Nothing sells a slasher like a holiday association. You really don’t need me to do the list; if it’s been deemed a day of rest or celebration which is in some way marked annually, then it’s fertile ground in which to cultivate 80-odd minutes of hapless, sinful youngsters getting hacked up by a maniac. Small wonder, then, that someone thought to make such a film set on 4/20, the American stoner day of, erm, more rest than usual which has somehow become a global event in recent years (much to the bemusement of us Brits, who restrain ourselves from complaining, “surely you mean 20/4”).
In getting the date in the title, writer-director Dylan Reynolds has hit upon a surefire way of building interest in his ultra-low budget backwoods slasher flick. What a shame he and the 4/20 Massacre cast and crew didn’t manage to craft a film worthy of such interest in the process.
We open on a pair of comic relief stoner slackers (Insane Clown Posse T-shirt alert), hiking out into the middle of nowhere in search of a bumper crop of guerrilla-farmed marijuana. (Why yes, that was also how the Friday the 13th remake started, thanks for bringing that beloved memory up.) Naturally, things turn out equally badly for these weed thieves, as some sort of feral Sasquatch – or at least, a rather unbalanced individual dressed up that way, despite the apparent heat of the wilderness – pops out of nowhere, leaving one of the thieves dead, another one the run. Meanwhile, a quintet of young women are venturing into this strange and deadly wilderness (why yes, that is also more or less how recent Netflix release Annihilation starts out, and yes, that would be a considerably better use of your time), on a camping trip to celebrate the birthday of Jess (Jamie Bernadette). And, wouldn’t you know it, the day in question is April 20th. While Jess, despite being born on 4/20, does not partake of the herb herself (why yes, that clearly is a final girl signpost you see), her friends do, and it seems the general plan is to mark the occasion by getting shitfaced in the great outdoors. En route, they cross paths with the surviving weed thief, and he dumps what he considers to be a cursed stash upon them; naturally, they think they’ve hit the jackpot. But of course, once the scent of the weed is on them, that means the big hairy guy is on the hunt for them too.
Sure, it’s a tissue-thin premise, but that’s the very nature of the slasher movie, and plenty of greats in the subgenre have come from even simpler beginnings. 4/20 Massacre, however, has no chance of ever being classed among such greats. It just doesn’t have anything like the flair or personality of even a comparatively lesser title like, say, The Burning, the Sleepaway Camp sequels, or for a more recent example even the Sorority Row remake. Such films might be formulaic and derivative, but there’s a certain mischievous joy about them which makes them fun to revisit, whereas 4/20 Massacre is unlikely to be remembered within 24 hours of viewing.
It’s shot in a flat, bland fashion with almost no sense of energy or momentum; there’s no sense of tension or shock, even when the plot takes some ever-so-slightly unexpected turns; and, worst of all when it’s a slasher, the gore is crap, a half-hearted blend of obvious CGI and utterly unconvincing practical FX. A shame, as there are a few reasonably creative gags in there (in particular one involving a bong) which might have been real crowd-pleasers had they been better executed. On top of which, even the weed angle feels entirely wasted, as the film does not in any way evoke a tangible stoner sensibility such as we might find in, say, David Arquette’s The Tripper.
It’s not hard to feel a bit sorry for the cast, as none of them are by any means bad actresses, and Reynolds’ script is clearly making some effort to give them interesting dialogue and character arcs. Some of it, in fairness, is handled quite well; one story thread centred on unrequited love might have been genuinely quite touching under different circumstances. But this is a low-rent slasher movie. Yes, plot and character are indeed important, but there has to be a bit of balance. Nobody picks up a film like this hoping for an hour and fifteen minutes of sensitive heart-to-heart talk, and maybe ten minutes of splatter. And I find it hard to envisage many slasher fans coming away from 4/20 Massacre feeling entirely satisfied.
But hey, I guess anything plays okay if you’re stoned enough…
4/20 Massacre is released to DVD and VOD in the US on 3rd April, via Film Chest.