Synopsis:
When a possessed pair of jeans begins to kill the staff of a trendy clothing store, it is up to Libby, an idealistic young salesclerk, to stop its bloody rampage.

Cast: Romane Denis, Brett Donahue, Sehar Bhojani, Kenny Wong, Tianna Nori, Jessica B. Hill, Erica Anderson, Hanneke Talbot, Stephen Bogaert

Directors: Elza Kephart
Writers: Patricia Gomzez, Elza Kephart

There’s plenty of different types of slasher villains in horrors films, I’ve watched everything from killer planets to a killer tire. I hadn’t seen a pair of killer jeans, however, and that’s exactly what Slaxx is about. 

Inside Canadian Cotton Clothiers—which I took as a parody on Cotton On, but I have no idea if they’re in Canada—the manager and staff prepare for a huge Monday Madness sale. At the forefront of this big day is a selection of brand new jeans; GMO-free, fair-trade, ethically sourced, and they apparently adapt to any body size. Of course, that’s all corporate B.S. One of these pairs of jeans has arrived with a mission of its own: kill everyone. 

The store is a brightly coloured stereotype of every local clothing store you can think of. Especially the ones marketed towards younger people. So think Cotton On, Jay Jays and Dotti with the mix of staff represented here to match every stereotype for someone working in one of those stores. The self-obsessed blonde, the girl who hates everyone else in the store, the manager who’s more obsessed with their numbers than the well-being of the staff. And then there’s the fresh-faced new girl who thinks she’s entering her dream job, which in this case is Libby (Romane Denis). 

Slaxx is only 77 minutes so director Elza Kephart is very aware of just how far you can stretch “there are killer jeans on the loose” as a film. That said, the film does very quickly run out of inventive ways for jeans to kill people. The first time it’s exciting and a surprise, but the last person to eat it isn’t all that exciting. One of the deaths happens entirely off-screen and I’m not sure if it was a creative decision or a budget one. When there’s only so much you can do with the kills in a film like this, I’d have expected to see them all.

What makes Slaxx fun to watch is the ridiculous character paired with the somewhat on-the-nose message behind the killer jeans. A message that should be very obvious from the outset of the film, but an important one, and something that’s not really touched upon in horror like this. But the characters suck, in a somewhat entertaining way. I certainly didn’t care for them at all. I was happy to see anyone die. I’m definitely on #TeamSlaxx. But I think that’s the point in the end.