Original Title of Article: “Violence in Joshua Miller’s SLEDGEHAMMER!”
Originally Published by ScreamFix
If there was ever a film about the dangers of drug use it
would be writer/director Joshua Miller’s Sledgehammer (2017). Yolner (Stephen Miller) is having a bad
day. He is late for work at a
construction site because his car is out of gas and he must take the city bus,
which he almost misses because the driver forgets to stop for him. Also, his girlfriend Sibby (Samantha Green)
decides to breakup with him over the phone because he is too boring and does
not enjoy any of the things she does.
When two co-workers spike his coffee with drugs, he descends
into anarchy thinking he is a Nordic God armed with a sledgehammer who must rid
the world of generally anyone he comes across.
This leaves killer Yolner on a crazy odyssey of chaos and murder
throughout the city with no one able to stop his carnage.
Now, on the surface this might be an interesting idea for a
horror film like a warped version of Falling Down (1993) but unfortunately this
film lacks all the elements that make that film so enduring. Yolner is not a very interesting character as
he is someone whom you think deserves everything that is happening to him and
everyone he kills is so random and haphazard that they just come off as a
simple body count of carnage similar to the violence seen in infamous director
Uwe Boll’s Rampage trilogy (which I actually do not mind). Unfortunately, this film decides that because
Yolner is on drugs everything needs to be viewed through a drug induced state
of CGI filled carnage edited to heavy metal music which if that is what you
crave then this is perfectly suited for you.
If you have seen the Neveldine/Taylor directed Crank films
then you know that this could have worked out to some amazing advantages but you
kind of wish Miller had taken full advantage of the aesthetic. The over use in
CGI backgrounds and use of black & white footage for no reason actually
take away from the film as does as the side stories of random characters that
are not established enough or given any type of back story before they are
killed. Yolner has a great gimmick in
the sledgehammer as a weapon of choice and the fact that he comes from the
construction job is also inspiring but
once he steps away from all that, the film descends into madness and not
always in a good way.
Believable gore effects could have smoothed over the film’s
rougher edges but that is lacking as it is done in a cartoony way that after
the first few kills it becomes repetitive and less interesting and
unfortunately Yolner kills a lot of people so you have to sit through a lot of
extraneous cartoon violence. It is like
a Loony Tunes cartoon of violence and depravity which will appeal to some
audiences.
One of the bright spots is the use of locations in the film
as the sequence where Yolner chases three bike riders across the city streets
is quite interesting as is the final sequence that takes place in a rock-climbing
quarry. Some of the film’s best
cinematography is used in these sequences which makes you wish that the rest of
the film were just as good.
Overall, the best way to truly enjoy this film is to be
drugged just like Yolner, which may not necessarily be a bad thing after all.
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