Death Party

Shudder's latest entry is a lackluster mix of 90s slasher cliches. Although it has some good ideas as well as some creepy moments. It's a little dragged out with one note characters and performances. In fact the best thing about it is the stylish way it's shot. It's plot is simple as a group of friends do something naughty and pay for it a year later. I wish I could say something solid about it but its just not great, it is however not awful just overly mediocre.

5/10

A fun vacation for a group of teenage friends to an island resort in Croatia turns into a nightmare when they are targeted by a masked murderer who refuses to forget what they did last summer in director Dominick Hartl's meta-slasher, a throwback to Wes Craven's Scream and the glut of self aware horror movies that followed in its wake. This movie offers a fresh spin on things, incorporating modern trappings such as social media and apps into the plot which will appeal to today's tech savvy teens, and was filmed on location during a huge annual EDM festival for high school seniors throughout Europe. Thomas W. Kiennast's paradise nightclub cinematography also gives it glossy look that makes the movie feel like an American movie rather than a European one.

Hundreds of European teens spend summer break partying on a small Croatian island, including a group of friends and classmates from am Austrian school, who are hunted down by a mysterious killer. Since the invention of cellphones you have to be quite creative to make a slasher film. This is where I have a problem with this movie, there were a few instances when the victims could have easily called or texted for help yet the reason for not doing so were quite lame . The movie was also a bit too talky. Yet, I think it was not that bad as there are dozens of horrible modern slashers out there, this one was engaging, with creative kills and not too bad acting!

You know that feeling, when you're trying to really like a movie, especially in order to encourage foreign cinema, but whatever you do, it's just not working out? Well, Party Hard Die Young is the perfect example of such a situation, because it goes by the book, a book written many decades ago, and it sticks to it page by page without any courage whatsoever in order to show some originality.

After minute 25 it was easy to anticipate exactly what was going to happen, and I got that right by the letter, something that others will do the same for sure, especially if they are horror fans. Anyway, the acting wasn't bad, the dialogue could have been improved, but the execution, the reveal, all of these were elements I've seen too many times before.

It is rather hard to recommend Party Hard Die Young because it is a weak versions of far better movies, so I do believe you could look elsewhere and find something more entertaining. You could even try Cut Off 2018, that one manages to deliver some mystery and tension to it.

Cheers!

So hard for my attention to keep up with a Foreign subtitled film but this was pretty good for what it was! As always a bunch of dumb people making mistakes being clumsy and partying around an unknown killer -- not bad though. The kills were sufficient and disturbingly awesome; Shudder has a bunch of hit or misses this is at least above average.