Slumber Party Massacre
The Slumber Party Massacre is one of the infamous “gang of thirteen” slasher movies that came out in 1982, which flooded the market and killed the genre until the second wave in the 90s. Many people think the 80s is the “slasher decade”, without knowing that after 1983 the slasher movie was effectively dead theatrically. There were, of course, independent B slashers coming out left and right that flooded the home video market, but as far as major studios go, the lasher movie wasn’t a viable prospect.
What makes the Slumber Party Massacre unique and enjoyable is its weird production. It was originally conceived as a parody, but for some reason was produced as a straight-played slasher movie, with hilarious results nonetheless. It’s one of the great feminist horror movies, written and directed by women --- you know, way back in Nineteen-goddamned-eighty three – and functions as a biting satire on the genre.
The movie revolves around an escaped mental patient who kills people with a power drill. The phallic reference with the drill is the only somewhat misplaced joke. I don’t see why film critics – particularly of Freudian persuasion – make so much of the weapons used by slashers as “phallic symbols”. Most, probably all, slasher villains are serial murders, who use knives an nail guns and other sharp-force weapons rather than guns, because deaths by stabbing are more entertaining than, say, if Leatherface just walked around with a sawed-off shotgun blowing people away like Scarface. So what else are killers supposed to use to stab people than stabbing weapons? The phallic connection, to me, seems incidental.
Among the more enjoyable aspects of this movie are the cinematography jokes. There’s a scene where the girls are having a community shower. There’s a tracking shot of their heads as they discuss the party later that night, then – as if the camera man was thinking “Well, nothing of interest in this scene” – the camera pans down to their asses and does another tracking shot. There’s a scene where one of the girls walks off in a tizzy, followed with a snap focus of her butt as she walks away. There’s even an extreme close up of a boob that takes up the entire frame and is about as erotic as a shot of an asshole in equal ratios.
The killer, of course, stalks the party and kills a lot of people before eventually being taken down by one of the girls. A pizza boy has his eyes drilled out, and there’s plenty of great one-liners. There’s some pretty gory kills, with decapitations and disembowelments, not to mention more nudity than in Sorority House Massacre, which sucks. People confuse the two movies – I don’t know why unless they haven’t seen either – but they having virtually nothing in common and are worlds apart in terms of quality and style.
Anyway, Slumber Party Massacre is an unsung masterpiece of satire that deserves its place as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It’s well worth multiple viewings, and holds up to this day s a great commentary on stupid horror tropes that have unfortunately survived.
I give it five stars.
The Slumber Party Massacre is one of the infamous “gang of thirteen” slasher movies that came out in 1982, which flooded the market and killed the genre until the second wave in the 90s. Many people think the 80s is the “slasher decade”, without knowing that after 1983 the slasher movie was effectively dead theatrically. There were, of course, independent B slashers coming out left and right that flooded the home video market, but as far as major studios go, the lasher movie wasn’t a viable prospect.
What makes the Slumber Party Massacre unique and enjoyable is its weird production. It was originally conceived as a parody, but for some reason was produced as a straight-played slasher movie, with hilarious results nonetheless. It’s one of the great feminist horror movies, written and directed by women --- you know, way back in Nineteen-goddamned-eighty three – and functions as a biting satire on the genre.
The movie revolves around an escaped mental patient who kills people with a power drill. The phallic reference with the drill is the only somewhat misplaced joke. I don’t see why film critics – particularly of Freudian persuasion – make so much of the weapons used by slashers as “phallic symbols”. Most, probably all, slasher villains are serial murders, who use knives an nail guns and other sharp-force weapons rather than guns, because deaths by stabbing are more entertaining than, say, if Leatherface just walked around with a sawed-off shotgun blowing people away like Scarface. So what else are killers supposed to use to stab people than stabbing weapons? The phallic connection, to me, seems incidental.
Among the more enjoyable aspects of this movie are the cinematography jokes. There’s a scene where the girls are having a community shower. There’s a tracking shot of their heads as they discuss the party later that night, then – as if the camera man was thinking “Well, nothing of interest in this scene” – the camera pans down to their asses and does another tracking shot. There’s a scene where one of the girls walks off in a tizzy, followed with a snap focus of her butt as she walks away. There’s even an extreme close up of a boob that takes up the entire frame and is about as erotic as a shot of an asshole in equal ratios.
The killer, of course, stalks the party and kills a lot of people before eventually being taken down by one of the girls. A pizza boy has his eyes drilled out, and there’s plenty of great one-liners. There’s some pretty gory kills, with decapitations and disembowelments, not to mention more nudity than in Sorority House Massacre, which sucks. People confuse the two movies – I don’t know why unless they haven’t seen either – but they having virtually nothing in common and are worlds apart in terms of quality and style.
Anyway, Slumber Party Massacre is an unsung masterpiece of satire that deserves its place as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It’s well worth multiple viewings, and holds up to this day s a great commentary on stupid horror tropes that have unfortunately survived.
I give it five stars.