The Sadist (2015) Online

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.

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. Unfortuantly 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.

Jack Bird (Frank Wihbey) and his uncle Will (Santo Fazio- 6 inches and a mustache short of Ron Jeremy) opt to go bird hunting at the same time three others go hiking. And BTW there is an inmate (Tom Savini) from Pleasant View Hospital that is on the loose. He is a trained black ops killer and has a touch of PTSD, just enough to make him want to kill, disembowel, and enjoy it.

I could add that using CPSH in pigs causes deformation in the fetus and farmer Ted (Carl Burrows) uses chemicals on his pigs to the dismay of Sheriff Scully (Jerry Murdock), but that had nothing to do with the film and I was not sure why that was even added. I have also never heard hunters make so much noise while hunting.

While the film shows us weapon movement, blood spray, and guts coming out, it doesn't show the actual penetration of the weapon. That special effect wasn't there in this low budget feature. The sound was a little choppy and the night time scene required a generator for the lights. You can hear the generator in the background and it was off to screen left as it gets louder when Will is speaking.

Note to gaffer Vincent Wolf: Extension cords. Inverter generators are also more quiet.

The title suggests a more crazed individual, but that was not the case. This was simply a low budget slasher. The dialogue was better than most in the genre. The acting was bad, but not horrid.

5 stars. 8 stars if you think the generator noise was funny.

Guide: F-word. No sex. Brief nudity (Joslyn Stabile)

The killer just stands in front of a truck and waits to be run over like they just wanted to end this piece of rubbish as abruptly as possible. This is another film that tries to kid us that a group of civilians is any match for a trained military tactician.

The only one who escapes without injury is a really annoying blonde who moans about everything and you hope to God she will be the first to go but no we have to listen to her whining all the way through.

I was surprised this is a modern movie it seems very 1970s but I guess that's just the way it's filmed. I would only recommend watching this if there is nothing else to watch.

THE SADIST is an example of your typical indie slasher in which a bunch of characters out camping in the woods are mercilessly killed by a serial killer who has escaped from a local asylum. This film's production values are a step up from the usual bottom-of-the-barrel proceedings but the wooden cast make it hard going and there's no gore to speak of. The film really suffers from its own predictability, and the only interest comes from the casting of cult horror icon Tom Savini who has a ball as the killer.