BUTCHER BOYS (2012)

Butcher Boys (2012)
Directed by: Duane Graves, Justin Meeks
Written by: Kim Henkel
Starring: Ali Faulkner, Derek Lee Nixon, Gregory Kelly, Johnny Walter, Matt Hensarling, Phillip Wolf, Tory Tompkins

BUTCHER BOYS (2012)
Directed by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks
On DVD Now

After teenage mischief maker Barbie winds up some boys at a filling station convenience store on a birthday night out, she and her three friends Sissy, Mikey and boyfriend Kenny find themselves in a high speed car chase which ends up with their pursuers crashing into and killing a dog belonging to a ruthless gang in an abandoned part of town. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the gang will stop at nothing til all the teens are hunted down, including the four friends, with their insatiable appetite for both death and flesh the only thing on their minds.

Penned by Kim Henkel, writer of the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, BUTCHER BOYS acts as a spiritual sequel of sorts to the Tobe Hooper movie. Much like the cannibal horror, Butcher Boys tells the story of a group of teens who accidentally find themselves in the territory of a group of cannibals who they then must escape. Whilst it sounds like nothing new, directors Duane Graves and Justin Meeks do an excellent job on a low budget of creating a tense atmosphere. Swapping Texas for inner city ghost towns, with abandoned shops aplenty, gives Butcher Boys such a terrifying urban, industrial feel that terrifies on a more realistic level, maybe because it’s easier to relate to the location.

It’s pretty obvious from the offset that nice, sensible girl Sissy is going to be the last one standing and Ali Faulkner who plays her, and reminds me very much of a young Heather Graham, does a fantastic job portraying the heroine. She doesn’t come across as a soft touch or defenceless but neither is she an ass-kicking protagonist. Her character is real and uses her brain to try her best to get away from her captors. Her character has a lot of depth, which is a breath of fresh air in horror movies, and her varying layers of emotion transcend on the screen very well. The hunters, who I’ll refer to as the titular Butcher Boys, are intimidating but not in the way you would imagine. Most of the Butcher Boys look normal and just have the ‘bad boy’ appearance to them, but it’s their purpose, plans and unpredictability which makes them terrifying. As the film progresses, we meet the extended ‘family’ and then we’re introduced to the crazies and the grotesque.

There’s quite a lot to digest (pardon the pun) in Butcher Boys and it is quite an enjoyable horror with fantastic chase scenes and a splatter of gore in the form of breast munching, brain nibbling and throat ripping to mention a few, but unfortunately the whole plot is too incoherant to understand. The viewer is given glimpses into what is going on behind the scenes of J.Swift’s, the Butcher Boys restaurant and hideout, but the minute we’re given a sneak peek, we’re snatched away, and the explanations for various scenarios never come to light. This is quite a shame as the film is shot incredibly well and it is very much a gripping watch with never a dull moment. However, when the film approaches the credits, the viewer is left wanting answers and the film feels unfinished because of it.

A decent attempt with some genuinely terrifying chase sequences, but the jumbled rush may leave some viewers a little unsatisfied.

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