Slumber Party Massacre III

My review was written in December 1990 after watching the movie on Concorde video cassette.

Third entry in this slasher film series eschews the role reversal aspects of Amy Jones' superior 1982 original to focus repetitively on a driller killer. Pic has played theatrically since September.

Debuting helmer Sally Mattison proves once again one doesn't have to be male to execute a sexist horror movie. Byu the final reel, when five full-bodied females are scurrying helplessly as the man wielding the phallic drill skewers them, even diehard genre fans will be groaning in dismay.

Poorly scripted by producer Catherine Cyrus, pic has almost no subtext to divert one's attention. After a beach volleyball intro, six young women (several played by older actresses) go to Keely Christian's house for a slumber party while her parents are away. Amon the boy and men who arrive to pester them, killer Ken (Brittain Frye) is a handsome nutcase with a drill, apparently deranged due to child abuse at the hands of his cop uncle.

Except for t&a interludes in which Maria Ford and voluptuous Lulu Wilson (or perhaps her body double)strip for the other girls and camera, pic consists of the women running around the house being killed. Gore is plentiful but unimaginative.

Worse yet, drill-as-phallus image dating back to the original's infamous 1982 poster is overemphasized: Ken is impotent but has his handy drill.

Christian does her best with the inevitable worm-turns central role but the rest of the cast is wasted. Technical support is meager.

This one is a lot better than the first one....it may not be up there with the greats, but it's worth seeing if ya wanna see girls running around in their bras and getting drilled to death! There should've been a special award given to this movie: Best Usage of a Drill! I haven't seen the 2nd one in the series...I plan to sometime...

Slumber Party Massacre III's gravest sin is that it lacks what made the first two special. It doesn't even attempt at subverting the conventions of what it is (the first one started as a satire and got trashier in production but stuck to enough of its original intent to be unique) or be really out-there in its badness (the second one, which may be one of the most entertaining rockabilly slasher neo- surrealist movies of 1987). All this is is exactly what you might expect, and yet it only puts in the minimal amount of effort possible in its run- time (ironically the longest of these movies).

Corman sold out with this one - not surprising he would do this of course, but at least this series, all helmed by women, had some teeth and, you know, *ideas* - and either didn't allow the filmmakers to get more creative or never hired anyone good in the first place. Its just a dumb, tired slasher with a final 20 minutes filled with such dumb and *mean* stuff (why do the girls stand by while that one kill happens that could have been stopped in the five real time minute lead up?)

It's only for genre completists, or those who might dig watching what is in effect everything that made Scream necessary, from its "twist" third act reveal (think you know who the killer is? F*** off, like I should care) to the inane conversations the characters have are meant to make them sound like real people and not types; its not really fun enough to be a guilty pleasure or something to put on at a party (like, again, the second one was), and its 350 grand budget feels as cheap as that sounds. Its also not a total crime or offensive (hey, it could be worse - imagine Eli Roth putting his taint all over this), but you could be doing better things with your time.

The Slumber Party Massacre series will never be known as one of the most life changing horror franchises of all time. They're mindless fun at best and Slumber Party Massacre III attempts to do something slightly different by keeping the gratuitous boob shots and gore, but taking away a lot of the fun.

The basic set up is typical slasher stuff with a group of girls hanging out on a beach and getting ready for a big sleepover at one of their parents' houses that night. They're semi-stalked by a creepy guy and, on the way back to the house, one of the friends is murdered. Obviously, once the party kicks off, a few boys show up to crash the party and check out the girls dancing in their underwear (and less) and the killer decides to crash it, too.

Unlike the first two films in the series, there's an element of whodunit mystery here. Could the killer be the aforementioned creepy beach guy with the ponytail? Perhaps the nosy neighbor across the street who spies on the girls with a telescope and seems really interested in checking out the house to see if he wants to buy it? Or maybe it's one of the goofy guys who have showed up to crash the party? This element does help it stick out from the other two films and keeps things pretty fun at first.

It's only once the killer is revealed that things take a slightly darker turn and it begins to feel more home invasion than slasher. If you're into that sort of thing, maybe you'll enjoy it, but I found it left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.

Hmm. What to say without having a "direct to video" bias. Well, on top of how incredibly cheesy(yet fun)Slumber Party Massacre III turned out to be, there is also a fairly lengthy cameo from busty F13 vixen Marta Kober, who played 'Sandra' in the second 'Friday the 13th' film. I could tell right away by her voice, and with a closer look I could tell the face, too. So that was cool.

Furthermore, aside from the highly predictable premise of the film, I actually appreciated the characters because, although they are two-dimensional, idiotic buffoons who have NO idea how to dance...or act, they still stood out enough so that I knew who was who when it came to 'driller-killer' time. It's also pretty violent in a few scenes.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend renting this title one night if you happen to find it at your local video store...and if you are a slasher fan then I would recommend buying it if you can find it for a decent price. And by decent I mean under four dollars.

5/10 is my vote. Better than I expected it to be.