#213 -- Slip (2006)

Rating: 3 / 5
Director: Brian Maris

Slip probably won't seem like a horror movie to you; I know it didn't to me. IMDB classifies it as a thriller, and I agree somewhat. To me, it's a thriller mixed with a crime action/drama. However, just because the horror elements are fewer here, that doesn't mean that it was a bad movie. It just wasn't what I was hoping for.

It was about a girl named Sarah. When she was a little girl, her mother was murdered by a disgruntled co-worker. Ever since she found her mother dead, she developed supernatural abilities. This is one of the few horror elements, as a lot of supernatural thrillers begin this way. Sarah was able to channel the spirits of the dead; spirits who had unfinished business that they took care of through her. She was lucky to never channel evil spirits. The first happened shortly after her mother's death, and she helped a deceased man tell his wife that he loved her. We saw a police officer who was murdered during a bank robbery, and he used Sarah to take down the three murderers. She channeled a woman who died during childbirth, and gave her the chance to see her child for the first--and only--time. But these were small compared to what Sarah had to do next.

She channeled a boy who was murdered by a gang of car thieves. A large sum of money had been stolen from the thugs, and they suspected that the boy knew something about it. The boy knew that his uncle, Cal, would be questioned by them, and possibly killed. He needed Sarah to keep his uncle safe. Sarah and Cal developed a relationship, because he needed her to help him evade the criminals trying to kill him. Sarah was very confident and skilled with a gun, and that definitely came in handy.

Meanwhile, a lunatic was following Sarah. He had the same abilities as Sarah, but he didn't handle them quite as well. He took photos of the people she killed, and he asked them all how to make the voices stop. When they couldn't tell him anything, some man came through him and killed them. That man happened to be the one who murdered Sarah's mother. The lunatic had been in a facility with Sarah, and he thought that, somehow, she knew how to control what he thought were only voices. He was tracking her down to get that information, because he was scared of what the bad man made him do. In the end, all Sarah had to do to make the "voices" stop was forget about the past, and live for each day.

The story was interesting, and the acting was actually quite good. The best actor in the bunch I would have to say is Sky Soleil, who played the lunatic. Jill Small (Sarah) switched between herself and the spirits quite well; but not quite as well as Mr. Soleil, in my opinion. His main character was kind of messed-up, not very intelligent, and he seemed very frightened. But when he channeled the other spirits, he turned into a dark, intelligent, and sinister man. I thought he did an incredible job, and I was really impressed.

Overall, it really wasn't a bad movie, I didn't see the "horror" in it, which I guess is why it's classified as thriller. It might be because horror and the street life don't really mix well. Or maybe because the only horror movies with an urban setting that I'm familiar with are Leprechaun (both times he went to Da Hood), and Killjoy. This was nothing like either of those movies, so maybe it's just because it wasn't what I expected or what I was used to. But I think it was because the focus was mainly on the relationship between the criminals, Cal, and Sarah. It focused on the spirits, of course, because that was the theme. But they weren't present as much as the threat of the thugs catching up to Sarah and Cal. Sarah's spirits weren't sinister or evil; they were simple people with unfinished business. The only sinister spirits were those that were channeled by Sky Soleil's character, and he wasn't in the movie nearly as much as I would have liked.

To me, thrillers are just horror movies that aren't quite horror enough to call themselves horror. Pardon the redundancy. But Slip was an interesting movie with nice characters and a nice feel to it. It had certain elements of horror, drama, romance, and tearjerker. So I guess it can appeal to just about anyone. You won't feel your time was wasted with this one.