The Movie Waffler First Look Review - SLASHENING: THE FINAL BEGINNING | The Movie Waffler

First Look Review - SLASHENING: THE FINAL BEGINNING

slashening the final beginning review
Sequel to the 2015 slasher parody.

Review by Sue Finn

Directed by: Brandon Bassham

Starring: Lloyd Kaufman, Addie Weyrich, Jean Louise O'Sullivan, Rasheda Crockett, Billy Bob Thompson

slashening the final beginning poster

A group of young party-goers gather at a residence for a housewarming, but before they can get going, they are told the tale of what happened five years prior, at the exact location where they are about to party. The story tells of a group of girls who had come together to have a party - they invited boys over, and there was drinking and drugs. According to the legend, their neighbours couldn’t stand the sound, came over and killed everybody including some pizza delivery guys.

Apparently there were two survivors - Lucy and Margot, but Lucy killed Margot and now resides in an institution.

With this, the new party begins. There’s a love scene with the participants making really REALLY sure they have consent, dick-docking and completely unsatisfying gay sex in the basement, and humorous lines (“I’ve been to Paris, you can’t fool me”) before the slaughter begins again.

All of this occurs before the title card.

slashening the final beginning review

Meanwhile, future final-girl Madison (Addie Weyrich) is hiding in the bath. She can’t move on after hearing the news of another mass murder at the slashening house and she’s advised to join a support group.

The group she joins is led by Pat (Patrick Foy), who survived the first movie after a scalded face, eye enucleation and having his penis ripped off and put into his mouth – “But I’m alive dammit!”

I particularly enjoyed that at the group the only decoration in the meeting room is a kitten poster with the legend ‘I wuv u, don’t kill yourself’.


An exceptionally long time is spent meeting the members of the group and it’s during these introductions that we learn Maddison’s connection to the slashening - her dad was the pizza shop owner who sent all the pizza delivery staff to the house five years previously where they all ended up murdered. After many failed suicide attempts he finally died indulging in auto erotic asphyxiation.

We are treated to a performance by group member Scott’s band The Rusty Joes, whose  hipster bluegrass song just consists of the word “Hey” accompanied by ukuleles and bottle blowing – genuinely hilarious.

There’s a haphazard scene with a stoner being dispatched via bong-stabbing, and then we hit the feminist art show section.

slashening the final beginning review

This is where the film pretty much lost me as an audience member as it goes off on a random tangent and then has a woman strip down to her G string and dance around as the camera spins for an inordinately long time; the scene comes out of nowhere, contributes nothing, and is actually really boring and badly acted.

After this there’s a grossout sex scene and several deaths, before the finale which has a nice twist I didn’t see coming.


Written and directed by Brandon Bassham, this is a mixed bag of a movie, and much of your enjoyment relies on how you feel about Troma films. Usually their films make me laugh when they have a clear target and know their subject inside out, but this feels very unfocused and has the feel of a film trying to have its cake and eat it too. Bassham wrote and directed the Troma film Feartown USA, which I actually loved and so I’m surprised I didn’t embrace this film anywhere near as much.

I liked the bar scene where a group of oblivious mean girls (two of them from the support group Maddison attends) force the minimum wage bar worker to stay past her shift because they want to finish their wine and they threaten her with a bad online critique if she doesn’t. The surviving mean girl calling daddy for help and him throwing money at her to solve her problem as the killer stalks her to finish his business, was particularly amusing; but these scenes become fewer and farther apart. Troma can be funny and irreverent while staying topical and sharp but this is only seen in glimpses here.

slashening the final beginning review

Unfortunately, this isn’t clever, has little to say and aside from a few easy potshots isn't funny enough to sustain itself in the places where it's lacking. There seems to be an absent sense of drive to the storyline as it meanders all over the place; and the kills are disappointingly pedestrian and often shot badly.

I like the killer reveal and it's in this scene that we get an inkling of its working class affections. It’s a shame it’s never clearer than right before it ends.

A UK/ROI release has yet to be announced.



2021 movie reviews