Jun '19
After the 1981 slasher saturation, things would never be as good as that again. So in 1982, we went out with a bang, because The Slumber Party Massacre is just really fun to watch.
The backstory of our killer Russ Thorn is as generic as it gets, because we don't need a backstory for this guy. We just need a creeper to stalk and kill some gratuitous teens through various great locations.
We start off in a lovely suburb of California. A few popular slashers are set in Cali, and others filmed there. It's got a unique look about it, and we're painted a pretty awesome suburban night of terror here.
We get a good shower scene, followed by a nice chase sequence in the high school. The body count is growing, and there's no point to any of it, really. Our character has no motive, and it works in spades somehow.
This movie doesn't try to hide anything. Our killer isn't even wearing a mask. He's just a regular jackass with a backstory of murdering some 6 people about 15 years back, and for absolutely no reason, he's determined to drill into some high school girls because his dick doesn't work. There's some feminist bullshit going on here, but it's still pretty awesome.
The title comes into play as a handful of teens have a slumber party. Girls only, but the men are perverts and stick around anyway. The body count continues as we're back and forth between two groups of teen girls, and the lady coach who can't catch a break. Some of this movie reminds me of Carrie. The girls and their banter mostly, but also that side coach lady who is only trying to help, but doesn't quite get there.
Our final girl does pretty good as the modelesque shy older sister who just wants to sit back and watch a horror movie on tv. Whatever she was watching looked pretty fucking cool, and I want to watch it. Some Joe Dante movie "Hollywood Boulevard" (1976) which features Dick Miller as "Walter Paisley" for one of several times. I love that gag.
Her little sister hates french kisses, but she's aching for some Stallone porn in that playgirl mag. I don't know why I think that's so amusing, but I do.
The rest of the girls are pretty throwaways, but they don't care, and it works in their favor. They're part of the whole "gratuitous" thing, and they make for some great filler, what with their undressing and whatnot.
I still don't know why that girl girl ate the pizza on that guy though. I would have eaten it far away from him, because that pizza looked pretty damn good. They had to endure a whole chase scene before they even considered the pizza, but still looked melty delicious. No pizza will ever look as delicious as the NY style stuff in TMNT2: Secret of the Ooze. That whole scene makes me salivate.
So while this movie isn't particularly scary, it's got a great vibe to it. I love that doomy gloomy theme, and the movie has a lot of good things going for it. It even has the mega generic cat jumping out of the closet scare. The blood looks good, the killer is determined, and it even features actual animal killings, with the brutal death of a snail. How could they sleep at night, those sadistic bitches... jk. Fuck that snail.
I always thought Slumber Party Massacre was a standout slasher flick, and one of my personal favorites. I've often wondered why it hasn't achieved as high regard as other horror franchises at the time. This movie is great. The sequels are highly watchable, too, and I think a lot of it has to do with the short runtimes. These movies are concentrated and potent balls of 80s(and barely 90s) cheese. Kind of perfect in a way.
Then the series allegedly spins off to the Cheerleader Massacre series, a mere 2-entry series about killers and robots and some other dumb shit, but the tits are great. Those movies are where the trash gets kicked into overdrive.
The backstory of our killer Russ Thorn is as generic as it gets, because we don't need a backstory for this guy. We just need a creeper to stalk and kill some gratuitous teens through various great locations.
We start off in a lovely suburb of California. A few popular slashers are set in Cali, and others filmed there. It's got a unique look about it, and we're painted a pretty awesome suburban night of terror here.
We get a good shower scene, followed by a nice chase sequence in the high school. The body count is growing, and there's no point to any of it, really. Our character has no motive, and it works in spades somehow.
This movie doesn't try to hide anything. Our killer isn't even wearing a mask. He's just a regular jackass with a backstory of murdering some 6 people about 15 years back, and for absolutely no reason, he's determined to drill into some high school girls because his dick doesn't work. There's some feminist bullshit going on here, but it's still pretty awesome.
The title comes into play as a handful of teens have a slumber party. Girls only, but the men are perverts and stick around anyway. The body count continues as we're back and forth between two groups of teen girls, and the lady coach who can't catch a break. Some of this movie reminds me of Carrie. The girls and their banter mostly, but also that side coach lady who is only trying to help, but doesn't quite get there.
Our final girl does pretty good as the modelesque shy older sister who just wants to sit back and watch a horror movie on tv. Whatever she was watching looked pretty fucking cool, and I want to watch it. Some Joe Dante movie "Hollywood Boulevard" (1976) which features Dick Miller as "Walter Paisley" for one of several times. I love that gag.
Her little sister hates french kisses, but she's aching for some Stallone porn in that playgirl mag. I don't know why I think that's so amusing, but I do.
The rest of the girls are pretty throwaways, but they don't care, and it works in their favor. They're part of the whole "gratuitous" thing, and they make for some great filler, what with their undressing and whatnot.
I still don't know why that girl girl ate the pizza on that guy though. I would have eaten it far away from him, because that pizza looked pretty damn good. They had to endure a whole chase scene before they even considered the pizza, but still looked melty delicious. No pizza will ever look as delicious as the NY style stuff in TMNT2: Secret of the Ooze. That whole scene makes me salivate.
So while this movie isn't particularly scary, it's got a great vibe to it. I love that doomy gloomy theme, and the movie has a lot of good things going for it. It even has the mega generic cat jumping out of the closet scare. The blood looks good, the killer is determined, and it even features actual animal killings, with the brutal death of a snail. How could they sleep at night, those sadistic bitches... jk. Fuck that snail.
I always thought Slumber Party Massacre was a standout slasher flick, and one of my personal favorites. I've often wondered why it hasn't achieved as high regard as other horror franchises at the time. This movie is great. The sequels are highly watchable, too, and I think a lot of it has to do with the short runtimes. These movies are concentrated and potent balls of 80s(and barely 90s) cheese. Kind of perfect in a way.
Then the series allegedly spins off to the Cheerleader Massacre series, a mere 2-entry series about killers and robots and some other dumb shit, but the tits are great. Those movies are where the trash gets kicked into overdrive.
