Pool Party Massacre

In swanky suburban Las Vegas, a group of girls have a pool party and a couple of dudes show up. Unfortunately a mysterious slayer, who uses various yard tools to do his gruesome work, puts the kibosh on the proceedings.

"Pool Party Massacre" (2017) is a micro-budget Indie that only cost around $7000 and it's amazing that a fairly entertaining slasher can be made for that low amount. To keep the costs down, the writer/director shot it at his impressive abode in the suburbs of Las Vegas.

The acting of the no-name actors isn't bad considering what they got paid, as long as you don't mind campiness and the fact that their characters are all unlikable, except one. Their lines are delivered in a rat-a-tat-tat manner, as if they were reading from a teleprompter, yet I was impressed with the work that was put into the wordy script even though the characters are disagreeable which, let's face it, was intentional.

Speaking of which, the writer/director satirizes the slasher formula and includes all the main staples. In the female department curvy Alexis Adams as blonde Tiffany is the most attractive, but Margaux Némé as Latino Nancy wins the day in all-around beauty. The movie scores pretty well on this front.

While the one-dimensional setting, low-budget vibe and distasteful characters/antics limit the flick and lower my grade, it moves right along and has quality kills/gore if that's your thang. I was also pleased with the proverbial final girl.

The movie runs 1 hour, 21 minutes, and was shot in Las Vegas.

GRADE: C- (but compared to other spare change slashers that cost around the same amount, it rates much higher)

"Worst pool party ever!" When her wealthy parents go away redhead Blair invites her equally spoilt socialite girlfriends around to her nice house for afternoon drinks by the pool but a couple of uninvited guys turn up, as does a maniac intent on spoiling the fun. Very low budget horror comedy that is also an homage to 1980's slasher movies, for example the opening credits feature some very 80's looking computer graphics and the soundtrack has synth music that was commonly used back then. When I bought this on DVD I was hardly expecting to see a great film and the reality is that it isn't good, but likewise it isn't terrible either. By far the best thing are the kills, the unknown killer uses different tools (axe, saw, claw hammer, electrical drill, etc) for each victim. They are gory, plentiful and inventive (and thankfully not CGI). Much of the acting is terrible though I did like Kristin Noel McKusik as Blair. One of the uninvited guys is a bloke with a receding hairline, moustache and looks like he's 30 odd, he is present for "comedy" value but his constant talk of sex and masturbation soon becomes tiresome. The identity of both the killer and the obligatory Final Girl are very obvious though there is a twist. The film is set during the summer but was actually shot during apparently freezing winter weather in Nevada, credit to the them as I'd have never have know this had I not watched the extras (which are more entertaining than the movie itself!). The cover promises hot girls (check) and nudity, there is some of the latter but I had hoped for more. The party in the title isn't exactly what I'd call a party, just a few drinks by the pool, corpses can be seen blinking and breathing, and the film crew are reflected in glass at least once. Drew Marvick, who wrote and directed the movie, has an obvious passion for the horror genre and as a fellow horror fan I can only commend him for making this film. The movie could have been better but I expect that I will watch it again in the future and am happy with my purchase.

Pool Party Massacre (2017)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Throwback to the 80's slasher film takes place at a rich girl's parents house. The rich girl is throwing a party for her rich friends and pretty soon they're being knocked off my an unknown person who is using various tools from the garage.

POOL PARTY MASSACRE is a throwback to an era where it was cool to have "Massacre" in your title. The entire film from writer-director Drew Marvick is a throwback to the days when dumb characters did dumb things and often paid for it with their lives. As was the case with many of those films, this one here plays up the mystery angle as we're given a few suspects but we have to wait until the end for the result.

Unlike a lot of the slashers from the 80's, this one here goes a bit over-the-top when it comes to the humor. The film has some funny and campy moments and there's no doubt that the film is giving a wink to the viewers who are fans of the films it's inspired by. With that said, I think the film tried to be a bit too clever and a bit too "ha ha" for its own good. The girls at the party are played up as very annoying valley girls and they are a bit too annoying.

With that said, the film has a lot to offer and where it really succeeds are with the death scenes. As I stated, there are a variety of tools used for the murders and thankfully not everything is CGI. There are some practical effects and it was nice seeing actual fake blood. There's nothing more annoying than seeing a bunch of CGI blood and thankfully we've got the real stuff here. The death scenes are creative and fun even though they're certainly not in the same league as a Tom Savini.

POOL PARTY MASSACRE is a film that works for what it is. It's not a masterpiece or even an overly good film but as far as a spoof goes, it's pretty darn entertaining.

A spoiled rich girl throws a pool party for her equally spoiled friends once her parents are away and they're killed one by one with a variety of sharp tools in between scenes of charmless, shrill complaining.

Pool Party Massacre is well made and well intentioned and is at least smart enough to not let its threadbare plot drag past the 80 minute mark, but the characters we're stuck with are some of the whiniest and most shrill people you'll ever spend time with. There's not a redeemable one in the bunch and you'll be twiddling your fingers, waiting for them to get killed.

If you're just in it for the nudity and gore, you're in luck, because Pool Party Massacre does supply more than its fair share of that.

There's nothing groundbreaking here-- girl throws a pool party, uninvited guys show up, and people start dying. The kills are fun and the movie is cheesy in that special camp sort of way you want it to be.

My biggest problem with the movie is after people start dying, you expect someone to eventually notice and the remaining people have to react. That doesn't really happen until the last 10 minutes with the final girl in this movie. One-by-one each character finds a reason to go off alone and the killer picks them off. It's fun at first, but by about the half way point it's just killing characters you already don't care about.

When it gets to the last few remaining characters, you really just want it to be over. The kills are cheap and fun but it begins to wear thin by the end and the characters aren't nearly enough to carry the movie all the way through.