Well, Sl8n8 isn't exactly original horror; but it does a good job of taking the common slasher clichés and moulding a fun and gory little horror film out of them. The film reminded me a lot of the direct to video crap-fest "Curse of the Forty-Niner" as it features supernatural themes, a mine and some dumb teenagers, but luckily the similarities end there. The slasher film is more associated with the US than the Netherlands (which I generally don't associate with films in general), but it would seem that the writers of "Sl8n8" have watched enough American films to see how the slasher works. The plot is frankly ridiculous, and starts with a car crash in which a girl's father is killed. She then goes on a road trip with her friends, and stops at his office to recover some stuff. They end up getting roped into having a tour of an old mine where a murderer who the girl's father was researching met his end. Naturally, things soon go wrong and the kids decide that it's time to experiment with a Ouija board, which turns out to be a big mistake as now the murderous spirit is on the rampage...
The good thing about this film is definitely the fact that it's gory. Writer-directors Frank van Geloven and Edwin Visser obviously realise that the lack of brains can easily be masked with a lot of nasty gore scenes, and it has to be said that this works well as the death scenes definitely do make the film a lot of fun to watch. The film does take a short while to get going, and not much happens in the first half; but once it shifts up the gears, Sl8n8 becomes a relentless and engaging little flick, but I don't suppose I'm going to remember much of it in a few weeks time. The main thing that annoyed me about the film, however, was the flashy cinematography; which sometimes made it near on impossible to tell what is going on. Other criticisms include the title - I'm not a fan of the whole substituting numbers for letters thing (cough Se7en cough), and "Sl8n8" really is a poor title. I suspect it will be changed when/if this film gets a US release as in English that title comes out as 'Sleight Neight'! Overall, this film is fun enough and I'd certainly recommend it for an hour and a half's entertainment.
