Slaxx Review (Film, 2021)
content warning: gore, violence against women, eating disorders, death by suicide (discussed)
I’m a sucker for a cursed fashion object film. Yes, this is a subgenre of horror. From shoes to hair extensions, there are horror films that take a fashion obsession and turn it into a slasher film. There’s usually an element of judgement in these films on the shopper’s side. How could anyone be so vain as to die for fashion?
Slaxx has a different angle on it. This is a film tackling toxic fast fashion culture from the retailer side, not the consumer side. The film’s setting is CCC, the Canadian Cotton Clothiers. They’re an eco-friendly big box store claiming to use fair trade practices and organic materials. From the opening sequence, we know this is a lie, as the CCC’s cotton fields in India are also labeled “experimental.”
Libby is the newest employee at CCC. She’s hired just in time to help launch the new Super Stretch denim line. The jeans mold to your form using your body heat. In just a few hours, every employee will be locked in the store overnight to setup the exclusive flagship location for the new must-have jeans.
Writer/director Elza Kephart and writer Patricia Gomez craft a bloody and biting satire in Slaxx. Even before the scares start, their screenplay captures that toxic “we’re a family” corporate personality too well. This kind of laser focused passive aggressive behavior starts at the top and works its way down. The store is filled with employees who have been there for years because they’re all too acclimated to the environment. New employees come and go without warning as anyone who doesn’t fit the mold is punished and ostracized until they leave or get with the program. This film ignited a deep fight or flight response in my body before anything supernatural took over.
The satire is baked into the plot of the film. The twists and turns in commentary and plot all hinge on Libby’s growing understanding of how the company and the murders actually work. It’s a great way to get this kind of messaging across without being overbearing. The climactic sequence that finally vocalizes the theme of the film feels earned and important.
From the moment you first see the jeans come to life, you know you’re in for something special. The animation on the jeans is spectacular. The effect is subtle at first. The jeans will wiggle on a shelf. Maybe the legs will tuck themselves back in or the waist will bend up like it’s looking around. Then they begin to crawl on the ground. It’s hard to describe their exact movement, but it looks real. I haven’t put much thought into how pants would move themselves before this. Now, I imagine it would like just like this film.
Slaxx is a gory horror film. These jeans are brutal. I didn’t think there could be so many ways to murder with just a pair of jeans. It seems like such an odd thing to celebrate, but there’s genuine innovation in how the paranormal slasher is reimagined here to actually have an inanimate object cause this destruction.
That, in itself, is the point of the film. Sure, our clothes aren’t literally coming to life commit murder, but the entire fast fashion industry is incredibly destructive in ways that are all too convenient to ignore.
Slaxx is streaming on Shudder.
