TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

tdrish Sweatshop seems to be a "gore-hounds" only movie, I can't see it appealing to anyone else. The body count is extremely high, especially towards the end of the movie when the killer ( or killers ) crashes and slashes and bashes the party in the abandoned warehouse. Hey, by the way, how much work are you getting out of these guys? Some sweatshop! It's kind of hard to keep up with production in the job industry when you're, you know, exterminating these young boneheads off with an unexplainable huge hammer. Oh, yeah, this is one brutally violent flick. In this one, torture first, THEN you get that hammer. If you've ever seen The Midnight Meat Train, and you're familiar with the hammer that guy used, well, the hammer in THIS movie will make that poor hammer look like a toothpick. I mean, it has to weigh at least 200 pounds, and our mass murderer picks it up with no sweat...well, if he's sweating, we don't see it. He has a welders mask on. Scary, huh? You think that's scary, wait until you see the final scene of the movie. The ending credits roll, and you're left wondering how they can end a film like that...completely unresolved. In fact, I would have given this movie 5 stars, but the dumb ending demoted 2 stars automatically. I don't mind you not having much of a plot when it comes to a slasher flick, but the least you can do is have a decent ending. In fact, what slasher movie has much of a plot? You're not watching it for the story, let's be realistic, we want to see some horrific stuff, right? Because this is that type of movie, and I felt as if it delivered the goods, I would have told you that this was an average, ultra-violent horror flick. When I say ultra-violent, don't take the warning lightly: jawbone is removed with bare hands, barbed wire is used to tie its victims painfully to a board, male parts are ripped out, not to mention the "That-was-so-WRONG " deaths with the whip of the hammer. Look, I don't know what these nerds did to upset the mind ( or minds) of this killer ( or killers ), but all I have to say is: Next time you throw a party, do it at somebody house. You never know, because you don't want to be throwing a party in Sweatshop!

Paul Magne Haakonsen I picked up a copy of "Sweatshop" because it seemed like a fairly interesting slasher movie, and the DVD cover did have a certain appeal.And now having seen the movie, I can say that it is a fairly average slasher at best. The story is straight forward, albeit a bit lacking depth and any real weight as to whom the killer and his two ghouls were and where they came from.The story is about a group of young people, punks, emos and goths, who are at an abandoned building to set up a rave of sorts. But they are not alone there, and a deranged killer is going to turn the party into a bloody mess before the night is over.What makes the movie bearable to sit through is the amount of violence and gore there is. The effects are nice and look realistic, which is really what is the major supporting factor that carries the movie. Plus the way that the violence and mayhem is executed is quite well, fun (in a morbid way) and inventive. There are some fairly interesting and brutal scenes to be seen throughout the movie.As for the characters, well despite having cool costumes and outfits they turn out to be rather meaningless people that you don't really come to have any sort of relationship to as you watch the movie. It is not a matter of if they die - it is a matter of how. And the size of the hammer made from an anvil, well it just seems so ridiculous, as the guy can handle it so easily, and you can see that it is painstakingly fake as there is no weight to it as he lifts it.For fans of macabre and violent movies, then you will surely find something enjoyable in "Sweatshop". But for fans of the horror genre, then you'll most likely find the movie to be plain and rather generic.

