User reviews

So much of this movie is just cringe bad attempts at college humour, but then it goes all exorcist with possession and murder galore. I kept expecting a twist ala the opening twists, but nope, it plays it straight and ends up being ok.

(** out of *****)

It's another sorority pledge/killer-in-the-house flick, with three pretty sorority babes and all their friends getting butchered at an April Fool's Day costume party by the vengeful spirit of a reincarnated fraternity pledge. Only, none of this really gets going until the last half hour -- for most of the movie, we're treated with long, dumb scenes of typical fraternity/sorority hijinks, pranks and shenanigans (I wish my college experience had been half as fun as this movie makes it look.) Also, I docked this movie half a star for the obnoxious and totally unnecessary double-fake-out beginning (a movie inside of a stupid, "Thriller"-like music video inside of a movie). Finally, we get to the haunted house, where the resurrected killer walks around in a deep-sea diver suit and uses such diverse tools of the slasher trade as a hammer, a trident, and a guillotine. In the climax, one of the girls gets possessed and starts snarling and slobbering and crawling around on chandeliers and ceilings (not an altogether unimpressive performance, actually.) There's minimal nudity and all of the violence is off-screen. Paul Bartel makes one of his typical B-movie cameos as an uptight college professor, and the three main girls are played by Elaine Wilkes, Sherry Willis-Burch, and Joanna Johnson. Also with Martin Hewitt, Alicia Fleer and Ralph Seymour (from "Fletch"). The theme song played over the opening and closing credits (the chorus goes, `These are the best times of our life, these are the best times. ... ') sounds like a generic ‘80s song, but hearing it after most of the cast gets wiped out was amusing in a (most likely unintentional) ironic sort of way.

HIGHLIGHT: Johnson's performance as the drooling, wall-climbing, possessed college cutie, Jennifer, is the film's highlight. She's no Linda Blair, but, for this kind of derivative, low-budget trash, she's not half bad.

Vivia, Jennifer, and Phoebe are best friends who decide to join a sorority. The sorority is near a boarded-up former frat house where a killer roams. Guys release a jar of bees to drive naked sorority girls out of the hot tub and film them running around naked. The pledges are required to say "I myself prefer a big fat cucumber" which gets them kicked out of Professor Zito's class. Weirdo Martin starts hanging out with the girls. During initiation, Vivia plays a prank on everybody. All three are accepted into the sorority mainly so that Vivia can set up the coming April Fool's party in the old frat house.

The movie starts with two fake-outs and the low grade horror begins. It does some T&A. The horror is horribly slow. Sometimes, I wonder if this is meant to be camp especially with Paul Bartel in the movie. It's definitely not funny with its jokes. It takes awhile but it finally becomes a-killer-in-the-house movie. Even then, it's badly done. None of it is good.

Not sure how things worked in the 80's, but I was in a fraternity in the 90's. If we had a bad relationship with a sorority, we'd give them an opportunity to get their philanthropy hours in and do all the heavy lifting - we'd follow it up with a cook out and beer. The bee / voyeurism scene would've gotten people kicked off campus. It's kind of an unintentional theme throughout this movie; attempts at portraying normal frat rat shenanigans come off as creepy and uncomfortable - we had a Martin type at our school and he didn't make it the full four years.

All that being said, the three female leads (only one of whom has an IMDB pic) are actually pretty good actors. I don't need that to enjoy a slasher movie, but it holds this one together for the most part. I totally bought their portrayal of goofy, ambitious college girls.

The kills are pretty average, but it's not offensively boring like Popcorn or Killer Workout. If you're going down the rabbit hole, might as well add this one to the list.

"Killer Party" opens like no other horror/slasher movie ever. It's a good 9 minutes before the actual movie begins. The opening 9 minutes pull the rug out from under the viewer not once, but twice! These two opening segments did a fun job of jumping on the clichés of the time. Gotcha scares, drive-ins, and hair rock music videos routinely seen on MTV. It is an absolute blast. The actual movie tells the tale of three young women pledging to a sorority on campus. They have to go through the usual pledge/hazing shenanigans. Unfortunately, a party is to be held in an abandoned frat house, where a pledge was accidentally killed years before. It appears this pledge does not rest in peace, and the party-goers are about to find out the hard way.

