Slaxx has the highest of high concepts: a slasher about a pair of possessed jeans that is trying to kill everyone locked in on an overnight retail floorset. This movie hit a little too close to home for my wife, so has been through decades of managing stores and being part of events just like this. She said that the side of retail that believes too much in the power of the company, the cult that forms around retail management, is all too real.

The real joy of this movie is that it starts as a slasher within a clothing store and easily sets up the heroine, the villain and the victims, just like any number of stalk and kill movies. But once those doors lock and the first kills happen, the movie shifts to a really interesting tale of the myth of fair trade and the need for revenge.

Director Elza Kephart previously made Go In the Wilderness, a movie about Adam’s first wife Lilith escaping the Garden of Eden and Graveyard Alive, the story of a shy nurse becoming sure of her sexuality after a zombie’s bite. That movie was written by Patricia Gomez, who also wrote this script.

I can’t wait to see what they do next, because this movie more than exceeded any expectation I had for it. I expected a gimmicky sub-Full Moon goof and ended up with a film with resonance. You can’t do better than that.

Slaxx is streaming exclusively on Shudder. You can learn more on the official Facebook page.