christophe. One thing that is unintentionally funny about this scene is how long Kimberly walks through the house while looking for Christophe while it takes Robyn two seconds to find him. Robyn's topless scene is the only one in the movie. Maybe they couldn't pay Lindsey McKeon enough for that or something though she looks amazing in red lingerie and a leopard bikini later in the movie. Robyn has some other funny moments like when the killer sits next to her on the ski lift she gets his attention by saying, "hey hot babe here." She is totally confident in her sexuality and not afraid to show it. There is a fun moment where Cole can't break the lock to the front gate while everyone goes ahead while he stays there and Kimberly stays in the car. As always with early 2000s movies I enjoy the punk and hard rock soundtrack. Christophe gets many POV shot fake outs throughout, I never suspect him as the killer, but he serves as a good red herring because at a certain point you start to think who else could be the killer? I enjoy the growing relationship between Pike and Cole. Cole is a bit of a cuck for Kimberly, never realizing that she will never stop treating him terribly and only leading him on. Pike actually likes him and even though he's still awkward around her he seems more confident around her as well. There is a cute scene where Cole takes a tumble and pretends he is passed out to flirt with her. They also kiss later in one of those "hey in case we die let's do this now," type of moments.

This movie was filmed on location at a real ski resort in Idaho so that is why it looks real. That gives it some credibility. I haven't talked about the kills in this movie which for the most part I love. There is one lame kill with a scarf that I wish could have been something better, though how many movies do you see where someone gets strangled on a ski lift with a scarf? The opening kill with a garrote wire that takes off a bunch of Chad's fingers and then cuts his head off is awesome. The aftermath effect of the nearly severed head is great. There is one kill where the killer puts a ski pole through a camera lens to stab someone's eye and blood goes through the camera from the eye. There is a lame kill with a shovel where someone gets hit and it cuts away. An icicle to the midsection, which is a funny moment because Kirk is really high and he says, "karma, bad." This movie did the stoner thing before Freddy Vs. Jason did it.

Spoiler Section

I enjoyed the twist of who the killer ends up being. The one "killer" who we see dressing up as a skier with a mask on is actually Bud who is trying to scare the kids rather than kill them for violating the rules. Cole points this out at one point saying they would all be dead if that killer wanted them dead. There is another killer though and it turns out to be Shelly, Bud's daughter, wanting revenge for her dead sister. She had been flirting with Skylar for whatever reason, before Bud showed up and chastised her so it would appear they aren't working together. Bud is later killed by the same garrote wire trap while chasing Cole on a snowmobile. He is decapitated. Another great kill. I'm not entirely sure if Shelly had set that trap up or not. Christophe had posed as a European man to get in good with the group to go back to the lodge because his friends were killed, as we see later and he is trying to find the killer. Kimberly gets her comeuppance when she is stabbed by the killer with a fire poker. Cole eventually makes his way back to the bar and gets trapped by the back door when Shelly shows up with a giant snow blower and says she is the killer. Pike shows up and shoots Shelly and when she is forced out of the snow blower she is killed in a hilarious jump cut moment where she is sucked into the snow blower.

SLASHER MOVIE ANATOMY:

Prior Evil: Reckless snowboarders kill a young girl at a ski lodge and it shuts down. When someone inherits the lodge someone wants revenge.
Body Count: 10 (Not including Christophe's friends that might add a few)
Whodunit: Yes
Mask or outfit: Skier getup and ski mask
Locale or organizer: Ski Lodge
Best Kill: Garrote wire finger cut off and decapitation

INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH AND SLASH COUNT

Garrote wire decapitation: 2
Icepick to the face : 1
Ski pole to the eye through a camera lens : 1
Dead body preserved by ice : 1
Icicle to the stomach : 1
giant slow blower : 1
shovel: 1
Scarf strangulation: 1

SLASHER MOVIE TAXONOMY

Kingdom: Post-Scream but feels throwback, meta and 80s feeling, doesn't lack nudity compared to other Post Scream slashers
Phylum: Cheesy as hell
Class: Slasher set at a ski lodge in the winter, snowboarding slasher movie
Order: 2003, though filmed years before
Family: Upper body nudity and rear nudity shown from one woman
Genus: Just as much of a fun setting and location as the slasher elements, Final guy, more like the scream queen, and tough final girl, similar to Nightmare on Elm Street 2
Species: High body count, really bloody kills and FX work, a few standout kills, and a good twist with the two "killer" approach, really takes things from other slashers but imitation is a form of flattery in this case.