The plot of "Shredder" is, sadly, inanely simple. A rich, shrill gal by the name of Kimberly (Lindsey McKeon) wants to acquire a rundown ski resort for her wealthy father. Since a few unfortunate incidents occurred at the place in the past, Kimberly resorts to a bit of dishonesty to convince her boyfriend Cole (Scott Weinger) to go along. Her claim that the jaunt is a romantic getaway quickly collapses when Cole learns that his woman invited along a trio of obnoxious snowboarders. These three individuals, Kirk (Peter Riggs), Pike (Juleah Weikel), and Skyler (Billy O), ultimately rank as the most annoying characters to ever populate a horror film. Also along for the ride is Robyn (Holly Towne), a woman whose promiscuity knows no bounds. Cole angry about the inclusion of so many strangers, and becomes even madder when the group agrees to let Christophe, a member of that much vaunted social category known as "Eurotrash," tag along after meeting him at a rest stop. Anyway, the kids get there, run into the obligatory hostile locals, slum around in the lodge playing drinking games, and finally hit the slopes. And thats when the trouble begins. A masked killer resembling the bad guy in "My Bloody Valentine" starts picking off the snowboarders one by one. The stalkers anger seems to stem from the string of fatalities caused by snowboarders over the preceding years. Too, the propensity for these kids to not follow rules sends this predator over the edge.

Aside from a few minor points, nothing in "Shredder" elevates the slasher canon in any way. In fact, the movie is simply one of the many horror pictures that have been heading to store shelves at the local video store for the last couple of years. Almost all of these films revel in their hideousness, which, while a boon for lovers of bad cinema, sends waves of nausea through all other viewers. Heres a list of pertinent points that should acquaint you with what monstrously idiotic things youll see in this film:

1) A bumper sticker on a city snow removal truck that reads "Death to Snowboarders" in no way deters this group of kids from heading to the slopes. They never even comment on it, in fact.

2) You can answer the question "What country are you from?" by saying "Europe" and no one calls you on it.

3) Hanging by the neck on a ski lift wont get you noticed for hours.

4) Fatalities are a common occurrence at ski resorts.

5) Highly accomplished athletes in the field of snowboarding rely heavily on illicit substances. Im sure real snowboarders cant say enough good things about this depiction.

Repeatedly, annoying things like these five points kept popping up throughout the film. The Skyler character is one of those annoying Jeff Spicoli wannabes who is always yelling things like "Dude!" at the top of his lungs. Kirk spends his screen time smoking and giggling. The requisite romance between the two young adults who will survive in the end hits you over the head with sledgehammer force early on, thus effectively removing any mystery about the movie. So does the identity of the masked maniac, which came as little surprise when the great moment of revelation arrived. What did work is of such minor importance that I hesitate to mention it, but might as well since Ill probably give the movie two stars instead of one. I found two of the gore effects, specifically the closet scene with Kimberly and the atrocity with the snow blowing machine, effective in theory. Regrettably, the technical aspects fail so miserably that they look cheesy rather than completely gruesome. But the two scenes are inventive and should merit a grudging nod or two.

Extras on the DVD include trailers for "Jeepers Creepers 2," "Jeremiah," "The Howling," and "Board Heads." The inclusion of several deleted scenes adds nothing relevant to the plot. Im willing to recommend "Shredder" to lovers of low budget horror if for no other reason than to allow someone else to figure out whether the movie is a turkey or a cleverly disguised spoof of the slasher genre. After all, a few of the shenanigans unfolding onscreen are so hilarious that its difficult to imagine the producers of the picture took their movie seriously. No matter what the case, "Shredder" is definitely a movie one should rent first before deciding whether to acquire a copy. Good luck; youll need it.

1. Whodunnit that never makes us wonder whodunnit - This is a trend I see more and more in slasher films. About halfway through, all the suspects are present when the killer appears... with one notable exception. Thanks for ruining any semblance of a mystery!

2. Girl who hangs around with the most suspicious character- Not since "Urban Legends Final Cut" have I seen a "heroine" so determined to get herself killed. The blonde snob finds out that a mysterious stranger (who they just met right before people started getting murdered) has been lying to her about who he was, so what does she do? Why, strip down to a bikini (in the snow, mind you) and purr about how much she loves bad boys, of course! Why bother killing this character when shell probably wind up drowning from staring up at the rain with her mouth gaping open...

3. That guy with the camera - Do horror-movie writers just have no concept of "funny" anymore?? When the "comic-relief" character doesnt say anything that even resembles something amusing, thats not a good sign. And if I heard the word "karma" one more time, I would have turned into a serial killer myself.

