D V D C R Y P T

SHREDDER

Directed by Greg Huson
Produced by Rory Veal & Geof Miller
Written by Greg Huson & Craig Carlson
Director of Photograpy Charles A. Schner
Music by Alan Derian
Cast: Scott Weinger, Lindsey McKeon, Juleah Weikel, Billy O' & Holly Towne

2003/86 mins/Color/Dolby 2.0
1.85:1 anamorphic/English/USA/NTSC Region 1

Review from the MGM Home Entertainment DVD

Anyone who has seen EXTREME OPS would most likely agree that aside from the impressive snowboarding footage, the movie is one of the worst films ever made. Now, imagine if it had been a psycho killer trying to kill the snowboarders instead of terrorists. This will give you an idea of what SHREDDER is like, a film which may actually be worse than EXTREME OPS.

In SHREDDER, young heiress Kimberly Van Arx (Lindsey McKeon) decides to pay a visit to an abandoned ski resort that her father is planning to buy. She takes along her boyfriend, Cole (Scott Weinger), friend Robyn (Holly Towne), professional snowboarder Kirk (Peter Riggs), amateur snowboarder Pike (Juleah Weikel) and videographer Skyler (Billy O'). On their way, they meet a hitchhiking foreigner named Christophe (Brad Hawkins), whom Kimberly immediately likes, and give him a ride. When they arrive at the resort, they find it locked up tight, but decide to break in anyway and have a good time. They soon learn from locals that the resort was the scene of a murder several years before and that many considering it haunted. Soon, a mysterious skier dressed totally in black begins to kill off the group of snow lovin' teens. Is it the brooding Christophe or one of the weird locals? Or, is it a ghost?

SHREDDER is such an amateurish, by-the-books slasher film, that I feel the proceeding plot synopsis makes it sound far too in-depth. What we basically have is a group of horny teens who are staying in a secluded chalet just waiting to be slaughtered. The snow-bound setting may be slightly original, but even the limited snowboarding footage is bargain-basement stuff. The acting is atrocious, especially this Bill O' character who simply yells the whole time. And it's odd to see ALADDIN/"Full House" star Scott Weinger and "Saved by the Bell: The New Class" alum Lindsey McKeon in something like this. The movie has very little gore and only a slight bit of T&A -- despite the fact that McKeon constantly disrobes without ever being naked. The murders are all telegraphed and the suspense level rests at minus 10.

Having said all of that, I'm not sure where the movie reaches its low point -- is it the 45:00 mark where a shadow on the right side of the screen begins clapping, revealing itself to a crew member (this is visible in both the widescreen and full-frame versions), or when the killer begins harassing a victim by shoving a pamphlet at them...yes, a pamphlet. Honestly, I'm beginning to think that SHREDDER was meant to be a comedy. One thing's for sure, it's just as bad as EXTREME OPS, if not worse, and I feel that I've done a huge public service today by warning you away from two stinkers.

SHREDDER slides onto DVD courtesy of MGM Home Entertainment. The DVD features both the widescreen and full-frame versions of the film. For the purposes of this review, only the widescreen version was viewed. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. For the most part, the image is sharp and clear, showing very little grain, even with the snowbound background. The colors are good, and the fleshtones all look realistic. The transfer does reveal the film's low-budget roots, as there are some minor defects from the source print and some shots look slightly out of focus. Artifacting and edge-enhancement problems are kept to a minimum. The disc features a Dolby 2.0 Surround audio track (192 kbps). This serviceable track provides clear dialogue and nice music reproduction, but there is very little in the way of overt surround sound effects, as they are far too weak and discrete to be effective.

The only extra on the DVD is a 10-minute reel of deleted scenes, but most of these are more like deleted shots, and as with the movie, are all uber-pointless. The DVD box promises the Original Theatrical Trailer, but it's not to be found on the DVD. There are bonus trailers for other MGM releases. The packaging is very standard and doesn't feature the clever "Icy Dead People" tagline which was found on an earlier DVD screener.

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