The Genius of ‘Slice’

 October is here, and I decided to kick it off with a halloween flick. 2018's Slice was an instant cult classic. The combination of Zazie Beetz (Atlanta) and Chance the Rapper (Rapper) is all any of us ever want out of a film. You throw in small roles from Joe Keery, Chris Parnell, and Y'lan Noel, and you've got yourself a special creation.

The entire premise of the movie is built upon a society split in two: Humans and Ghosts. When a pizza boy's neck is sliced open on the job, the town scrambles for someone to blame. Was it ghosts? Humans? An old werewolf that may or may not be myth? And it only gets more and more outrageous as the film wears on. Cover ups, a detective with a vendetta, dirty politics, drug rings, investigative reporting, cerial murder, wearwolves, and witchcraft. That's right. A fucking coven. The film follows its main protagonists: Astrid, a pizza delivery woman whose boyfriend was the aforementioned murdered dude, is on the prowl for vengeance, Sadie, a local journalist trying to uncover the mystery of their town Kingfisher, and Dax, a chinese food delivering werewolf trying to clear his name. They're up against a corrupt mayor and witch lobbyists, along with the cops who never really know what the fucks going on.

What may strike you as "stupid" in this film was exactly that, absolutely stupid. But that was the point. If there is any word to describe the essence of this A24 production it is outrageous. It only gets more outrageous as the story progresses. The towns kingpin is a gangster named "Big Cheese." He wears a cowboy hat and sunglasses at all times with a velvet blue jacket, bedazzled on the back to read "Big Cheese." Somehow this man rose to the top. Simply outrageous.

A large theme in this film is the continuous use of satire. Not only is it a satire on the entire idea of an 80s horror film, it's a satire of our society as a whole.

There is a idiotic politics. When I say idiotic, I mean blatantly corrupt, as we are all too familiar with here in real life. The dumbass of a mayor, played by Chris Parnell, is the perfect depiction of a no-good, crusty politician who just wants money and doesn't really give a shit about the citizens. There is the quite obvious parallel of humans and supernaturals to whites and people of color. In fact, Chance the Rapper's character is used as an example of why stereotypes aren't always true, multiple times. At one point in the film Sadie, the journalist trying to uncover all of these paranormal secrets, asks Dax (Chance the Rapper) why he doesn't just kill the people causing the problem, when he says that he's not that kind of werewolf she asks what kind of werewolf he actually is. Dax responds: "I'm the kind of werewolf that wants to deliver quality chinese food at affordable prices. That's quality chinese food. Affordable prices."

They also had a lot of direct parallels to sexism in the professional world. Sadie, a woman investigative reporter who nobody takes seriously is always getting shot down for interviews because "she could never be competent enough."

The cast phenomenally portrays these characters. Zazie Beetz is a badass as Astrid. Frankly any thing with Zazie is badass. Hell hath no fury like Zazie scorned. Chance the Rapper actually fares well as the werewolf Dax Lycaster. He surprised me with his performance and was really funny in parts. I was kind of disappointed with how small of a role Joe Keery had though.

Even without all the deeper embedded messages, this film is wildly entertaining. It's full of crowd pleasers left and right, and they hit correctly every single time. At one point Chance's character gives a monologue that ends with "I'm a fucking rascal" and I love it every single god damn time I watch.

The movies got a very nostalgic feel to it, you almost immediately feel like this movie was from the late 80s. The production of it, the aesthetic, everything really pointed to a retro sort of feel. And that's exactly what you want out of a spooky season movie.

It all felt very purposefully corny too. The entire film you can tell that the movie knew exactly what it was trying to be, and it was succeeding. The gruesomeness at points just adds to its cheesy old-school appeal.

The last 25 minutes of the movie are a whirlwind of chaos that only adds to it's amazingness. It's a classic big problem in a small town story and those are always fun. So if you haven't gotten the chance, watch Slice. You won't regret it.