'Red Velvet' DVD Review

A unique spin on standard slasher movies.

Aaron and Linda are neighbors who cross paths one day in a laundromat. Aaron is curt and, well, odd, but intriguing enough that Linda agrees to have lunch while they wait for their clothes.

She opens up about how she's supposed to be at a friend's birthday party, but her "crappy boyfriend" refused to take her. Aaron, claiming to be a storyteller, offers to make up a story about the party and proceeds to describe the bash as a typical horror movie: a remote cabin in the woods, a group of horny partygoers and a masked killer.

We jump in and out of the story as Linda chips in details -- the design of the killer, for instance, which ends up a hodgepodge of a white painter's jumpsuit, stocking-mask face, bunny-like speaker ears, a Polaroid camera on his head and a pink tool belt. As the killer bumps off the partygoers, the line between fantasy and reality starts to blur, and the two storytellers begin to wonder if there's more to the story than meets the eye.

Red Velvet is one of the most unique slasher movies you'll see. It toys with slasher conventions by using the framework of a fictional story-within-a-story. The "fictional" element allows for a surreal playfulness and bizarre, over-the-top kills from an unnamed killer who should go down as one of the most intriguing horror villains in recent memory -- thanks to his striking look, sense of humor and capacity for oddball kills.

The "story" element is so enjoyable, in fact, that the "real" element with Aaron and Linda bogs down the pace and diminishes its potential as a slasher spoof. The overlap of fantasy and reality allows for some artistry, but it also leads to some ambiguous moments that hinder the plot.

As it is, Red Velvet is entertaining and admirably offbeat, but perhaps a bit too much so for some tastes.

The DVD

Special features include commentary and featurette.

Movie: C+
DVD: B-