Review #310: Slumber Party Massacre (2021)

October 2024 Horror Origins Review #27- Slumber Party Massacre (2021)

[So, this is frustrating. When I started the month, this movie was available for free on Roku. It seems to have been taken down in the past couple weeks, and although Google says Sling TV still has it available for free streaming, whenever I try to watch it on there, it just plays the original Slumber Party Massacre instead. This movie appears to be available on Hulu as well as for rent on Amazon Prime and a few others, but it's frustrating that a free option seems to have been taken away and/or mixed up with the original.]

A remake/reboot of the 1982 film, Slumber Party Massacre is really kind of a marvel: it puts a big new twist on the original story while taking it in a completely new direction, but along the way pays homage to all of the previous entries without taking itself too seriously. I can't quite call it perfect (there's some issues I have with the story and the film as a whole has a different feel than the others that strips away some of the charm of the originals) but this is a genuinely fun, modernly campy film that I think is probably the best follow-up anyone could have made for this series. There's a twist in this movie about halfway through that I'm going to spoil (as it's kind of the general conceit of the film, and it would be difficult to talk about the story in any meaningful way without spoiling it) but rest assured, there's a lot more going on that I won't be spoiling.

Slumber Party Massacre starts off with an 11-minute-long cold open showing a group of 90s girls having a party at a cabin when the Driller Killer Russ Thorn shows up, kills all but one of them, and is knocked out, falls into a lake, and is left for dead. Fast forward eighteen years, and we're introduced to Dana, the daughter of Thorn's final intended victim, who is going out with some friends on vacation. On the way, they have car trouble, and end up having to spend the night at a cabin across the lake from where Thorn ended his rampage so many years earlier. It turns out Russ Thorn is not dead- and when he shows up and starts killing once again, the girls spring into action. Because, get this- the entire scenario was planned out by the girls ahead of time, in an attempt to lure Thorn out of hiding so they could take revenge on him for killing so many people back in the day. But will they be able to carry out their plan and punish this maniac, or will he turn the tables on them? (And is he the only threat lurking out in the dark?)

First, let me talk about the good. This movie is clearly very self-aware, and I can tell many measures were taken to correct a lot of the criticisms the previous films got. The earlier movies were (rightfully) criticized for being absurdly sexist and misogynistic, basically being shot and marketed as softcore pornography with the many female characters getting naked and then murdered, and the female characters rarely did anything but run around and die. In this movie, however, the female leads are all intelligent and capable, they work together, they plan in advance, and none of them get naked at any point. (Meanwhile, there are several airheaded male characters who are introduced purely to serve as eye candy and get killed off.) There are many sequences in this film that directly mirror sequences from earlier entries (as well as little background props and gags), and EVERY TIME it made me crack up. The director very clearly had a huge sense of humor and appreciation for the rest of the series, which really felt good to see after watching the previous three films in quick succession.

However, it wasn't all good. There were a few action-y sequences (a couple fights near the end, as well as a scene earlier on when the power goes out and one of the men gets killed) that really felt kind of lackluster, like they didn't have time or budget for good choreography so they just kind of had the actors wing something and they just used whatever they got on the first take. Also- and this is a pretty big thing, but how much of a problem it is will vary from person to person- I find it incredibly ridiculous that the protagonists basically performed a magic ritual to summon Russ Thorn (AND IT WORKED). It's one thing to just go out looking for a serial killer and hope to find him, but they faked a radiator leak, traveled to the lake where he struck last, and then went step-by-step through the party events that Dana's mom's friends went through nearly twenty years ago, and expected Russ Thorn to just magically show up to kill them as if he's a world boss in an MMORPG. I get that it's probably meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the cliches of slasher films but I wish it had been handled a little differently; it would have gone a long way to even just having the little sister ask, "Wait, why do you expect Thorn to show up? If he's even still alive, don't you think he'd have spent the last eighteen years getting as far away from here as possible?"

Also, it's hard to exactly put my finger on it, but this movie just has a different feel to it than the previous ones. Maybe it's the modern lighting or the fact that this is paced like a made-for-TV movie (which it is), or maybe it's the fact that the previous three movies all clearly took place in the California suburbs, and this movie is shot on a South African swamp. Whatever the reason, those three all had a very distinct valley-girl setting and aesthetic that this one lacks, which makes it feel like a distinctly different movie. I don't know for sure if it would have even been possible to make it feel exactly like the others but I'm pretty sure they could've gotten a bit closer than this.

But, let me assure you, this movie is a ton of fun, especially if you've seen the others. As I said, there's tons of little references and easter eggs you might not notice if viewing it on its own (like how the guitar one of the guys is playing is the same design as the guitar-drill from SPM2, or the sequence where Russ Thorn drills someone through a door then follows a blood trail to where they're hiding, like happened to Brinke Stevens' character in TSPM) so it really rewards you for having seen the rest. But even if you haven't, watching the guys have a topless wine and feather fight is hilarious and fun no matter what!

So while I think it ultimately missed the bullseye largely due to differences in production style from the earlier films, I think this movie has a ton of heart and was clearly made by people who loved and appreciated the rest of the series. This is definitely worth a watch if you can find a way to stream it.

Overall Rating: 9/10 Chekhov's Cookies

Nostalgic Rating: 10/10 Podcasts About Local Murders

Anachronisms: In the part of the movie that takes place in 1993, one of the characters refers to a Sam Goody gift card. Gift cards were not invented until 1994, and Sam Goody didn't sell them until several years after that. I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder!