Slumber Party Massacre

Director - Amy Holden Jones (Love Letters)
Starring - Michelle Michaels (Death Wish 4: The Crackdown), Robin Stille (Vampire Knights), and Michael Villella (Getting Away with Murder)
Release Date - 1982
Genre - Horror
Tagline(s) - "You bring the pizza....I'll bring the drill" "Close your eyes for a second... and sleep forever" and "The Ultimate Driller Killer Thriller"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Slumber Party Massacre I, II, and III)

Rating (out of 5):

      There are so many slasher flicks from the late 70s and early 80s that I could (probably) start watching them all now and by the time I die of old age I will still have hundreds left.  I exaggerate a bit but my point still stands.  Slashers have always been able to adapt.  When people stopped watching all the slashers that took place in the woods, the sub-genre quickly shifted to busty high schoolers and sorority babes dying in full nudity.  Then the 80s slashers slowly died off until their resurrection in the 90s which only lasted a few years...thank god.  Once again in present day the slasher has risen paying homage to slashers from the past.  That brings me to this Roger Corman produced slasher.  I have always seen the poster for it at the local video store but he did not have the actual VHS.  I was lucky enough to finally see it on IFC the same night I saw The Boogens for the first time.  I actually liked it and not long ago I ordered the first three Slumber Party Massacre movies in a nice little set for $15.  This is part of the slasher movement that I have sadly not seen a lot of films from.  House on Sorority Row is about the only one I can think of that I have seen.  
     A group of high school ladies plan on having a slumber party while one of the young girl's parents are out of town.  She does not invite another young lady on the basketball team that lives nearby because she does not like her.  Recently a killer has escaped from prison and is wielding a giant industrial drill.  The killer starts stalking and killing young girls, and pizza delivery boys, while the uninvited girl and her sister sit at home nearby out of harms way.  That is until her little sister sneaks out to go to the party thrusting her older sister in to the middle of the madness.  The girls scurry from room to room to hide from the killer.  With the girls facing their most bleakest moment, the tides turn and they are able to kill the drill wielding killer.
     Most slashers have the same plot but what sets them apart is how the director envisioned their final product.  That is also what makes the film worth a damn.  After watching this film it is clear that the director was not trying to tell a new story but an old one in new light.  The film at times feels like a cliched filled parody.  In fact, from beginning to end the film in filled with cliches but the parody look and feel ends halfway through once the killing starts.  Contrary to the way that sounds, the film is actually fun as hell.  The film used everything we like about the sorority babe slasher films and amplified them.  We get nude girls in the shower, a crazy killer with an absurd weapon, horny guys trying to knock off a piece only to be murdered, and a crazy story all pieced together by the king of cheap, Roger Corman.  The acting is what you would expect from the best slashers...which is mediocre at best.  Some of the girls did a better job than the others and they looked a lot better too.  The story is nothing new nor original but is pretty damn entertaining.  Old stories can be retold if the director knows what the hell they are doing.  Finally, we do get a lot of kills and special effects.  They are nothing like you would get in a slasher that was lucky enough to hire Tom Savini.   They are not Savini good but they are good enough to make this slasher a little better than most.  Overall, this is a very underrated slasher that is bloody and fun.  I highly recommend it.