For a reason, many streaming services have started producing their own films those movies are owned by the platform and thus cannot be taken away from them (except for HBO Max they both make and remove their own products). On this blog, we believe that these streaming originals are as valid as any other film; therefore, we review them all – whether they come from Netflix, Prime or Shudder.
However, there’s one exception to this rule among streaming services Tubi. This is weird because Tubi is a free service so their original films should be the most accessible ones. But also no. Tubi just doesn’t release anything interesting enough to talk about. Nobody talks about the Terror Train remake or War of the Worlds: Annihilation or the sequel to the Terror Train remake that came out 3 months after the Terror Train remake so it felt kinda pointless reviewing them when there were bigger things to review. Maybe I need to check my snobbery at the door here maybe some of Tubi’s garbage needs sifting through or maybe I was just waiting for a Tubi original that tickled me in someway and “Drag Queen Vampire movie” is absolutely it.
Slay starts on the road with a troupe of drag queens making their way to a gig. Mama Sue Flay (Trinity The Tuck), Robin Banks (Heidi N Closet), Bella Da Boys (Crystal Methyd) and Olive Wood (Cara Melle) are heading towards what they think is a legendary gay bar but when they get there they realise they’ve got it wrong and this place is actually just a dive bar. This dive bar is run by an old dude called Dusty (Neil Sandilands) who still wants them to perform even though his normal clientele includes people like Travis (Daniel Janks), who’s a massive bigot, his friend Fatboy (Joe Vaz) and ditzy girl Sheila (Robyn Scott).
As the queens are about to leave they realise that doing this show would mean a lot to the queer people in the community, which is Jax (Donia Kash) and Steven (Gabriel Harry Meltz) because they’re the only queer people in town. Just as they start performing, a horde of vampires descends upon the bar and now the queens, queers and townsfolk have to put aside their differences and prejudices to try and survive.
Slay is what would happen if Priscilla stopped off at the Titty Twister. It’s just glorious camp that knows drag queens fighting vampires is fundamentally silly so it leans into that. Everything is pushed as far as it can be given how little money there was to make this thing, all of the performances are a little cheesy and all of the dialogue has been pitched as broadly as possible in order to get maximum mileage out of it. Most of the time, it’s just playing with how insane its central concept is really, that seems like the best way to handle this material.
The best thing about targeting most of the jokes for as broad an audience as possible is that when it comes time to be serious (and this film does try to be serious, which surprised me), lightening up the tone adds weight to those moments of sincerity. I’m still not sure how this movie can go from corny double entendres and then have a genuine scene where one character tells another character to be true to themselves.
Also, this is one gay ass movie. If it wasn’t obvious by the fact that the four leads are drag queens, let me tell you now: this film is queer as hell and also very political about its queerness. It uses bigoted characters to directly point out their idiocy and make it clear that this is not an acceptable attitude. Every ignorant thing you might have heard is called out and made fun of, from morons who have a problem with drag queens to a beautiful sharp-tongued shutdown of idiots acting like pronouns are something newfangled. And yes there’s some preaching to the choir going on (no bigot in history has ever sat through enough of any given piece of media featuring drag queens to change their opinion; once they see them it’s a wrap) but sometimes preaching can be affirming for those already in the fold. The current politics aspect gives this film some extra oomph it probably wouldn’t have otherwise had.
To be clear, Slay does have these problems that are common in low-budget movies. Some effects are simply dreadful. The fake blood splatter effect using CGI has never been good and it’s definitely not here. A few of the action scenes are poorly shot in a way that feels like they were trying to make the bad fighting into a joke but it doesn’t quite work. Unfortunately the acting is all over the place, mostly from our leads. These are drag queens, let’s be real here, not professional actors so there are times when their line delivery isn’t great but there are also times when they nail every joke just right. It’s a mixed bag of performances that tends to lean more towards the watchable than not, I mean these performances would rank high in a Drag Race acting challenge but probably won’t be awards nominees any time soon then again it is a film about vampires hunting drag queens so I don’t think they were really going method here.
If you judged Slay as one might judge a regular studio film you’d probably place it pretty mid-tier, however Slay is not a regular studio film. This is campy horror comedy with some well known drag queens fighting against vampires that feel like they were late to the casting call for the last season of Buffy, and honestly what more could you ask for? It’s funny, charming and has more than a few cute emotional moments (a character begging to get a drag makeover before they die is suitably silly but has a sweetness that’s undeniable). If Tubi took note and made a whole bunch more like this then we’d have ourselves some silly camp films that go well at weekend watch parties with some friends, but hey it’s not here to change lives or be considered high art, Slay is here to entertain and goddamn does it do that job well!.
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