Slumber Party Massacre

The days of big-breasted, scantily clad scream queens are over. This being 2021, bimbos are no longer acceptable, but himbos are apparently still fair game: the only nudity in Slumber Party Massacre '21 is from a load of buff guys (this includes a shirtless pillow fight and, yes, a shower scene!), while the clever, tough and resourceful characters are all female. It's not so much gender equality as it is total gender reversal. Thankfully, it's all knowingly daft and obviously tongue-in-cheek, director Danishka Esterhazy having fun tipping the scales in favour of the fairer sex (two of the male characters are so disposable they are called Guy 1 and Guy 2).

The film sees pals Dana (Hannah Gonera), Maeve (Frances Sholto-Douglas), Breanie (Alex McGregor) and Ashley (Reze-Tiana Wessels) celebrating graduation by hiring a cabin for a weekend of partying; crashing the fun is Alix (Mila Rayne), younger sister of one of the girls (can't recall which one). However, while driving to the retreat, the girls experience car trouble and have to spend the night at an old lakeside house, not far from where four girls were murdered back in '93 by drill-wielding psycho Russ Thorn (Rob van Vuuren). No sooner have the girls slipped into their PJs than up pops Russ, oversized phallic drill in hand; what he doesn't realise is that the girls have come prepared...

Esterhazy piles on the gore, with a quite a few graphic kills, but never takes things seriously enough to make it truly horrifying. The result is relatively entertaining inconsequential nonsense that requires little thought from the viewer and, as such, should appeal to most fans of the original movie (except the ones hoping for boobs); it certainly entertained me more than the big slasher movie of the year, Halloween Kills, which failed on so many levels.

..that tries a little to hard to with wink wink nudge nudge. A little more subtlety woud have helped. Overall I enjoyed this one and had a little giggle here and there. If you know your horror tropes and like them to be a little bit twisted around here and there while, you as the viewer, aswell as the film makers, are aware of the fact that it's done for fun, give this one a go. Just don't expect a serious Horror flick, this isn't one.

It's 1993. Four girls are having a slumber party in a cabin. Chad is Trish's jealous ex. All of them are attacked by the drill-welding killer, Russ Thorne. Trish is the sole survivor. It's present day. Dana leaves her overprotective mother and joins her friends on a girls weekend. Their car breaks down and they end up back to where the attack originally occurred.

It starts as a standard exploitation horror with a bit of comedy but it gets annoying as the standard becomes predictable. Then comes the shocking twist. It turns the whole movie upside down. I love the idea but not always the execution. It's jumping over the fine line to make fun of the original movies. Maybe a bit of subtlety would be more compelling. For example, Guy 1 and Guy 2 could simply be Chad 1 and Chad 2. It's possible to have two Chads in the same friends group. By doing the two Guys, the movie stops existing in the real world. This world isn't that real to begin with. Finally, there is the last act. The girls are being too girlie. There is something obvious. It keeps going on and on. It's better to cut it short. All in all, this is more imaginative and better made than the original.

A bunch of teenage girls go on vacation at the spot where another bunch of teenage girls were killed by driller killer, Russ Thorne, in the 90's and discover that he's still out there, looking for fresh blood to spill.

Though billed as a reboot, Slumber Party Massacre could just as easily be another sequel in the original franchise. Director Danishka Esterhazy paces the film well with a good amount of comedy and horror. The script has a few twists and surprises up its sleeve and turns the tables where they needed to be.

This remake has got some great gore/makeup effects and plenty of references to the original and while it does sometimes cross the line from self-aware to straight parody, it does enough to be successful. The story is pretty solid and the acting/writing is what you'd expect from a modern remake of an exploitation movie. Overall much better than I thought it would be. You should avoid it if you are sensitive flake who can't handle jokes about masculinity.