Sledge Hammer is the no-budget shot-on-video horror movie that launched the careers of legendary DTV director David A. Prior and his leading man brother, Ted. Together, they would go on to make the immortal classic, Deadly Prey. However, there are only faint glimmers of the promise to come in this one.
A group of friends decide to hang out and party in a remote farmhouse where some grisly sledgehammer murders took place ten years before. It doesn’t take long before the hammer-swinging killer (who wears a cheap dime store Halloween mask) returns to his old stomping grounds. Naturally, he’s a little cheesed off to find these morons on his property, and he sets out to hammer out a few details, if you catch my drift.
Sledge Hammer is far from the worst SOV horror flick I’ve seen. The problem is that Prior is a big fan of ridiculously long establishing shots and unending slow-motion sequences. (One of which looks like it could’ve been a regional commercial for Massingill feminine products.) It’s obvious that they are only there to help stretch the running time to something approximating an actual motion picture, but they slowly wear out their welcome. Not to mention the long scenes of the cast drinking it up, goofing off, and frolicking about. Or the long musical interludes of Ted noodling endlessly on his guitar. Or the long-ass food fights, repeated scenes, and the end credits that are filled with fake names to further stretch things out. If they cut out the repeated sequences and sped up the slow-motion stuff, it might’ve only been an hour, but it probably would’ve been a fun hour. At eighty-five minutes, it is sometimes a chore to get through.
The good news is that there are enough choice moments here to keep watching. When the sledgehammer murders eventually do occur, they aren’t bad as the head bashing effects are by far the best thing this cheesefest has going for it. Prior was smart enough to find a killer who had a signature weapon with a little pizzazz. Most of these movies have axe-wielding killers. Sledgehammers are just different enough from a lot of other implements seen in similar horror flicks to make this one stand out from the rest of the pack.
If your tolerance for this sort of thing is low, stay far away. I myself run hot and cold on SOV horror flicks. It’s certainly spotty, that’s for sure. (It’s not nearly as effective once it begins introducing potentially supernatural elements. It’s much better when it's delivering on the old school stalking and killing.) However, there are plenty of unintentional laughs to be had (like the cheesy sex scene) to make it worth a look as a curio.
AKA: Sledgehammer.
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