‘Slasher: Ripper’ & ‘Hell Motel’
I’ve spent the last week, or two, working my way through a rewatch of the ‘Slasher’ series and it has been great. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into great detail here because, well… There are already posts here that do just that, I’ll link to them at the bottom of the post ;o) And that’s what led me to this post… I was (re)watching ‘Slasher: Ripper’ and realised that I’d never posted about it here. Being the kind of guy who ‘has to get the whole set’, that’s where this post comes in. And while I was watching ‘Ripper’, I found out that ‘Hell Motel’ has loose connections to the series so I gave that a go as well. While I’m hanging out with my daughters today, have a read and see what I thought of these two shows; both were good but I enjoyed one more than the other…
‘Slasher: Ripper’ (2023)
It’s 1904 and the upper-class of Toronto are left reeling when one of their own is brutally murdered by a killer known only as ‘The Widow’. Detective Kenneth Rijkers must find the killer and his investigations lead him to powerful businessman Basil Garvey and a party attended by high society and underworld characters both, some twelve years previously…
The danger with re-watching a series of ‘Slasher’ is that you have effectively spoiled yourself before you even start. Balancing that out though is the fact that the series does an excellent line in villains, the deaths are particularly creative and everyone who dies thoroughly deserves it. It’s a payoff that I’m more than happy to take.
With that in mind then, ‘Ripper’ doesn’t do anything particularly new but that’s besides the point, isn’t it ;o) What we get is a surprisingly thoughtful debate about ‘Justice vs. Vengeance’ that has a cast of unsavoury characters receiving one or the other, depending on your viewpoint. I won’t go too much into the plot, just in case you haven’t seen ‘Ripper’ but there are plenty of twists and turns that will keep the first time viewer guessing and a few links to earlier seasons that I enjoyed seeing. And each death is as eye-catching as any from previous seasons so I was very happy with what I got. What, you want me to pick a ‘favourite death’…? Well, I’ve have to say… Enid Jenkins (in the printing press), Venetia Botticelli (magic trick gone wrong)… They’re all good but these two were the most memorable.
I’m a fan of the ‘Slasher’ series (hence the rewatch) so take this as you will ;o) ‘Ripper’ is another more than solid entry and proved very easy to get back into, even on a repeat viewing.
‘Hell Motel’ (2025)
A party of true-crime obsessives are invited to the weekend party before the re-opening of the Cold River Motel, the site of a 30 year old unsolved (but definitely satanic) double murder. A storm puts paid to the party and while everyone is trapped inside, the guests start dying one by one. Is it one of the party, the stranded travellers… or something else entirely?
Again, I’m going to try and do this without giving too much away as on the whole, ‘Hell Motel’ is worth the watch and there’s a sweet little nod to ‘Slasher: Solstice’ that I enjoyed. The mystery unfolding, in the Motel, asks loads of questions and again, the deaths are eye-catching (moving Hemmingway out of the sauna was a personal favourite).
What I wasn’t keen on was the approach of following the ‘finale’ with another episode to tie up loose ends. It robbed the ‘final showdown’ of some of its impact and while its a matter of opinion, from where I’m sat, one of those loose ends didn’t actually need the attention and could have been left well alone.
Not a bad series then, not at all, but ‘Hell Motel’ went on (just) one episode too long and drifted to a conclusion, rather than going out with a bang.
Earlier posts on the 'Slasher' Series...
'Slasher: The Executioner'
'Slasher: Guilty Party'
'Slasher: Solstice'
'Slasher: Flesh and Blood'
‘Slasher: Ripper’ (2023)
It’s 1904 and the upper-class of Toronto are left reeling when one of their own is brutally murdered by a killer known only as ‘The Widow’. Detective Kenneth Rijkers must find the killer and his investigations lead him to powerful businessman Basil Garvey and a party attended by high society and underworld characters both, some twelve years previously…
The danger with re-watching a series of ‘Slasher’ is that you have effectively spoiled yourself before you even start. Balancing that out though is the fact that the series does an excellent line in villains, the deaths are particularly creative and everyone who dies thoroughly deserves it. It’s a payoff that I’m more than happy to take.
With that in mind then, ‘Ripper’ doesn’t do anything particularly new but that’s besides the point, isn’t it ;o) What we get is a surprisingly thoughtful debate about ‘Justice vs. Vengeance’ that has a cast of unsavoury characters receiving one or the other, depending on your viewpoint. I won’t go too much into the plot, just in case you haven’t seen ‘Ripper’ but there are plenty of twists and turns that will keep the first time viewer guessing and a few links to earlier seasons that I enjoyed seeing. And each death is as eye-catching as any from previous seasons so I was very happy with what I got. What, you want me to pick a ‘favourite death’…? Well, I’ve have to say… Enid Jenkins (in the printing press), Venetia Botticelli (magic trick gone wrong)… They’re all good but these two were the most memorable.
I’m a fan of the ‘Slasher’ series (hence the rewatch) so take this as you will ;o) ‘Ripper’ is another more than solid entry and proved very easy to get back into, even on a repeat viewing.
‘Hell Motel’ (2025)
A party of true-crime obsessives are invited to the weekend party before the re-opening of the Cold River Motel, the site of a 30 year old unsolved (but definitely satanic) double murder. A storm puts paid to the party and while everyone is trapped inside, the guests start dying one by one. Is it one of the party, the stranded travellers… or something else entirely?
Again, I’m going to try and do this without giving too much away as on the whole, ‘Hell Motel’ is worth the watch and there’s a sweet little nod to ‘Slasher: Solstice’ that I enjoyed. The mystery unfolding, in the Motel, asks loads of questions and again, the deaths are eye-catching (moving Hemmingway out of the sauna was a personal favourite).
What I wasn’t keen on was the approach of following the ‘finale’ with another episode to tie up loose ends. It robbed the ‘final showdown’ of some of its impact and while its a matter of opinion, from where I’m sat, one of those loose ends didn’t actually need the attention and could have been left well alone.
Not a bad series then, not at all, but ‘Hell Motel’ went on (just) one episode too long and drifted to a conclusion, rather than going out with a bang.
Earlier posts on the 'Slasher' Series...
'Slasher: The Executioner'
'Slasher: Guilty Party'
'Slasher: Solstice'
'Slasher: Flesh and Blood'
I never heard of this show! I'll definitely be checking it out.
ReplyDeleteAre these movies or a tv show?
ReplyDeleteand are the deaths Final Destination style type, or just gruesome?