Movies
Sledgehammer
“This film is currently reaching crazy cult status thanks to Mondo Tees releasing it on VHS. I recommend it to everyone if you can get your hands on it.”
Remember that old story Rob Schneider told Howard Stern about a friend of his meeting with Steven Seagal?
Steven Seagal: I just read the greatest script I’ve ever read in my life.
Friend: Really? Who wrote it?
Steven Seagal: I did.
Well, folks, I think I just watched the greatest film I’ve ever watched in my life.
Sadly, I’m just writing the review.
Sledgehammer, shot on video in 1983, is the story of a poor young boy, locked in a closet so his mom can have an affair. While mom is getting it on, she and her lover are murdered with a…Sledgehammer! Ten years later, a group of young adults (are they teenagers or thirty?) come to stay in the same remote farmhouse for a wild party weekend.
Chugging and crushing Budweiser cans with their impressive, tight polo shirts, feathered mullets and ‘staches, the group starts a food fight – which should lead to a shower scene. Sorry boys, that is cut short. Later, they have a séance, telling the tale of the boy from 10 years ago.
Bad idea.
But, how could they know something still lurks in the house?
What should have been a great getaway turns into a fight for their lives as the young adults get picked off one by one by the mysterious killer.
Writer and director David A. Prior is my new hero. His attention to detail is phenomenal. The excessive, painfully long, slo-mo sequences, matched with either pleasant muzakesque sounds or ominous synthesizers, are impressive and dominate the film. The acting by Ted Prior, Linda McGill and John Eastman alone top other actors in films I’ve reviewed here. And did I mention this movie was shot on video?
There were literally moments where I thought the dvd had started to skip somehow, but no, they were just long drawn out shots. For 1983, and with a budget that had to be next to nothing, the video and special effects are radical. The killer is downright creepy, rivaling Leatherface. The entire mix is something lacking in horror films today. And I LOVE it.
This film is currently reaching crazy cult status thanks to Mondo Tees releasing it on VHS. I recommend it to everyone if you can get your hands on it.
Much like the Power Glove (which actually debuted 6 years later), I love Sledgehammer.
It’s so bad.
10/10 Sledgehammers!
After multiple delays, Blumhouse Atomic Monster finally launches the newest android that is sure to light your fire while keeping you on the edge of your seat: SOULM8TE is set to release soon.
SOULM8TE arrives on Digital on August 1, 2026, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise, Monolith) stars alongside Claudia Doumit (“The Boys”). The spinoff is described as a ’90s-style erotic thriller with a “new technological twist.”
David Rysdahl also stars in the upcoming SOULM8TE.
The film follows “a man (Rysdahl) who acquires an Artificially Intelligent android (Sullivan) to help him cope with the recent loss of his wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, the man inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate.”
Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother) directs. The filmmaker rewrote an original draft from Rafael Jordan (Salvage Marines), based on a story by James Wan, Ingrid Bisu and Jordan.
“When Blumhouse Atomic Monster first approached me about an erotic thriller set in the M3GAN-verse, I thought, are you insane? But something drew me in. We exist in a bizarre time where companies sell us ‘connection’ through apps, algorithms, and AI. Yet those are the same forces pulling us apart. The lonelier we get, the more dependent we become on the tools doing the pulling,” states Dolan. “SOULM8TE is a movie about that vicious cycle. It is a satirical, unhinged movie that explores desire, obsession, autonomy, and control. It’s a movie that knows how ridiculous it is, and I’d argue it’s best watched the way you’d watch Basic Instinct or Showgirls now, with friends, a drink in hand, and zero shame about shouting at the screen.”
Producer and Blumhouse Atomic Monster CEO, Jason Blum says, “Kate Dolan has expertly blended tech paranoia with erotic thriller in SOULM8TE, which is just as fun as that sounds, but also has more on its mind than you might think.”
Watch the new trailer below that unleashes a new killer AI bot, this time for an older demographic. SOULM8TE is rated “R” for “Strong violence, gore, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.”
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