Spithood

Proving again that the pen is mightier than the meat cleaver is the extremely well-crafted Australian hyper-slasher feature Spithood, which is directed and edited by Tim Pine and written by Thibul Nettle from a story by Nettle and Travis Akbar. It takes place on the final night before the mental asylum where everyone works closes forever. Ashley (Claudia Bonifazio) is still trying to hide her romance with Mason (Thibul Nettle), who works security from her co-workers. However, when Maise (Gail Morrison) calls them to the meeting room, she informs them everyone knows about their “secret” relationship.

The workers, including other security guards like Jeeves (Nick Buckland) and Stephanie (Luana Pohe), must process one last patient to evaluate an insanity plea. A huge, hulking figure (Matt Connelly) with a spit hood covering most of his face is brought inside, with the prison transport officer (Matthew Brice) informing the staff to not remove the hood under any circumstances. The last remaining inmate, crazy Kiara (Tess O’Flaherty), wants to play with the new arrival, but everyone else is disturbed by him, especially Ashley. Five women have already been murdered by the hooded man, who snapped when a hit-and-run driver killed his whole family. Let’s say everyone’s last shift on the job doesn’t go as smoothly as planned, except whoever was planning a body count.

Spithood is, first and foremost, right at home amongst the new class of stripped-down hyper-slashers we see more of these days. These slasher movies remove any unneeded filler to deliver full-throttle murder movies with only the good parts that run for about an hour. However, it should be pointed out that Spithood runs ahead of the pack due to its clever plotting. We are talking Happy Birthday To Me levels of slasher narrative richness here. It also shows that a chopped-down, aerodynamic stalk-and-kill picture doesn’t have to sacrifice character development amongst all the other victims.

“It takes place on the final night before the mental asylum where everyone works closes forever.”

Nettle is even able to deliver an unexpectedly emotional twist, as the climax will have tears pouring out your slit throat. It also helps to have identified with all the different yet familiar types of folks onscreen before they start being brutally murdered. Nettle knows full well that identification is the salt on top of the slaughter, as he gets the audience rooting for his characters to live instead of hoping they die. This is included without slowing the pace down or delaying the chills. The strong script is one of the factors where Spithood sports impressive modifications to the traditional slasher sub-genre.

However, one cannot ignore the hand behind the knife with the fantastic editing by director Pine. The opening credit sequence, featuring Pine as a rather violent painter, is crafted like high-end 90s opening credits but on a fraction of the budget. With angles and composition alone, Pine starts us off with production quality so tight you could bounce a quarter off it.

The look gets even better as the film progresses into the realm of horror, with lots of clever ways to work in realistic lighting sources into max creep-out. The golden rule of slasher films is observed by keeping the mask on throughout, fitting as the mask and the title are the same. Also clever is how Pine does his kill sequences, which are brutal but not graphic splatter shows. Sometimes, it is just shadows or a fleeting movement, but it is always horrifying.

Adding to the cutting edges of invisible gore is the relentless music that swoops in like a magnetic chainsaw. Composer Clint Owen Ellis knows how to score a slasher and should do a bunch more. We even have a very mysterious nude scene that is absolutely artistically captivating in true post-exploitation fashion. Yes, these are cheap thrills, but they are fancier cheap thrills than we usually see in the subterranean market.

If you need the jolt of the fork in a light socket that the hyper slasher provides, know that the fork in Spithood is fine silver. It’s fast, nasty, and not forgettable at all.