Released: 22nd March
Seen: 1st April
A lot of streaming services have taken to making their own original films and for good reason, those films are owned by the streaming service and therefore can’t be taken away by any company (the exception to this is HBO Max who make and take away their own products because HBO Max is run by a fucking moron). There’s a general belief on this blog that those streaming originals are just as valid as any other film and thus they get reviewed, be they from Netflix, Prime or Shudder.
The one streaming service that has been an exception to this and that’s Tubi, which is weird because that’s a free service so their original films are easiest to access. However, their films also just don’t really stand out enough to warrant discussion. No one talks about the Terror Train remake, War of the Worlds: Annihilation or the sequel to the Terror Train remake that came out 3 months after the Terror Train remake so it felt pointless reviewing them when there were bigger things to review. Maybe that snobbery needs to be looked at, maybe some of Tubi’s garbage needs to be ransacked… or maybe I was just waiting for Tubi to release an original film that might interest me and “Drag Queen Vampire movie” is absolutely the kind of film I’m very interested in.
Slay begins on the road with a performing troupe of drag queens on their way to a gig. Mama Sue Flay (Trinity The Tuck), Robin Banks (Heidi N Closet), Bella Da Boys (Crystal Methyd) and Olive Wood (Cara Melle) are all heading to what they believe is a legendary gay bar but when they finally get to the venue they realise they misunderstood and are actually performing at a dive bar. This dive bar is run by an old guy called Dusty (Neil Sandilands) who still wants them to perform, even though Dusty’s normal clientele includes people like Travis (Daniel Janks), a massive bigot, his friend Fatboy (Joe Vaz) and a ditzy girl named Sheila (Robyn Scott).
The queens are about to leave when they realise that doing this show would mean a lot to the queer people in the community, which means Jax (Donia Kash) and Steven (Gabriel Harry Meltz) because they’re the only queer people in town. Just as the show starts, the bar is descended upon by a horde of vampires and now the queens, the queers and the townsfolk have to put aside their differences and their prejudices to try and survive the night.
Slay is what would happen if Priscilla made a stop off at the Titty Twister. It’s a gloriously campy film that understands that the idea of drag queens fighting vampires is inherently silly and so it leans into that. Everything is heightened as much as can be considering the tiny budget, the performances are a little cheesy and the dialogue is pitched as broadly as possible to try and get the most out of it. Most of the time the film is just playing with the insanity of the central concept, and really that seems like the best way to handle this kind of material.
The bonus of aiming most of the jokes for as broad an audience as possible is that when the time comes to have a serious moment (and this film does try to have a few of those, surprisingly), pulling back the tone gives those scenes of sincerity some gravitas. It’s kind of amazing how this film can jump between cheesy double entendres and then have a sincere scene encouraging a major character to be honest with who they are.
Oh, in case it’s not obvious by the fact that the four leads are drag queens, this is one hell of a queer film that’s also pointedly political about it. It uses the bigoted characters to pointedly call out their stupidity and make sure the audience knows that this kind of attitude is wrong. Every bigoted thing you might have heard is called out and mocked, from idiots having a problem with drag queens to a brilliant pointed put down to dumbasses who act like pronouns are something brand new. Sure there’s an element of preaching to the choir (no way in hell will a bigot watch enough of this film to actually change their mind, the second they see the queens they’ll turn this thing off) but sometimes that preaching can be encouraging to those in the choir. The use of current politics gives this film a little bit of extra heft that it probably wouldn’t get otherwise.
Now obviously Slay does suffer from the things that one tends to expect from low-budget movies. Some of the effects are just bad, the classic CGI blood splatter effect never looks good and it certainly doesn’t here. Some of the action scenes are kind of badly shot in a way that feels like they were trying to make the bad fighting into a joke but it doesn’t quite work. Sadly the big issue is the acting which is all over the place, especially from our leads. Let’s be blunt here, these are drag queens, not professional actors so there are times when their line delivery isn’t great, but there are also times when they nail every joke just right. It’s a mixed bag of performances that tends to lean more towards the watchable than not. Basically, these performances would rank high in a Drag Race acting challenge but are probably not going to be awards nominees any time soon… but it’s also a film about vampires hunting drag queens so I don’t think they were really going method here.
If you were to judge Slay like one might judge a regular studio film you’d probably rank it pretty mid, however Slay is not a regular studio film. Considering this is a campy horror comedy featuring some well known drag queens fighting against vampires that feel like they were late to the casting call for the last season of Buffy, it’s pretty much the best version of that you could hope for. It’s funny, charming and has more than a few cute emotional moments (a character begging to get a drag makeover before they die is suitably silly but has a sweetness that’s undeniable). Tubi could honestly take notes and make a whole bunch more like this, silly camp films that go well at a weekend watch party with some friends. It’s not here to change lives or be considered high art, Slay is here to entertain and goddamn it does it get that job done.
Movie Meister Reviews 