Having a cracking concept can be a hard thing to live up to. Case in point – “Simulant”, a science-fiction thriller built around a slightly familiar yet generally intriguing premise. It’s an entertaining enough feature film, but one that has a tough time maintaining the kind of energy and tension it wants. Not all of its pieces fit together and it lacks a few key ingredients to make it stand out. Still, a solid cast and an impressive production value help overcome its handful of noticeable limitations.

Director April Mullen, working from a script by Ryan Christopher Churchill, does a good job creating and developing a not-so-distant future where technology has advanced but humanity’s fallibility still leaves its mark. It’s a world where humans co-exist with humanoid creations called simulants. The early generation models are obviously synthetic and are relegated to mere service work. But the newer models as so realistic they’re virtually indistinguishable from humans.

Concerned over a growing autonomy among the newer model simulants, ACE (Artificial-Intelligence Compliance Enforcement) was formed to ensure simulants followed their programming (mainly to never harm humans and to obey their human owners). Among ACE’s most dogged agents is Kessler (Sam Worthington) who is driven by a personal tragedy to prove that simulants are ignoring their programming and pose a serious threat. He believes a simulant named Esmé (Alicia Sanz) and her relationship with the mysterious Casey (Simu Liu) is key to uncovering the truth.

Meanwhile a wealthy artist named Faye (Jordana Brewster) and her dutiful husband Evan (Robbie Amell) live a comfortable and seemingly loving life together. But they have a not-so-well-concealed secret (revealed within the first 30 minutes) that eventually connects them with Casey and Kessler. From there the story slowly morphs into a somewhat lukewarm mystery that opens up some interesting questions without ever offering any thought-provoking answers.

Yet Mullen and Churchill keep their audience involved even if the rather ambiguous payoff doesn’t exactly blow our socks off. There are some crafty ideas and even occasional glimmers of brilliance. But it shows its cards early and everything afterwards plays out pretty much the way we expect. Even worse, the stakes never feel as high as they’re meant to. So even though the movie does a good job holding our attention, we never feel the gravity of anything. That’s the biggest weight holding this solid but underwhelming effort down. “Simulant” is now available on VOD and streaming on Hulu.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

It should go without saying, but with a title like “Slotherhouse” audiences should know exactly what kind of movie they’re in for. The filmmakers aren’t hiding anything. They’re giddily conscious of the kind of movie they’re making. And it’s that brazen (and utterly delightful) self-awareness that makes this unapologetically silly horror-comedy work way more than it should.

Directed by Matthew Goodhue and written for the screen by Bradley Fowler, “Slotherhouse” brings back memories from the 1980s when perusing the sizable horror section at our local video rental store became a weekly ritual. The colorful VHS boxes for countless B-movie horror flicks just like “Slotherhouse” lined the shelves and I can’t tell you how many I watched (some multiple times over). So there’s a natural draw that makes movies like this hard for me to resist.

“Slotherhouse” borrows from all kinds of movies from the horror and teen comedy genres and it does so with a twinkle in its eye. One of the things that makes it so funny is that everyone plays it straight which actually makes the film’s utterly bonkers premise stand out even more. Think about it – a killer sloth carving up college girls at a sorority house pretty much speaks for itself.

Whether they’re attacked by natural predators or hunted by human invaders, life can be tough for the notoriously slow-moving and easy-going tree sloths in the rain forests of Panama. Take the one we see in the opening scene (a hilariously obvious puppet that coos like a human baby). She’s minding her own business in her natural habitat before being tranquilized and nabbed by a poacher. She ends up in the hands of a slimy trader (Stefan Kapicic) who illegally buys and sells wild animals in the United States. But here’s the thing, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill tree sloth.

Meanwhile Emily (Lisa Ambalavanar) and her best friend Madison (Olivia Rouyre) are preparing for their senior year at college. But rather than thinking about classes, graduation, and her future, Emily is more concerned with her pitiful social media follower count and with impressing her sorority sisters. Soon she’s butting heads with the popular and profoundly obnoxious Brianna (Sydney Craven), the resident mean girl with a gaggle of acolytes who do her bidding.

I’ll skip the details, but Emily’s obsession with being popular leads to her “acquiring” the sloth, naming it Alpha, and introducing it as the new sorority house mascot. What could possibly wrong? Well for starters, remember that bit about this not being your run-of-the-mill sloth? That’s something the girls of Sigma Lambda Theta violently and often hilariously learn that the hard way.

To no surprise there are numerous things in the story that make no sense at all. Characters routinely make dumb choices, gaping plot holes abound, obvious questions never get answered. But to be fair, measuring the logic of a movie like this seems utterly pointless. And that gets to the comedy side. A big part of the fun I had with “Slotherhouse” was laughing at these glaring “issues”. The filmmakers know what they’re doing and getting that kind of audience interaction is exactly what they want.

All of that said, “Slotherhouse” does have its faults which no amount of over-the-top absurdity can cover. While there is plenty of fun to be found throughout the movie, it has to really stretch itself to fill 93 minutes. It ends up spending too much time on sorority girl drama which frankly isn’t that interesting. Also (and I don’t say this often) the movie is hampered by its PG-13 rating. So much of the potentially good stuff happens off screen. I can only imagine how ridiculously gonzo this thing could have gotten if the film had really went for it.

Yet I sit her typing this review with a smile on my face, remembered the incredibly silly and laugh-out-loud moments scattered all throughout this truly wacky concoction. Goodhue and Fowler definitely succeed in putting together a preposterous genre cocktail, custom-made for a late-night viewing in a dark theater with an all-in crowd. It makes for a pretty good evening at home on the couch as well. “Slotherhouse” opens September 19th in select theaters and on VOD.

VERDICT – 3 STARS