Movie Review: Slay

I don’t know that the world was clamoring for a combination of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and From Dusk Till Dawn, but writer / director Jem Garrard decided to give it to us anyway. Despite my initial skepticism and the clearly low budget, I wound up being glad that they did.

Mama Sue Flay (Trinity the Tuck) is the head of a small drag family comprised of Robin Banks (Heidi N Closet),Olive Wood (Cara Melle), and Bella Da Boys (Crystal Methyd). They travel the country in a pink RV, putting on their show anywhere that will have them. When Robin accidentally books the group into a seedy dive bar in the middle of nowhere the quartet are reluctant to perform at first, but decide to give it a go anyway to an unsurprisingly mixed reception. Perhaps Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” wasn’t the best call for an opening number? (And by the way, how much did they pay to license this song? This had to suck up a significant chunk of the budget.)

In the middle of their second number, one of the locals comes stumbling into the bar and takes a bite out of a patron’s neck before being tossed out (and here I thought the Road House was dangerous). While outside he bites a few more victims and they quickly turn into vampires, so the group barricades themselves inside. Now trapped, they all must put aside their differences and work together if they have any hope of surviving the night.

Everything about Slay is capital C Camp and if you can get behind its knowingly cheesy brand of fun you will have a blast. Garrard’s script leans into its own silliness, allowing the audience to laugh with the movie rather than at it, and they do pull off more than a few laugh-out-loud moments. By keeping our guards down they also manage to execute a couple of genuine jump scares.

The 4 queens at the center of the story, all RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni, prove to be better actors than one would expect and easily keep the viewer’s attention. The rest of the cast are no slouches either though, with everyone really giving it their best and enjoying every minute. Neil Sandilands especially stands out as the sympathetic bar owner Dusty, as does Robyn Scott as the consistently funny barfly Shiela.

It’s easy to make a bad movie, less so to make one on purpose, and even less so to make a “bad” movie that’s secretly good, but the team behind Slay have pulled it off. Sure, the story is pretty simple, some of the special effects could be better (guess that part of the budget went towards “WAP”), and there is the occasional cheesy line delivery, but it’s clear that everyone involved knew what kind of movie they were making and put their heart into it, helping it to rise above the typical B-movie. Slay is genuinely funny, surprisingly sweet, and lots of fun. I don’t know what more one could want from a movie like this. ★★★★