From social commentary to serial killers… never a dull moment on the Reel Librarians blog! Continuing on my “Summer of Nostalgia” blog tour and revisiting past favorites, next is my “Little miss serial killer librarian” post from Oct. 30, 2013, about the title character in 2004’s Chainsaw Sally.

Once again, I’ll pause to give you the opportunity to read the original post… 😉

I have made it a tradition to focus on thriller/horror/scary/mystery movies each October. Librarians are in a LOT of scary movies, from bit parts to lead characters, including the title character of Sally in the cult hit Chainsaw Sally, who’s a librarian by day and serial killer by night.

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Why this post?

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I had a lot of fun watching this film, because it’s awesomely bad. Here’s how I put it back in 2013:

The film seems to have inspired an either love-it-or-hate-it kind of reaction. Some find the purposefully over-the-top gore and camp refreshing, like in a DVD Verdict review, whose reviewer proclaimed it as a “nifty little indie horror-comedy,” while others dislike the trashy, low-rent look and feel. It is decidedly trashy, but also very self-aware of being so.

Rereading this post, I can also tell how much fun I had writing it, with phrases I used like “red-lipped relish” and lines like “And each of those insults earns a look that could kill. Literally.” It’s not every day you get such a meaty role for a reel librarian — har har — and you can tell star April Monique Burril is having a blast playing little miss serial killer Sally.

Sally kills library patrons who have broken library rules, including talking loudly, not returning a book, and misspelling a word. However, as I stated in the original post:

But the film also wants it both ways. It wants to make fun of librarian stereotypes and all those library rules, but it also wants to give Sally an easy out with her family’s tragic backstory.

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New thoughts?

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I always look forward to October, when I get to round up some more reel librarians in thriller and horror films. I teased at a possible connection in this original post between Sally from Chainsaw Sally and “Conan the Librarian” from UHF:

Now, after having reread this post, I’m inspired to further explore that idea in an upcoming post this October!

I was also inspired to look up star April Monique Burril to see what she’s been up to lately. The original film inspired two follow-up series, The Chainsaw Sally Show, plus Burril played the same “Chainsaw Sally” character in a 2012 film called Little Big Boy. Looks like I have another title to add to my Master List… 🙂

I’ll be back next week to revisit another Reel Librarians favorite!

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Sources used:

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• Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “Little miss serial killer librarian.” Reel Librarians, 30 Oct. 2013.