The Sadist

The Sadist (2015)

** (out of 4)

Low-budget horror film has some campers and hunters coming under attack by an escaped mental patient (Tom Savini) who was a special ops soldier before his breakdown. Now the former soldier is on a killing spree.

When you see that a movie is a slasher and that it features Savini and it's called THE SADIST then you're expectations pretty much go sky high. Unfortunately THE SADIST isn't a very good movie but at the same time it's certainly a lot better than a lot of the indie productions out there.

There's really nothing overly original here as we have a maniac running wild in the woods and killing people. That's basically everything that happens during the short running time. I will say that on a technical level the film is well-made and I'd also argue that the wood settings were extremely good and added a lot to the picture. Some of the performances weren't too bad either and it's always fun watching Savini work.

With that said, the biggest issue I had with the film is that it really lacks any real punch. If you're hoping to see gore then you'll really be disappointed as a lot of the death scenes are off camera and what ones are on screen just don't have much of the red stuff. Nudity? Forget it. Now, you could be saying does a horror film need gore and nudity? In my opinion, slashers like this do need one or both.

THE SADIST will appeal to fans of Savini but most will probably want to skip it.

Movie isn't too bad at all i liked it a lot. I would suggest watching it one or more times

Tom Savini is "The Sadist". It clearly says so on the cover image, but just in case you're not entirely convinced yet, there also are the gratuitous opening sequences in which a glass-eyed and sneering Savini savagely kills a little piglet with a pitchfork. Why does he do that? Because Tom Savini is "The Sadist" and that's what sadists do! This man is a total mystery, by the way. As an actor and/or special effects wizard, Savini was involved in some of the greatest horror classics of all time, including most of George A. Romero's masterpieces, so why is he still wasting his time with uninspired, forgettable, insignificant and dreadfully inept amateur horror movies like this one? Are you seriously that bored, Mr. Savini? "The Sadist" is genuinely terrible, with the lack of a story and horridly hectic camerawork as the main defaults. Chubby and badly ageing Tom Savini is supposedly a decorated and highly qualified combat veteran, but he went bonkers and now he's prowling the Connecticut woods. He's targeting a sleaze uncle and his nephew on a bird-hunting trip as well as three dim-witted teenagers on a hiking weekend. It's truly boring, lousily acted and for some reason these low-budget gore flicks all think that it is cool to show a lot of disembowelment. I will always respect and worship Tom Savini for his work on classics like "Dawn of the Dead", "Maniac", "The Burning" and many others, but let's pretend we didn't see this.