Chance The Rapper’s ‘Slice’ Is Not The B-Movie Classic You Were Hoping For [Review]

Austin Vesely has some serious balls. In his feature film directorial debut, “Slice,” the young writer-director casts one of the biggest musical artists in the world, Chance Bennett, aka Chance the Rapper, joined by one of Hollywood’s brightest rising stars, and a handful of veteran comedians. The filmmaker then crafted a “Thriller“-esque story —yes, that Michael Jackson music video — that features heavy amounts of special effects work, including practical makeup and CGI, and climaxes with a witch fighting a ghost, who is saved by a werewolf, as they battle over the gate to Hell. It’s batshit and audacious af, but sadly, with “Slice,” it appears that the filmmaker bit off a bit more than he could chew.

Breaking down the convoluted “Slice” plot into a couple of sentences is difficult. In a small town, 40,000 ghosts live alongside the normal human population (reasons connected with an ancient burial ground and a mental institution). The undead live in a section of the city called “Ghost Town,” which is clearly meant to be a not-so-veiled allegory about gentrification but sadly is never explored at all. When pizza boys are murdered while delivering in Ghost Town, the regular not-dead townsfolk immediately begin to blame the ghosts for these crimes, but things aren’t exactly what they seem.

Though the premise sounds ridiculous, that’s only half of “Slice” insanity. Adding to the mayhem is a lone, pacifist werewolf, a coven of witches, a couple dopey cops, an intrepid young reporter, and the aforementioned gateway to Hell. All this crammed into a short 83 minutes. What the hell was Vesely thinking?

Luckily, leading the way is actress Zazie Beetz (cast way before FX’s “Atlanta” was a hit and her big-budget debut in “Deadpool 2”), who is a coup for the horror comedy. Astrid, her delivery woman character, brings an energy, commitment to the campy tone, and overall magnetism that is sadly lacking with the rest of the cast.

Comedian Paul Scheer (“The League”), playing the dumb, but sweet, owner of Relax It’s Personal Pizza Base, is also great in his limited role. The actor brings guaranteed laughs to his scenes that are sorely missing when the film ventures off into the all-too-frequent serious, plotty sections of the story. “Slice” also features blink-and-you-miss-it cameos from Hannibal Burress (“Broad City”) and Joe Keery (“Stranger Things”), but their roles are so tiny, it makes you wonder what favor they owed Vesely for even showing up.

A special mention needs to be made for one actress, however. Rae Gray has the unfortunate job of being the straight-woman, as the rest of the cast gets the laughs and stand-out moments. Her reporter character is left carrying the plot of the film. She’s the exposition-dump and every time she is on screen, any fun momentum “Slice” has comes to a screeching halt (a serious problem for this movie). Though that’s the fault of the script and not the actress, as Gray is clearly doing her best.

Speaking of abrupt, jarring breaks, there’s Chance. Contrary to what you may believe by the marketing materials, Chance’s role isn’t even revealed until deep into the second act, and even then, his overall involvement is limited to a handful of scenes. And as you might imagine, considering his chosen career path of music, Bennett’s acting leaves much to be desired. He’s not terrible, per se, but each scene where he plays opposite another member of the cast, his deficiencies are noticeable.

The rest of the cast is…fine and do their best with what they’re given. Filled with character actors dialing the camp to 11, everyone does what is asked and mostly succeeds. Shockingly, ‘SNL’ alum Chris Parnell attempts many jokes, including one involving an odd painting hobby, but mostly falls flat. But, this is supposed to be a silly horror comedy, you say!

“Splice” clearly isn’t worried about acting awards. Vesely puts a premium on laughs and entertaining the audience, but there are long stretches where things just aren’t funny or engaging at all (special shout-out goes to the werewolf story told by one police detective, while on stake-out. It’s hilarious and a clear highlight). Worse, the cheap budget often doesn’t help even for a goofy horror comedy. The decidedly low-tech, practical effects and ghost make-up on display is fun, but in other aspects of the film, the lack of cash is obvious and distracting.

There are plenty of examples of horror comedies attempting to charm with a “retro” look such as the severely underrated “Turbo Kid.” However, Vesely’s film—the borrowed-looking sets, the poorly choreographed and executed action scenes, etc.— just looks cheap. Though equipped with a ton of bravado and ambition, Austin Vesely falls short of crafting a great horror comedy, B-movie classic and “Slice” just doesn’t make the cut. [C]

Here’s the trailer: