The Washingtonians – Masters of Horror: The Washingtonians (2007)

Directed by: Peter Medak | 59 minutes | horror | Actors: Johnathon Schaech, Venus Terzo, Caroline Carter, Ian Carter, Nathan Clark, Daniel Cudmore, Chris Davis, Duncan Fraser, Abraham Jedidiah, Brian Jensen, Chris Kalhoon, Patrick Keating, Esme Lambert, Chi Lam, Alan Legros, Gardiner Millar, Wendy Morrow Donaldson, Myron Natwick, Saul Rubinek, Richard Stroh, Julia Tortolano, Joel Wirkkunen

George Washington is widely regarded in the United States as the father of the country, one of the founding fathers of the American nation, and one of the greatest presidents the country has ever known. It is therefore questionable whether the seriously committed patriots and American historians will be so happy with this film. In ‘The Washingtonians’, the first president of the United States is not portrayed as a hero or great statesman, but is portrayed as a bloodthirsty monster with a preference for human flesh. That he was particularly fond of the flesh of young virgins adds an extra sinister touch to the sinister culinary preferences of the president in this film.

Thus, the idea underlying ‘The Washingtonians’ diverges somewhat from the often unimaginative and perfunctory plots that underlie many other films that tap into a disturbing theme like cannibalism. The elaboration of the story can generally be called satisfactory. As the mystery surrounding the document the protagonists found unfolds, the film also steadily gains in suspense. It is striking for a film of this kind that ‘The Washingtonians’ rarely, if ever, degenerates into an extravagant orgy of bloodlust and bad taste. The print should have more tension, subtlety and suggestion. A good example is the scene in a restaurant where the local elderly people lavishly rip the meat off their spare ribs. Not scary in itself, but because these people are probably also cannibals, it is still disturbing, partly because of the way in which these elderly people are portrayed.

The main flaw of ‘The Washingtonians’ is the not entirely successful and somewhat unbalanced balance between horror and comedy. In the first 40 minutes the film mainly shows the characteristics of a real horror film, but undergoes more or less a metamorphosis in the last fifteen minutes and increasingly develops into a black comedy. These two genres can go hand in hand, but in this case the transition is too abrupt and the comic part isn’t funny enough. The ending is a bit short-sighted and does not constitute a completely satisfactory conclusion to an otherwise extremely original story. Despite these drawbacks, ‘The Washingtonians’ is a nice, not to be sneezed at short film that fans can really sink their teeth into.