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.

When I sat down to watch the 2021 remake of the 1982 "The Slumber Party Massacre", I must admit that my expectations weren't high for director Danishka Esterhazy's movie. Why? Well, simply put, because this seemed to be yet another unnecessary remake from the well of inspiration that is running dry in Hollywood.

However, I got the opportunity to watch "Slumber Party Massacre" and being a horror fan, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

And while this 2021 remake was watchable, it was by no means a grand horror experience. And as I had anticipated and feared, then it was utterly and completely another unnecessary remake, much akin to the likes of the "Poltergeist", "Evil Dead" and "Pet Sematary" remakes, to mention but a few pointless horror remakes. So if you enjoyed the original 1982 slasher movie from Roger Corman, then you might as well just skip on this 2021 version.

If you are a newcomer to the franchise, then sure, I suppose there is some enjoyment to be found in the 2021 "Slumber Party Massacre" from writer Suzanne Kelly.

For an avid horror fan such as myself, then this 2021 movie was a walk in the park. There was nothing scary about the movie, actually, unless you consider the strange way that Russ Thorn held his head tilted and stared with widely opened eyes. It was something that made me laugh every time I saw it.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate, taking into consideration the concept of the movie and the fact that it is a slasher flick.

As for the murder scenes in "Slumber Party Massacre", which is what the audience wants in slasher flicks, then they were actually adequate enough. Not really impressive or memorable, but watchable and fair enough.

The 2021 "Slumber Party Massacre" was a swing and a miss, and it is not a movie that I will ever be returning to watch a second time, believe you me.

My rating of "Slumber Party Massacre" lands on a generous but less than mediocre four out of ten stars.

...but this isn't the property to do with it. I had spoken to the producers during production, and they insisted they were being faithful to the source material. They weren't. They still could have subverted it the same way, but for some of these films, the over-the-top misogyny is the artistic point. I hate that many will break this review down to "there's no boobs so I don't like it", but hopefully this will ring true to at least a select few.

Again, I really *do* respect what they were *trying* to do.... I just don't think they quite stuck it with the landing. Feminism needn't exclude the female body entirely. Particularly with chests, a re-evaluation of the double-standard is necessary. I just feel like trying to subvert it *AND* shielding female chests is actually a step in the wrong direction. They could have embraced both, all while supporting the #FreeTheNipple movement.

Still, a fun enough watch. "They are out-slumber partying us!" Has it's moments.

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.

..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.