Review of Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) by Shawn W — 23 Nov 2010

Slumber Party Massacre 2.

The film Slumber Party Massacre 2 opens up with Courtney (Crystal Bernard of Wings), Valerie's younger sister, sleeping. We get shots of her dozing off quietly suggesting innocence right before the nightmarish recap begins, and she creams with the title popping out. Courtney is a regular girl with a friend and school crush, a hideous older fellow. Her and her friends play in a lousy rock band that may not be ready to go out "there". However, she suffers from nightmares and flashbacks with portent visions. Yet, she ignores it because she wants to live a normal life despite the guilt she suffers time to time. She decides that she will beat this when she decides to go with her friends at remote location for the weekend. Meanwhile, two guys (one of them a prankster!) follow her and her friends and hangout. This sounds like fun, but not to her. Once she starts to relax, her visions start up again preventing her from functioning in the real world. She becomes an emotional distress. It takes a little while before her nightmare manifest into flesh. When they do, a new driller killer emerges. Slick back hair, leather pants, and guitar drill, the Driller Killer is a lot younger and swifter than the previous driller killer. He dances, plays, and sings when he is not drilling people.

There is not a lot to drill here in Slumber Party Massacre 2. Crediting Roger Corman and written and directed by Deborah Brock, Slumber Party Massacre 2 felt more like a weekend party than in actual slumber party. That is one of many faulty things I found with this film. I do not know a lot about a girl's slumber party, but do they include guys and last all weekend? One of my brother's exes said not any that she went to (laugh). Anyways, despite the voluptuous poster, Slumber Party Massacre 2 barely has any nudity! I write this because I'm pretty sure many of male readers will be wondering. Yes, there are guys like that. I wonder if anyone charged at the film only to find themselves trapped like Gen. George A. Custer. I was fine. I could do without nudity. I read and saw the documentary and states the actresses felt very uncomfortable about showing their body, poor girls. Side note, Alexandre Aja would have same problem, but found a solution for his film indulging flick, Piranha 3D. Fair enough, however, filmmakers would have trouble with Bernard with the most since she was all up tightly. She would argue and complain about stuff like the script, her character, poster, scenes, and other stuff. This is not a problem for me unless I was involved with film.

Another problem I had with this film is the characters. I really did not care about anyone here. I had to look up who was who when I started writing about this and I was not just talking about the supporting cast. I will admit that there was certain interest in Courtney because there is a bit of complexity her character. This all leads to an ending that will make one question if they like the film. Debates have started over what really happened to her in the end of the film. I myself have a theory.

The biggest problem I had was not the lack of indulgence that I expected, but the fact the film is incoherent. Linear structure is very poor in my opinion. Events happen in the film randomly I was confused to keep up what was going on. It was probably the lack of interest I had within the film. I became utterly confused when Courtney's ugly school crush arrives out of the blue, and the Driller Killer appears out of nowhere.

He is not really terrifying or scary and his victims look rather confused when moves in for the kill. Yet, I really like the guitar drill he has. There are few guitar drills he has. The soundtrack is okay although I love the "Don't Let Go" song. There are some nice gore effects here and dazzling zip explosion, but the most comical was the killer cock. The kills are pretty cool and enjoyed the way the Driller Killer is defeated. The performances the actors/actresses give are fine. The direction is pretty alright too. There was an improvement with guy as they were not sissies.

Remember when I said this film barely has any meaning? Well, there is no real feminist standpoint here like the previous film. The only thing I found that may have any feminist theme was the idea that girls want to rock until the man comes in and takes it away from them. This might be so although it was unintentional. The film is mostly about sisterhood and friendship although it is not good even in that term. Yet, the characters are pretty alright to watch and there is a bit of fun to watch.

There are two DVD versions of this. One of them has "Massacre Collection" on top of the cover, but my recommendation is obtain the copy from Shout Factory because it comes in with Slumber Party Massacre 1, 2, and 3. They contain commentary and all kinds of extras to satisfy your needs. I was satisfied purchasing this collection with ROGER COMAN'S CULT CLASSIC on top of the DVD. The movie may have not been strong, but whatever. As a slasher pic, it is quite satisfying, so it is time to round up. Despite the film's linear problems within the storytelling, the film is pretty okay as slasher pic. Fans of the genre will enjoy this film.

What does the ending mean? Well, you hate spoilers, and then run away! You do not want to watch the film then by all means read on. The two theories are that Courtney was only having a nightmare as she and it is all within her head. Theory two was that everything did happen and now the driller killer is making his way to finish her off for good. My theory, she suddenly realized that she was in a really mediocre film since there are no parallels for coherence and incoherence and loaded with product placement.