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Investigation: What's The Deal With Chance The Rapper's Pizza Horror Movie, 'Slice?'

By Kristy Puchko | Film | August 7, 2018 |

By Kristy Puchko | Film | August 7, 2018 |


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Chance the Rapper’s prepped to make his film debut in an upcoming horror movie called Slice. And while the title might make you think slasher, this curious slice of terror sounds like it will be more creature feature with a dash of comedy.

You get a feel for its content and macabre humor with the poster, revealed yesterday by Chance on Twitter.

Poor Little Caesar never saw it coming.

Now, I’m a horror movie junkie and a professional film critic. Yet somehow Slice was off my radar. So, I did some digging. Slice is the feature debut of writer/director Austin Vesely, who helmed a couple of Chance videos, including “Angels.”

Slice is an A24 horror-comedy, which bodes well, as that’s the distributor behind such envelope-pushing horror as Hereditary, Green Room, Under The Skin and The Witch. But from the trailer dropped last fall, it’s hard to get much of a sense of what kind of horror Slice has in store.

Still, the teaser reveals a cast that includes Deadpool 2’s scene-stealing Zazie Beetz and How Did This Get Made’s Paul Scheer. And IMDB reveals Stranger Things’ Joe Keery will be bringing his lustrous hair to the freaky fun. Plus, they got a logline:

When a pizza delivery driver is murdered on the job, the city searches for someone to blame: ghosts? drug dealers? a disgraced werewolf?

According to Pitchfork, that disgraced werewolf will be Chance’s pizza-delivering character Dax Lycander (like lycanthrope, like werewolf). In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Vesely revealed the role was written specifically for the acclaimed and charismatic rapper. Together, these friends and colleagues are breaking into movies. And Vesely has grand inspirations and ambitions.

He cited the George Sanders novella CivilWarLand In Bad Decline as an influence, specifically its treating ghosts as “part of the fabric of the universe,” adding, “I have ghosts in this movie and they’re basically part of the fabric of the government, of the town the film takes place in.” And while Chance is the movie’s headliner, Vesely imagines this more of an ensemble effort, saying,
“I wouldn’t dare say I’m trying to make Magnolia, but that kind of Paul Thomas Anderson-, large-cast thing inspired me too—to a goofier degree.”

So Slice has got us intrigued. But when’s it opening? The teaser trailer promised 2018. The poster promises nothing. And time is short for marketing for a Halloween release. But I have a theory, based solely on a celebrity retweet.

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Elijah Wood retweeted the poster.

Now, the Lord of the Rings star is a noted genre fan, having fronted horror movies like Maniac, Grand Piano, The Faculty, and The Good Son. So, maybe this is just a retweet of the “that looks cool variety.” He’s got a lot of friends in the business, so maybe this is just a signal boost for one of them. BUT, last year, Wood was added to the board of directors of Fantastic Fest, alongside Kristen Bell (not the actress), Kier-la Janisse, Peter Kuplowsky, and Suki-Rose Simakis. So, could this board member be subtly teasing Slice’s world premiere at the fest?

Just around the corner, Fantastic Fest has begun announcing which tantalizing films will screen at its week-long festivities in September. And if A24 is looking for the perfect venue to score a big splash ahead of a fall release, Fantastic Fest could be it.



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