Shredder (2001) (USA)

aka Jason Z

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

A secluded ski resort is not only playing host to a group of youthful dopes but also a skier decked out in black with an appetite for slashing. He starts the damn thing luring a moron into a wire trap which removes some fingers and, more importantly, almost severs his head completely off. Bad news for the gang of snowboarding idiots looking forward to a snowy mountain weekend getting their shred on. Kimberly Van Arx’s daddy owns (well, is about to own) the dilapidated resort and that’s good enough for the shred-heads. I mean, as long as you can shred, who cares where you’re laying your head. I assume. I’ve never gone skiing or snowboarding. It looks cold and high-effort. They pickup a handsome European guy on the way who has flashbacks to something troubling while snowboarding. It would make for a good suspect but then we see the black skier while he’s obviously having a conversation elsewhere so… so much for that. The locals ain’t welcoming, the land is supposedly haunted and the colorful cast of youthful boners are obnoxious and kind of charming. That may only be because I’ve watched a string of sleazy sixties sex films before this with characters that actually made me nauseous. After semi-seducing and bribing the local sheriff, Kimberly lets the group in on the tragic history of the place. Drunk snowboarders terrorized a little skiing girl and forced her into crashing into a tree, ending her life. That flashback looks a lot like Christophe’s flashback and he knows of the spooky legends of the ghostly girl that still haunts the land. He’s there for a reason and it’s not for shredding and banging like the other goobers. Well, he’s also there for the banging and he’s not actually European but he does have some cute buns. Death comes in the form of icicle impalement (bad karma is to blame), scarf strangulation (which leads to a darkly hilarious running sight gag), forehead penetration via ice pick (with the corpse hidden in a snowman), snow shovel bludgeoning (in a hot tub!), ski pole to the eye (through a camera! to a virgin!), fire poker stabbings (yawn), wire decapitation (on a snowmobile!) and a complete mulching thanks to a souped up industrial grade shredding truck (it’s hilarious!). There’s also the limited mobility of a struggle on a ski lift, the limited eroticism of a make out session on a ski lift and a truly applause-worthy severed head on a pole gag that earns this film some bonus points. Very dumb, very 2000s and very much in my preferred wheelhouse of horror entertainment.