SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, THE
(director/writer: Amy Jones; screenwriter: Rita Mae Brown; cinematographer: Steve Posey; editors: Sean Foley/Wendy Greene Bricmont; music: Ralph Jones; cast: Michelle Michaels (Trish Devereaux), Robin Stille (Valerie Bates), Michael Villella (Russ Thorn), Debra Deliso (Kim), Andree Honore (Jackie), Gina Mari (Diane), Joe Johnson (Neill), David Millbern (Jeff), Jim Boyce (John Minor), Pamela Roylance (Coach Jana), Ryan Kennedy (David Contant), Jennifer Meyers (Courtney Bates), Jean Vargas (Telephone repair worker), Aaron Lipstadt (Pizza Boy), Brinke Stevens (Linda), Anna Patton (Mrs. Devereaux), Howard Purgason (Mr. Devereaux); Runtime: 77; MPAA Rating: R; producer: Amy Jones; Santa Fe Productions; 1982)
“A gory and senseless slasher film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Amy Jones (“The Rich Man’s Wife”/”Love Letters”) directs her first feature film, a gory and senseless slasher film. The film follows along the lines of Halloween (1980), but was so bad even if it had a tremendous box-office and three sequels followed.
It’s written by the feminist novelist Rita Mae Brown, who might have meant it as a parody of slasher films but it’s surprisingly, for a film directed and written by a hip woman, as crappy and sexist as the ones written by the men exploiters. It’s filled with gratuitous titty shots, endless fake scare shots, poorly devised jump scares, and plenty of graphic bloody killings. The film’s title tells you all you need to know about this exploitation horror pic.
You need to keep awake only to keep score of how many are killed by an escaped from prison maniac, Russ Thorn (Michael Villella), who shows up close-mouthed (only in the climax, after his killing spree is about to end, does he pathetically utter to potential vics “Takes a lot of love for a person to do this…”.
At a student slumber party with a power drill, the escaped psychotic starts killing every one there with his mechanical sex object tool until he gets his just desserts in the end. I think the moral of the story is not to throw a slumber party when there’s a maniacal killer loose in town.
It’s set in the suburbs of Venice, California. The popular 18-year-old high school student Trish Devereaux (Michelle Michals) throws an all-girl slumber party when her parents (Anna Patton & Howard Purgason) go away for the week-end. The girls (Debra Deliso, Andree Honore, Gina Mari) are unaware that a maniac serial killer has escaped (even if his escape is widely broadcast on the radio). The nutcase has returned to the same town where in 1969 he went on a killing spree.
Two obnoxious and horny nerdy male students (Joe Johnson & David Millbern) show up to prank the girls and pay a dear price for that. Trish’s neighbor, David Contant (Ryan Kennedy), who promised her parents to keep an on eye on her, is slain by the madman. So are most of the girls at the pajama party. But not Trish’s new neighbor and classmate Valerie (Robin Stille), who does not attend the party in response to hearing party guests speak ill of her, and spends the evening with her annoying younger sister Courtney (Jennifer Meyers). But, in the end, she seems to be the only one who can handle the attacker.
REVIEWED ON 4/5/2021 GRADE: C