4. Weak motive - Whats scarier than a killer who enforces mountain safety rules? Just about anything, really...

The only reason Im giving this loser an extra star is because I thought the legend of the ghostly girl skiing down the mountain that killed her was fresh... too bad it never translated into anything we see on camera. Dont bother with this one, because 5 minutes after you watch it, youll have trouble even remembering what happened...

There just happens to be this well preserved mountin range cabin, with a ski lift still in action, and these reckless kids fall victom to somebody who dosent like snow boarders!

Seeing as how im not into snow-boarding, the long boring clips of showing off on snow boards put me to sleep. Unless your into wanting to see the average teen group of reckless horney teenagers who go camping and get killed by someone in a mask, then dont bother with this dribble. The death scenes are not worth checking out for the gore fans. The plot takes dumb turns, and no intrests, or anything in this film is memorable to make it any diffrent from any other bad "annoying, doped up teens" who get killed in a "so called" horror movie.

Forget this, if your interested? I highly recomend you rent it, and you will probably agree its not worth looking at ever again!

You will also ask yourself "why the hell would this girl be walking around in the snow in pretty much nothing but her under-wear? Yeah...right...ok.....alot of us like to walk around in the freezing cold naked dont we?

Dont have high expectations. IMO its not even worth renting, but if it intrests you, rent it, dont buy it first, I wouldnt even want to watch this film if it was on TV.

Well highlights hmmm. No nudity so that about covers that...

Death scenes. We got a couple of decent ones.

Rent if youre bored....

The familiar idea and the banal plot is not a problem at all. After all, it is the direction that matters, and I can say its simply bad. The effect leading up to each kill is weak and lazy, and the gore is as cheesy as Ed Woods films.

Besides the bland acting, the film suffers from the bad editing, which only helps diminish the scare. Actually, the film sometimes wants to be a comedy, when a suspicious-looking guy (obviously a killer) in black mask stalks behind a unsuspecting girl, and shows her not a shining knife or drill, but a small pamphlet about how to behave on the mountain. Apparently, the hapless students must be killed for breaking the rules of the place, or snowboarding instead of skiing.

The film would have been better with more tongue-in-cheek attitudes; as it is, with its straight-forward approach, "Shredder" looks like the slasher horror version of not-so-good "Extreme Ops." At least, the latter had a good stunts.

The "Rocky Summit" was a popular family-owned ski resort that has been closed for many years now due to an ugly incident where three drunk snowboarders inadvertently led a young girl to her death by making her ski straight into a tree. The ski resort went bankrupt but the property was bought by a rich investor, Mr. Van Arts. His daughter Kimberly decides to round up a few of her friends and head out to the abandoned resort for a weekend of partying and "Shredding", as the young daredevils like to put it. Unbeknownst to them a maniac is on the loose in the resort, someone who despises snowboarders and hasnt forgotten about the murder of the little girl several years ago.

Anyone considering renting this film strictly for snowboarding elements should definitely reconsider as the film has next to no snowboarding maneuvers, just a gang of teenagers lazily cruising down the slopes. There is one member of the gang named Kurk who apparently won a high-profile local context and who is a runner-up to qualify for the next Olympics. Curious then that in a two-minute demo the only tricks he is able to pull are a couple of 540s and a bunch of uninspired tail grabs. Obviously the filmmakers didnt spend too much money on trying to attract quality stunt doubles. Besides the lack of tricks there are stereotypes about the sport in this movie that will make any experienced rider cringe and grit their teeth such as juvenile pop-punk music playing throughout, a horde of product plugs(everyone in the movie wears "Dragon" snowboard goggles even the killer who supposedly hates everything associated with the sport) and of course the requisite hyperactive tweenie geek who keeps uttering outdated lingo like "gnarly", "rad" and cant finish a sentence without uttering the word "dude" whether he is speaking to someone male or female.

There are a couple of positives that I must point out however. Shot on location in Kellogg, Idaho, the viewer is treated to stunning mountain locales. When the snow falls, we know that its real. And of course theres also plenty of eye-candy although the films quite conservative in the nudity department. Amazingly, Shredder starts off quite promisingly. We are treated to a high-speed chase down the slopes, a snowboarder on the run from the maniac killer. The snowboarder dies a gruesome and gory death in very creative fashion. Then the opening credits roll and thats the end of the gore, really. Many of the murders are off screen and very little blood is shown, even when someones head is chopped right off their neck. Some of the scenes are cheesy beyond belief, especially since the tone of the film is serious. Its too bad because I liked the concept but Shredder managed to disappoint both the snowboard and slasher fan in me.