Bad Apples is the type of class act picture that opens with a pregnant woman being stabbed to death and the two infants she carries being birthed post mortem right there on the kitchen floor. Well those two poor souls grow into teenagers…nearly mute teenagers who always (and I mean always) wear masks and have a demented streak a mile long (but more on that in a minute). Is all of that above distasteful, shocking, and downright surreal…you bet your arcane ass it is…it’s also one hell of a top-shelf way to start your fright flick (you know, pictures who’s main goal is to disturb).
As Halloween arrives, those two precious darlings referenced up yonder go on your average, everyday kill spree…one fraught with gleeful sprightly tricks, buckets of blood, and absolutely zero remorse. Eventually our dastardly duo end up at the home of the new teacher in town Ella and things take a turn for the stalk n’ slay as a game of cat and mouse is played for the life of their potential victim!
The biggest asset that Bad Apples brings to the table is it’s antagonists….the masked teenage thrill-killers are visually iconic, childish and sadistic in equal measure, and most importantly…downright off-putting. In a genre as saturated with masked lunatics as our beloved slasher films it’s hard to come up with a menace that stands out from the crowd these days, but his film does it, and does it extremely well.
Another aspect where Bad Apples shines is in taking it’s sweet ass time gettin’ to the grizzly goods. Now I know…I know, we come to these things to see all manner of carnage and mayhem, but in taking a breath and spending time with Ella and her fiance Robert we get to care about them, and therefore we share their terror and have a feeling of investment as the sinister shit hits the frightful fan.
A qualm I did have with the film is in regards to some impact being lessened by janky editing or “soft” sound effects or a combo thereof. There’s a scene late in the film regarding someone getting hit with a bathroom implement (vague enough for ya my creeps?) that seems particularly weak and stagey due to weird editing/lack of sound effects.
Bottom line; Bad Apples is one of the best of the newer crop of slasher flicks, and comes with high praise from your’s cruelly; the maniacs are as cool as they come, there’s gory good times, and the suspense is suitably…suspenseful? Look, I write these reviews late at night…cut a beastly brotha some slack, ‘kay?
For more on Bad Apples from Horror Fuel head here!
