THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982)

THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982)

Tagline: Close your eyes for a second... and sleep forever.

(Horror, Thriller, Where Are Cellphones When You Need Them) [R]

Trish, the chips are under the sink and there's soda in the fridge, and our number at the hotel is right by the phone.

In this one, a young woman named Trish decides to throw a slumber party while her parents are out of town. Valerie is the new girl so she isn’t invited even though she lives right across the street but she will get involved in this party if it kills her. Meanwhile, a murderer has escaped and is reported to have killed 5 people with power tools. It doesn’t take long before he is attracted to the party and begins picking off the guests and uninvited guests 1 by 1. 

First off, yes, there is some nudity in this movie in the first 15 minutes or so (it’s not like I time these things). After that, however, it’s very tame and settles into more of a standard horror flick with some humor thrown in here and there. Most of that humor is provided by Courtney, Valerie’s younger sister. This movie was massively maligned for being exploitive and to an extent, it is (so if nudity causes you issues, this movie is probably one of those horror flicks you want to steer clear of), but it’s a lot tamer than say shows like “Game Of Thrones” or “True Blood” or a LOT of other 80’s horror including some of the entries in the FRIDAY THE 13TH series. It’s also directed by Amy Holden Jones who directed MYSTIC PIZZA. Originally written as a parody, the ending of this thing is full-blown horror and it’s actually quite a bit better than most slasher flicks that were “trying” to be serious. 

Acting wise this isn’t going to win any Oscars. Probably my favorite character was Courtney who is played by Jennifer Meyers. This was literally Jennifer Meyers's only movie ever. She didn’t even appear in the sequel. Robin Stille who plays Valerie is actually okay in this and did do several other films including SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA. Michelle Michaels who played Trish continued acting until 1997 and did appear in one more horror flick. Gina Smika Hunter who plays Diane would only continue acting for 3 more years after this. Debra De Liso who plays Kim is still acting to this day and also appeared in the slasher ICED.  The only other notable actress was Brinke Stevens who plays Linda. She only has about 2 minutes of screen time and seemed to only be there for her physical attributes but as it turns out actually had a modeling job to do during shooting and ended up taking a lesser role in the film. Stevens is one of the most prolific scream queens of all time and has a whopping 38 projects going on right now or in pre-production. One of those is SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA 2. 

Pacing wise this movie doesn’t waste any time getting to the craziness and as I said, in spite of a few funny lines, the movie is a pretty straightforward horror flick even if it lacks some of the ambiances of a horror flick at times. I was actually pretty shocked it took some of the turns it did because I almost turned it off as just another dumb skin flick. 

For humor and stupidity, you are probably going to be looking for SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE II which only very loosely relates to this film and has none of the same characters. This is actually a more serious film than some reviews might lead you to believe and has a pretty solid ending. 

I have to give this one a 5 out of 7 just on the merits regarding what we got on screen, not the commentary or after-the-fact production complaints, etc.
 

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