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.
Director: Walter Grauman
Like I said, this isn't much of a horror movie. It was made for TV, so it's sort of like a woman-empowering after school special. It's got a good moral story, and good lesson to teach to women: don't be weak and fight for what you know is right. The cast was great (and included a very young and not very nice Dennis Quaid), and the relationships between Gail and her co-stars were incredible. It was very believable; it just wasn't horrifying. I know you're thinking, "Hey! Rape is very horrifying!" Yes, it is. But at the end of the day, Gail (or whoever was playing her) could have a drink with her attacker knowing that he didn't do a damn thing to her. Rape is horrible in the real world. My point is this...there was no suspense. To me, it was obvious who the bad guy was the entire time; I was just waiting for him to come out and show himself. It was slow and boring, and if a movie is going to call itself horror, it cannot be slow. Or at least, the slow pace should go along nicely with the story. It didn't work for me here. If I had gone into this thinking here's a nice drama movie about a young girl overcoming adversity, I probably would have liked it. But I went into it thinking it was an older version of When A Stranger Calls (a movie that frightened me a bit). So I was expecting at least a little bit of bloodshed. I was waiting for some action that never happened. I was very disappointed in this one, and I think Netflix should remove it from its "horror" section. There's nothing horror about it. I should also point out that it was based on a novel, and I feel the story is much better suited for that. Slow pacing works in books, not in movies.
Director: Scott Charles Stewart