Review of The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) by Foreverfinalgir — 20 Dec 2021

This is a fun 80’s horror movie that checks all the boxes for a good slasher flick. We get good kills, nudity, and cheesy lines. This all wrapped up in a nice bow by Amy Holden Jones, a female horror director.

PLOT.

You know how girls love to scream.–Jeff.

A teenage girl has a slumber party with three of her friends. Unbeknownst to them a serial killer has escaped and now he is prowling her neighborhood looking for his next kill. And his weapon of choice is a drill. A large drill.

MY THOUGHTS.

We get twelve kills in this film. 11 are killed by Russ and the final kill is the death of Russ. The drill is the weapon for most kills. And yes, I get the symbology of the drill resembling a male phallic member. I just think it’s a cool weapon. Though I’m not sure if you can behead someone with it. The only kill that bothers me is the Coach’s. She shouldn’t have died. Val took too long picking a weapon. She first picks a circular saw that requires an electrical cord. And FINALLY she decides to take the machete. I don’t know about you, but I would have picked that first. If she would have come up early the Coach probably would have lived.

We’re here for the orgy.–Jackie.

Since this is an 80’s slasher movie there will be nudity. It’s fairly early on with the girls changing clothes and the obligatory shower scene. Though I read that it was a requirement for Amy Holden Jones to have some nudity because Roger Corman wanted it and he was financing it.

The characters and actors were pretty good for this genre. Thanks to Slumber Party Massacre we get the great Scream Queen, Brinke Stevens, in her first role. Other than that we get the mix of “nice” girl, **** girl, and the rest are somewhere in between.

The only complaint I had was (and it’s really minor), during the scene where the Coach is beating Russ on the back with a poker, you can see the poker shake like a rubber/fake prop. I know I shouldn’t mind it, but I stopped the movie and rewound it just to see if I actually saw it.

Slumber Party Massacre only took three weeks to film.

Amy Holden Jones caught a lot of flack for having nudity in the movie. A lot of critics and feminists expected no nudity in the movie since it was directed by a woman. Little did they know it was a requirement by Roger Corman in order to get financial backing.

If you want to see my other Slumber Party Massacre reviews, click here: Slumber Party Massacre Franchise.

Let’s get into the rankings:

Kills/Blood/Gore: 3.5/5.

Sex/Nudity: 3/5.

Scare factor: 2/5.

Enjoyment factor: 5/5.

My Rank: 3.375/5.

IMDB: 5.7/10.

Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 4.2/10 audience: 4.6/10.

Letterboxd: 3.