There's not much more painful than watching a B-movie that never quite rises to the challenge of being a B-movie, but that's exactly what happens with Sledge, a mere 75-minute film concocted by Kristian Hanson, a former web-based critic who kicks the film off with a nod to his roots. This will either strike you as perfectly fine or annoyingly pretentious.

You can probably guess which side I fall on.

Sledge is said to be inspired by Hanson's own favorites and also said to be the kind of horror film he would want to see.

I'm sorry.

A horror/comedy of sorts, Sledge follows a paint-by-numbers formula of taking a group of campers into the woods to encounter their killer. In this case, pretty much without exception, the campers are so irritating and over-the-top that most of us will be rooting for the killer. The killer, Adam Lynch (Hanson), is portrayed as a not particularly intelligent yet humor-centered killer - sort of a distant cousin to Patrick Bateman I'd say.

There's a definite market for a film like Sledge, a film that is unapologetically violent and funny and of the "no budget" variety when it comes to pretty much every technical aspect of the film. The film's camera work isn't particularly effective, the special effects fall significantly short even by B-movie standards, and pretty much there's nothing to distract you from the uninspired humor and dialogue.

Picked up for release by Maxim Media International, Sledge is available by VOD. With a production budget of $800, Sledge is the kind of film where you pretty much know going in what to expect. If you were a fan of Hanson's Assly shtick, then you get his kind of humor and may find that this film works for you.

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic