Blu-ray Review: A Slaughter in Plague Town (2008)

February 7, 2021

Written by DanXIII

Daniel XIII; the result of an arcane ritual involving a King Diamond album, a box of Count Chocula, and a copy of Swank magazine, is a screenwriter, director, producer, actor, artist, and reviewer of fright flicks…Who hates ya baby?

A bickering family of American tourists decide to stop off in a small Irish village located in a picturesque, verdant landscape. Seems prosaic enough, but as horror movies oft times go; this village has a deep, dark (in this case mutant) based secret that will put that vacay in a serious dovetail right quick!
As you may surmise from that sinister synopsis, Plague Town (or A Slaughter in Plague Town) is a fright flick positively dripping with atmosphere. This is nowhere as evident in the locales utilized to bring this terror tale to life; all wicked woods and dark, almost monotone environs. It’s drab, it’s dreary, and it looks exactly like the place you’d run into some good ol’ folk horror madness!
Adding to the positives are the lean n’ mean flow of the film delivered by co-writer (along with John Cregan)/director David Gregory keeps things disturbing and moving like a spectral locomotive from hell, so this one never becomes tedious… a true putrid plus in my beastly book, and the sparse score (courtesy of composer Mark Raskin) never becomes intrusive letting the horror speak for it’s self without excessive audio theatrics.
Also, while not a splatter-drenched gore epic, the effects that are on display in Plague Town are well done and realistic, and really do a great job of hammering the violence on display home!
As for special features on this Blu-ray release from Severin we get an archival audio commentary from the 2009 release of the film courtesy of Gregory and producer Derek Curl and a feature-length, brand new “making of” documentary that both bring every aspect of the film’s production to life.
Also included are two archival featurettes (one a “behind-the-scenes” affair and the other a look at the film’s audio components), two short films from Gregory, and the film’s theatrical trailer.
Bottom line; David Gregory truly delivers the ghoulish goods with Plague Town, it’s at times brutal, at others nearly beautiful, but always a solid horror biz experience!
 

 


 
 
 

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