Butchers Bluff follows a similar formula of Scream, where in this instance, the introduction cameo belongs to Jeremy London (Chris) in place of Drew Barrymore. Immediately following this redneck’s pickup truck fuck session, Chris’ girl desperately needs to pee and hesitantly agrees to cop a squat in the thick of the trees surrounding their isolation. When she does not return to the scene of their earlier tryst, Chris sets out in the dark to find her so they can call it a night. Unfortunately, the night has just begun…and theirs is about to end. Permanently.

What would happen if the psycho Piglet from Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, met up with the theme from Urban Legend to initiate a new era of The Blair Witch Project? Potential mess, or happy hokey viewers? Maybe a bit of both, but there’s nothing wrong with borrowing from cult classics.

As rumors of “The Hogman” swirl around the sticks of Austin, TX, locals share their accounts and theories with a group of film students who decide to base their final project (an easy A!) on a documentary style movie while partying it up in A Cabin In The Woods. Ok, too many film mentions, I know. I’ll try and knock it off, but I make no promises.

As this crew gathers for a weekend of debauchery, lead filmmaker/director Rodger tries his best to stay focused on the task at hand – is the hogman real or just a fictional tale to scare away people from invading his lay of the land, primarily…the remote forest. Rodger’s detective skills send him to the nearby antiques store where…(YES!) …Bill Oberst Jr. is on hand as the owner and manager, and helps the movie students dissect the maddening story of how this slasher came to be.

Once again, the gifted Oberst pulls no punches when inviting Rodger and his crew to check out his collection of killer paraphernalia including a medieval shame mask once used as a torture device. But his iconic item remains the original dollar store pig mask that was worn by young Alex Grimly – the boy believed to be The Hogman.

As the narrative unfolds, Grimly was heartlessly bullied by a vicious group of kids who cruelly knock him out with a hammer. When Alex awakens in the hospital, he intentionally and conveniently forgets the events that led to his accident so he can plot his own manner of vengeance. Alex puts on the cheap plastic pig mask, and it changes him. “Give a man a mask, and he’ll show you his soul” spoken authentically by Oberst’s morbid wisdom.

And with that, the party unfurls with booze flowing, psychedelic drugs on hand and sexual urges peaking, all while a super-strong slasher dressed as Farmer Vincent (Motel Hell! Last comparison, I swear!) starts his own festivities. But why worry, right?

The cast of unknowns is quite strong and solid with definitive natural instincts. It is all pretty impressive albeit a little unoriginal with one big, glaring flaw: Butchers Bluff is TWO HOURS LONG! I don’t know about you, but my massacre movie preference is typically a standard 90 minutes, or less. Not even a decapitated P. Diddy could keep my attention span after one and a half hours, but to each his own. Still, this film does clear a path of worthy performances from Michael Fischer (Rodger) to Johnny Huang (Derick) with genuine appeal. And a horror film featuring the slaying of Shawn C. Phillips (Gary) always provides entertainment!