The Slumber Party Massacre
Director: Amy Holden Jones
Writer: Rita Mae Brown
Starring: Michelle Michaels, Robin Stille, and Michael Villella
Body Count: 12
Review: When I was a kid, the box cover art for this video was enough to ensure I dare never try to rent it. This flick screamed T&A (and bad T&A at that), and I knew there was no way in hell my ten-year-old self could sneak this one past the lady at the counter. So, years later, with all of the films in the series receiving a DVD release, I've finally had a chance to see this fabled flick.
Slumber Party Massacre is an odd little movie. There's a whole lot that can be said about it, but with the heavy cheesiness, you sort of wonder if it's all worth saying!
Okay, the plot is about as bare-bones as they come: an insane killer named Russ Thorn escapes from a mental hospital and stalks young teenage girls (or rather, 20-year-old actresses playing teenage girls) and kills them off with his impossible powered super-drill during a slumber party while one of the girls' parents are out of town. The new girl in town (who happens to live next door!), whom some of the girls aren't to keen on, is the only one who has a chance at saving them (and just how good is this "good girl"? Right after watching the "bad girls" smoking dope and drinking beer, we see the "good girl" fixing up a jug of Kool-Aid!).
That's the plot, but that's just the beginning of the phenomena that is The Slumber Party Massacre. This film was written by noted feminist Rita Mae Brown--that's right, a slasher film about naked chicks getting killed by a guy with a drill was written by a feminist. But it get's better! The director was a chick, too! Now, don't get me wrong, there's some clearly feminist stuff in this movie, mostly of the iconography sort (the poster, lifted from a scene in the movie, depicts the nubile young victims cowering between the legs of the killer, the drill hanging down between his thighs). The implications? Well, it's simple: this guy's out to "drill" little girls in more ways than one. Hang on to your virginity, girls!
But the film goes even further than that! First there's the lesbian overtones from the really kooky female gym teacher. Then we've got the new girl heroine's younger sister--who's played by an actress who looks older than the older sister--who steals a playgirl magazine and get's caught in bed with it and a banana! The bounds of taste are questioned and quickly dismissed in this little gem from the early days of the suburan slasher (which owes quite a bit of its opening half-hour or so to Halloween), and by the time these pseudo-feminist images start flying and those cheesy lines start coming, you just can't help but enjoy it!
The blood is plentiful and the deaths are many, but nevertheless Slumber Party Massacre needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It's definitely worth seeing, but benefits greatly from a group viewing--when all of the subtext in this little flick will seem even funnier!
Trivia: Portions of Slumber Party Massacre are referenced--quite irrationally and without suitable explanation--in Sorority House Massacre 2. Slumber Party Massacre is also known as Sleepless Nights.
