Slumber Party Massacre I & II
Directed by Amy Holden Jones/Deborah Brock
Starring Michele Michaels, Robin Stille, Andree Honore, Michael Villella, Debra De Liso, David Millbern, Cystal Bernard, Jennifer Rhodes, Atanas Ilitch, Kimberly McArthur.
SYNOPSIS:
Limited edition box set featuring the cult ‘80s slasher and it sequel, both on 4k UHD and Blu-ray.
For those of us old enough to remember hanging around video rental shops in the 1980s, The Slumber Party Massacre was likely one of the standout horror titles of the time, not necessarily because of its content, but because of that title and the promise of a huge body count and maybe some gratuitous titillation. Promises, promises…
Originally released at the peak of the slasher boom at the beginning of the ‘80s, The Slumber Party Massacre was – and is – notable amongst slasher movies because it was directed by a woman, which was unusual because of all the accusations of sexism and misogyny that got thrown at the genre and its creatives.
However, Amy Holden Jones was well aware of what was required for a slasher movie and although you could argue some sort of feminist angle with its narrative, as the original screenplay was supposed to be exactly that, the reality is that The Slumber Party Massacre is just another second-tier slasher movie, featuring an admittedly cool weapon and the usual scantily clad high schoolers making bad decisions as their clothes fall off.
Said weapon is a drill, and not just any drill but one with a very large bit on it that your local DIY shop might have to order in special due to its non-stock dimensions. The drill is the weapon of choice for Russ Thorn (Michael Villella), a mass murderer who has escaped incarceration and has found a group of teenage girls having a sleepover, with some boys involved and the usual drinks and drugs shenanigans going on.
And it really is that simple – an escaped lunatic finds a group of innocent teenagers and slaughters them. There are details with the girls, as there is a new girl in the group, the host’s parents have gone away so a neighbour is keeping an eye, and there is a younger sister in on the party too, but all of this is really fluff and doesn’t do much to pack out a very lean running time of 77 minutes.
For his part, Russ Thorn is a very one-dimensional killer, with no backstory or anything else about him, so with that in mind The Slumber Party Massacre could be considered one of the purest slasher movies, as there is very little fat on it, the kills are fairly graphic for its time and it ticks the boxes of what is required, but there is an underlying feeling that it could have been something a little more if somebody behind the scenes had taken a bit more of a chance with it.
But fear not, because in 1987 director Deborah Brock did that very thing and Slumber Party Massacre II came along to terrorise the shelves of your video shop, and what a different beast this was. The movie picks up with Courtney Bates (Crystal Bernard), the younger sister from the first movie now in senior high school and having dreams about the drill-wielding killer (this time played by Atanas Ilitch and credited simply as ‘The Driller Killer’ – heard that name somewhere before!), only now the madman appears as a 1950s greaser and he plays an electric guitar fitted with a huge drill bit – no, really.
Naturally, Courtney hasn’t learned anything from her past experiences and goes for a weekend away with a group of girlfriends to celebrate her birthday. Some boys show up, because they always do, and so does The Driller Killer, armed with his guitar-drill and some really bad hair metal songs. Ah, the 1980s…
Despite its bonkers premise, Slumber Party Massacre II is actually the more entertaining movie of the two, once it gets going. With the by-comparison epic runtime of 85 minutes, approximately 60 minutes of that time is spent setting up Courtney and her friends with their weekend plans and getting to where they need to be. However, once they are there and the killer turns up the relatively serious nature of the script goes out the window and the final 20-or-so minutes becomes a rock n’ roll bloodbath, complete with one-liners, stupid songs and a construction site, because construction sites were great settings for action set pieces back then.
Slumber Party Massacre II may have the more entertaining final act but is it a better movie? Probably not, as the tonal contrast is too jarring, the funny stuff not actually very funny, and that first hour is a bit of a drag. But guitars with drills aren’t exactly standard slasher movie weapons, and despite the musical aspect being awful the gruesome kills and bizarre performance from Atanas Ilitch are just about enough to make it worth sitting through.
Both movies come with audio commentaries by their respective directors, plus assorted cast and crew, and you also get a making-of documentary for the first movie, plus trailers, alternate scenes and, in the case of Slumber Party Massacre II, the extended unrated cut which, in all honesty, looks like it was trimmed for running time reasons rather than content but it is nice to have the full version, even if the inserts are VHS quality. You also get a booklet featuring essays on both movies, one by Sarah Appleton and the other by Keri O’Shea, and both movies on 4K UHD and Blu-ray, with the second movie getting most of the benefit of the UHD format thanks to some gaudy late-1980s special effects being highlighted.
Overall, this is an excellent presentation of two movies that never really rise above being merely average, despite part two going off in its own mad direction in its final act. Had the first movie been shot with its original concept of turning the male gaze of slasher movies back on itself then there would be more to discuss about it, but as it was shot as a straight slasher movie with no iconography – the drill is fun, but it isn’t a chainsaw or machete, is it? – and interchangeable characters, it just doesn’t leap out as much as the title suggests it should.
Part two tries to address this but does it in such a misguided and clumsy way that it never really gels as a solid sequel and comes across as daft. Even so, for a short and sweet slasher fix you can double-bill both movies in an evening and still get some enjoyment out of them, although when put up against the might of the Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises they don’t really come close to even the weakest of the sequels (alright, they’re probably better than Jason Goes to Hell).
Flickering Myth Rating – The Slumber Party Massacre – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Flickering Myth Rating – Slumber Party Massacre II – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