Christopher T. Chase Texas Frightmare Weekend is the best place I could ever imagine to be able to screen some of the best work on display from the young, hard-charging up-and-comers in the the thriving field of independent horror. Last year, I was wowed in equal parts by Robert Hall's impressive hard-core gorefest, LAID TO REST, and the epic struggle of Good Vs. Evil (or Evil Vs. REALLY Evil) in Stacy Davidson's microbudget epic thriller, DOMAIN OF THE DAMNED, which looked, sounded and played better than 2/3rds of the bigger budget Hollywood-made pieces of crap that had the audacity to classify themselves as "horror films". The mark of a great filmmaker is seeing how they raise the bar for themselves with the efforts that follow their previous work. Looking forward to the future offerings of both Hall and Davidson, I was pleased to see that Mr. D. was first out of the gate this year with his sophomore feature, SWEATSHOP. I am happy to report to fans of true, out-and-out, balls- to-the-wall mayhem, that the director of DOMAIN has delivered in spades, giving us everything we'd hoped for and nothing we expected.The movie bucks the trend right out of the gate when it establishes its premise. As enjoyable as a great part of the series is, the Friday THE 13TH franchise does defy logic in more ways than one (how many groups of kids would have to be butchered at Camp Crystal Lake, before the authorities simply closed it and razed the place to the ground?), asking audiences to suspend their disbelief roughly the height of Mount Everest. SWEATSHOP, though it hardly tries to reinvent the wheel in this respect, does NOT suffer from this problem. The scenario is still kept pretty simple: a rave promoter and her friends, all involved in that lifestyle, do what ravers do best: find an old abandoned warehouse, break in and set up a party in order to score some quick and easy cash and party down at the same time.Their mistake? Not asking permission of the previous tenant. Who never left. Who isn't happy with their intrusion, and who walks not so softly, and carries the biggest freakin' stick you have ever seen in life. And actually, it's not a stick. It's a pipe...with an anvil attached to the end. No, that is not a typo, either. When you witness what this character, known only as The Beast (Jeremy Sumrall) does with this brutally improvised implement, you will never think of the phrase "getting hammered" in quite the same way again. In the same F13 tradition that was well-established as that series progressed, there are few likable characters to root for here, and the ones that do have your empathy or sympathies? Don't get too attached to them. Having said that, plenty of time is still taken to establish the dysfunctional dynamic between the friends, including Charlie, the organizer (Ashley Kay), DJ Enyx (Naika Malveaux), slovenly equipment handler Wade (Brent Himes, making Larry The Cable Guy look as cultured as Basil Rathbone by comparison) and his put-upon assistant, Kenny (Vincent Guerrero), amongst others. All of which makes little difference as it turns out, once The Beast begins to decimate the group in a fashion not seen since grindhouse ruled the drive-ins and the dilapidated urban movie palaces back in the Seventies. Which brings us to the most impressive thing about SWEATSHOP: the technical aspects. Lighting, camera-work, sound design...everything is on point here, and it makes you wonder how in the hell Davidson and crew managed to pull it off, and make this look as good - or better than - a watered-down, PG-13 piece of dreck from a major studio. And that goes double for the FX work. Though the death sequences are far from pleasant, this is a whole different animal than the 'gore-ture porn' offered by series like SAW and HOSTEL. Kristi Boul, Marcus Koch and Mike Oliver are not beneath giving The Beast multiple and cruelly creative ways of dispatching his victims, but the monster seems to be as much about his business as he is about dealing out unimaginable suffering. He wants to teach these interlopers a lesson they'll never forget, and does so with a vengeance that YOU'LL never forget.And then there's that ending. If you're the kind of horror fan who loves to rewind the prom scene in CARRIE and watch it several times, you cannot miss SWEATSHOP'S hell-bent-for-leather conclusion. When it comes to a well-done indie horror entry served up straight, no chaser, Stacy Davidson and company have delivered, firing on all cylinders with this one. So strap in and prepare for a bloody, terrifying ride.And don't forget to thank them for putting the "hard-R" back into "hoRRoR" again.

andyrose_tx SWEATSHOP is the story of a group of entrepreneurs, headed up by Charlie – portrayed beautifully by Ashley Kay, who crash an old abandoned warehouse to set up a rave to make a few quick bucks. They quickly find that the warehouse is not abandoned and is home to something that enjoys murdering intruders with a large and very brutal hammer made from sewer pipe and an anvil.Joining Ashley Kay in this endeavor are Melanie Donihoo, Peyton Wetzel, Brent Himes, Naika Malveaux, Julin, Danielle Jones, Krystal Freeman, Vincent Guerrero. The film featured a cameo appearance by Fangoria's Michael Gingold too. And living every horror fan's dream – Jeremy Sumrall stalks, smashes, and brutalizes the characters as the Beast.The special effects crew of Kristi Bouls, Marcus Koch, and Mike Oliver were challenged by director and co-writer Stacy Davidson to create some of the most brutal but realistic kills you'll find anywhere in low- budget indie horror and they rose to the challenge. This film features more smashed heads than any film I've ever seen. The Beast wields a mighty hammer as his signature weapon but is found improvising with barbed wire, needle nose pliers, garden shears, machetes, and other nasty little implements he keeps around for odd jobs. The Beast even creates a new ball gag that is disturbing enough to make the average horror fan sick. The technical merits of this low-budget "smasher" flick are incredible. Stacy Davidson not only co-wrote and directed but also shot and edited the film. The film is paced beautifully. Everything from location to lighting to score to effects to makeup pull together to create a visual and auditory stunning cinematic experience. I do not know the budget on this film but it looks like it cost a million or more pretty easy.There really was very little I found to dislike about Sweatshop. The story works. There's no backstory to explain why The Beast is there and why he kills all who enter his domain and it's just not needed. This film is about the here and now. Charlie and her friends are hoping to make a small fortune but they picked the wrong place and they pay with their lives. The acting works – each of the cast delivers a performance that complements the story, their character, and each other's performance.