Review of Stag Night (2008) by Jatin C — 20 Jun 2010

There are so many Slasher films being made today without an ounce of originality that I really shouldn?t have expected anything different, but it?s still disappointing that a film with as good a cast as Stag Night would end up being just another predictable and cliché ridden horror film. Granted it?s far from an A-List cast but all of the leads are recognisable actors and do a great job with what they are given but sadly both the direction and writing let all of them down at times.

The plot revolves around four friends who are out on the town on a Stag Night (pretty small party!). After being thrown out of a strip club they decide to take the last subway to a different club. After a run in with a couple of girls, the tube stops and they decide to jump out for some ridiculously unknown reason. Needless to say the tube speeds off leaving our four guys and two girls trapped. Even more unfortunate is the fact that a family of cannibals are living in the subway and decide, with the help of some fellow subway dwellers, they want to feast upon our hapless group.

Now let?s be honest, most slasher films are the same so it?s not really unique and interesting plots that we are looking for (although it would be nice, but a tense atmosphere, some nice bad guys and plenty of slicing and dicing. Stag Night really disappoints on two of these. The cannibals look like members of a heavy metal band and the dark and dank subway setting wasn?t utilised at all despite there being the potential for some great stalking scenes. Yes there are plenty of slasher kills and some of them are quite fun, especially the bathroom scenes, but the director did his best to mess these up by using the shaky cam method far too much. The opening half hour is pretty bland and boring stuff, the middle section is ok but the final half hour is good old slasher fun which makes you wonder why the previous hour wasn?t shot in the same way. As for characters, it?s refreshing for the prey not to be your usual drugged up teenagers but it?s far too predictable who is going to be killed and who is going to live.

There are plenty of things wrong with Stag Night but for a straight-to-DVD horror film it has a great cast and very good effects. The last half hour is great fun and the ending is satisfying enough but bad camera work, predictability and poor enough bad guys take away from it all a bit. Still you could do much worse and it contains most of the elements that an entertaining slasher film. It?s slightly above average stuff and worth a watch for any slasher fans out there and at only 75 minutes it doesn?t overstay its welcome.