SOV delight

This little 80's shot-on-video rarity somehow slipped through the gaping retail hole known as home distribution. 'Sledge Hammer' was actually one of the first sov ventures to either grace, or break our television screens. I guess it depends on how you look at it.

This flick is full of so much cheese that its total ineptness is manifested in obvious 'over'-lighting (now, there's something....I spend most of the time griping about under-lighting'), less than mediocre acting, a cheap sov look...everything one needs to make a high honkey pie.

We start out in that famous 'as a kid' scene where a young hot mom wants to get it on with her other lover. It seems as if those pesky kids get in the way every time, but Mom knows best and sees fit to lock her son in the closet until the deed is done. (If one didn't know better, they would swear they were watching an ultra low budget version of Uli Lommell's 'The Boogeyman' - Let's face it, 'The Boogeyman' was made on spare change found under Lommell's couch cushion anyway.)

Anyway, it was a mistake to lock the kid in the closet. He eventually gets out and brings a large sledgehammer with him - bashing mom's lover in the back of the head. He then offs mom in that maniacal off-screen fashion.

The now systematic scene of going ten years down the road to the same location where the murders took place ten years before, rings true in this little tape laden 'opus'. We're soon treated to watching a bunch of mullet wearing body builders pretend to be college kids. This alone makes it worth the wasted time.

I must confess that what ensues isn't really all the bad considering the whole film was shot on video, with the finished budget weighing in at $40,000. It's kind of like your fat smelly uncle. It makes you sick to smell him, but he's a lot of fun to have around.

If you like mullet sporting 30 somethings so baked by over tanning, and so worked over with face-lifts [that his face looks like plastic stretched over bone,] you'll get a grand kick out of 'Sledgehammer'.

It's kind of funny to see a blond muscle bound idiot treating his girlfriend like a possession while in a drunken stupor. We're treated to a very messy food fight, and a prank that involves rope, a fake hanging scene that makes absolutely no sense, a tape recorder, and a seance. I guess the add libbing and pointless slow motion camera shots weren't enough to fill the black void in between semi-action.

Finally, the spirit of the little kid (I guess, I have no clue if the seance brought him back or...) who turns into a grown man, back to a kid, back to a grown man, wears a see through plastic mask and looks like a geeked out version of the 'couch guy' from 'Half Baked'. To be honest, it's a pretty good disguise. What it all means, well, I couldn't tell you. Nevertheless, the killer looms around in the seemingly small house and picks the crew off one by one in over-lit bliss with his big ass sledgehammer.

This whole movie is one big ball of cheese....one big ball of atrocious fun that only a select few will appreciate. Throughout the whole movie, there's this 'happy' vibe going on. It's obvious that all of actors were amateurs that hammed up the experience of being in a slasher movie. Ted Prior (Director, David Priors bodybuilding playgirl centerfold brother) adds a sense of natural comedy that the movie so desperately needed.

In a nutshell, as a slasher film completest, I find myself putting myself through some cinematic torture now and again. Sitting through films like 'The Forest', ''Twisted Nightmare,'' Memorial Valley Massacre'' etc; makes it worthwhile - even when such a shitty movie as 'Sledgehammer' makes its way into my vcr. This is definitely my most guilt ridden pleasure.

For the slasher fan, its a very rare treat. If you can find a copy, I urge you to do so in its big box glorious fashion. I'm not sure if there's a dvd release as of yet, but I'm sure there will be one someday.