It’s clear from the get-go that this film is Director Adrian Langley’s love song for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Butchers follows a similar path, or should I say journey?. as we follow a small group of friends travelling across the remote Canadian landscape when their car breaks down ala Wrong Turn. Instead of inbred hillbillies, they encounter a pair of sadistic butchers who have taken the law into their own hands. If anyone dares to enter their domain, it’s fair game and there’s a strong possibility that they could be carved on the cutting block

While it tends to stick along the line of predictability, there is a little more going on beneath the engine of a cannibalistic gorefest. Langley and his writing partner Daniel Weissenberger take the literal concept of butchery to the extreme as the barbarous Watson brothers, Owen (Simon Phillips) and Oswald (Michael Swatton) take pleasure in kidnapping and impregnating women with plans of breeding them for more meat. This warped outlook makes for gruesome viewing in spite of walking the all-too-familiar lines of a well-trodden formula.

Naturally, our would-be-victims fight tooth and nail for survival, making ridiculous choices along the way to meet their demise, including battling their own internal conflicts,  but the performance holds strong enough to keep you engaged throughout, most notably Phillips’ smart and gruelling butcher and potential final girl in the mix, Julie Mainville.

The Prognosis:

Much like his more recent feature Bunker, Adrian Langley offers a mediocre-yet-fun movie that puts the characters through the paces. The tension mounts with a steady pace, and the conflicts are torturous on the right side of entertainment. 

It may not offer anything new or even stretch the realms of originality, but Butchers is a tough ride that will apply the hook and keep you gripped to the end.

• Saul Muerte

Butchers is currently streaming on VOD and available for Home Entertainment.