by Chris Wright, MoreHorror.com

Buddy has an ax to grind and he wants you to watch the mayhem! A long forgotten late 1980s slasher deserves some props for being a fairly entertaining “B” horror movie in a time when slashers became non-existent or really bad. I found this movie randomly in a thrift store for 50 cents. I found it on VHS from a company known as Charter Entertainment. This movie was barely released when it came out. The movie deserves some recognition due to its amusing villains alone. This movie is also known in some parts as “Bacon Bits.”

The plot is fairly simple. Lester Bacon’s slaughterhouse property is being foreclosed and he is really upset that the town officials are closing on it. Lester’s mentally inept son Buddy takes lives before this process but Lester decides killing these folks is a splendid idea for revenge. If this sounds like a “B” movie to you, you are right. The fun part is this movie takes itself seriously in a great way. The antagonists Lester and Buddy are really fun slashers. Lester is full of great one liners and Buddy is fairly likable unless you mess with his dad.

A sub plot going on through this movie is the high school dance and they decide a great place to party is at the slaughterhouse facility on Lester’s property. The main plot is basically Lester slowly loosing it over his property being taken away from him. You honestly do not remember or really care about the heroes of this movie. What makes this point interesting as that doesn't really bring the movie down. The movie is more oriented toward the funny property owners anyway. You just have to love the random cliches like their last name being “Bacon”. A pair with the last name Bacon running a slaughterhouse, how awesome is that?

Buddy kills some of the teens throughout the movie and his father Lester hides them in the slaughterhouse. The movie is gory enough for something this low budget and pretty well done on that aspect. As the movie progresses, the cops try to eject Lester from his property. Lester, of course, decides to let Buddy have his way with them. Buddy chops one of the officer’s hands off and he bleeds to death. He lets one of the officials fall in to a meat grinder.

The movie essentially ends with Lester and Buddy trying to take out the partying teens. Lester is so angry that they want to take away his property that mayhem just continues to ensue! This does not end on a happy note for them. Lester gets run over by a car literally flattened and it is seen on screen. He suffered a bullet wound before this. We see Buddy in the police car coming out at the two survivors the wounded sheriff (William Houck) and his daughter Liz (Sherry Leigh) . It ends on a cliffhanger with fate unknown.

Some may compare this movie to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”. An outsider family with the much larger family member being off in the head sounds very familiar. There may be some similarities but it’s a different story entirely and a fun film to watch. If anything, the acting from Don Barrett and the gore make up for any similarities! There was a trailer made of Buddy and Lester in a theater telling people to be quiet and not smoke in the theater. I wish horror today would have stuff such as that!

If you are looking for a fun, cheesy, and gory slasher, this movie is definitely for you. It’s not a work of cinematic art but a perfect way to enjoy a night. The black comedy and 80s feel works very well in this forgotten gem I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Buddy and Lester are, indeed, the stars of this movie for me. The one and only movie Rick Roessler ever did is a keeper. It has a 5.1 on IMDB.

“Slaughterhouse” (1987)

Directed By: Rick Roessler

Written by: Rick Roessler

Starring: Joe Barton (Buddy Bacon), Don Barrett (Lester Bacon), Sherry Leigh (Liz Borden), Bill Brinsfield, (Tom Sanford), Jason Collier (Ronnie), William Houck (Sherrif Borden)