"Killer Party" is a horror movie with a sense of humor. Not only the humor that is in the movie in itself, but the fact that the film knows what kind of movie it is, and has fun with it. The movie just has a sense of fun all around it. Great locations, 80s nostalgia in your face, and just enough eerie atmosphere here and there. It does slow down in some spots, but it isn't a concern. However, for a slasher/horror movie, the death scenes are relatively tame, and not all of them do we see for long or, in some cases, at all. No matter. The movie was written as a fun horror movie, and that's what we get. A horror movie with humor, standard slasher conventions, a taste of the supernatural, a dash of college hazing hi-jinks, and it's own music video! "Killer Party" really does seem to be the "Everything and the kitchen sink" horror movie.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

College students throw a party in an old frat house, only to have someone start killing off everybody and raising demons (?!)

Canadian 'horror' drivel is one mess of a movie. The movie opens with a weird prologue that has nothing to do with the rest of the film and even when we reach our 'feature' story it's a bit of a train wreck. Killer Party is a movie that suffers from a real lack of seriousness. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy campy horror movies, but in this case it's all a bit too ridiculous. Even as the movie tries desperately for a terrifying climax, it comes off as completely laughable. The movies theme song 'Best Times of our Lives' is memorable though.

Those who enjoy silly 80's schlock might have a good time with this one, but all in all Killer Party is totally inept as a horror film.

BOMB out of ****

Attempting to pledge a sorority, a group of friends decides to join the other sorority members in transforming a nearby deserted house into an April Fools gag house, and when a mysterious killer shows up the dwindling survivors fight back against the deadly intruder.

This here was one of the best examples of the cheesy slasher. What makes this one so much fun is the fact that this one absolutely revels in that atmosphere as there's a real abundance of it that just permeates the whole film. This one does it from the very beginning, hardly making its intentions subtle with the film-within-the-film opening and the ensuing dance number over the opening credits, although the fraternity members are also responsible for some more of this, as they continue to prank out the sorority throughout the beginning to some really funny moments. The sequence at the staff meeting starts out hilarious and soon becomes even more so, and from the boys' opening prank to their hazing ritual and then onto the house pranks themselves all the way to the general atmosphere and tone this is barely a dent in the film's cheesiness. When it's not being funny, there are some good slasher moments as well including the early stalking in the sorority, the professor's shocking encounter in the basement and the way that just about all the deaths occur during the party allows it to just be over-the-top fun. There's just a ton of action in that scene, as the killer gets going and seems to kill someone every five minutes and that just makes it seem all the more fast-paced as just about the entire cast is knocked off in rapid fashion and the great stalking and supernatural destruction throughout make it really exciting. The killer's costume itself is quite imposing, with the whole body hidden behind an ancient diving suit that is big and bulky, giving it the perfect creepy appearance. The best plus, though, is it's undeniably cheesy charm since there are a few problems with this one that comes up. The most glaring flaw here is the aforementioned cheesiness. While this is one of the film's best virtue, the fact that so much of it is quite silly does present it with some problems. The first is that the film jumps around in tone quite often and becomes a little disorienting at times. Another thing is that it stops the film cold to include these inserts and disrupt the flow of the film even more so. Though it produces one of the funniest gags, the staff meeting didn't need to be there, nor did the fraternity's adventures with the sorority. These just stop the film to include them and don't really contribute anything beyond some laughs, and could easily have been snipped. As well, the film features practically zero blood or gore and all of the kills are just bland and bloodless or carried out off-screen only to stumble upon them later which does take a lot of the sting out of the situation. The other big problem is that the ending is a little confusing. There's way too much happening and it becomes a little disorienting when it switches over to something else quite rapidly. Those are the film's real problems.

Rated R: Language, Violence, Nudity and drug use.

"Killer Party" could have been right there with the best 80s horrors made during that wonderful decade.

Sadly it ends up being as mediocre as a horror/slasher can be, thanks to the MPAA making the filmmakers cut and slash the film to pieces. All of the deaths are instantly cut away from, and come too quickly after the previous one. The tempo and story suffer greatly because of this.

The actors and atmosphere are fine, but the movie starts out kind of slow, and then because of all the cuts, once things get going, the movie ends quite quickly. Sad, because "Killer Party" could have been special in the horror genre.

I thoroughly enjoyed this 1986 creepy camp classic that in my humble view is a Canadian Cult classic. No, it is not a horror film in the real sense of the horror genre, nor is it a comedy. What I will say is that this fraternity is one that people figuratively and literally "die for!"

If I were to compare it to the 1978 comedy fraternity phenom of Animal House, I actually enjoyed Killer Party much more because it does not rely solely on gross humor to satisfy its college and younger audience. Killer Party provides an abundance of camp, comedy, a little bit of horror, a little bit of suspense and a lot of mystery as to who is actually killing off the school faculty members and the frat boys and girls?

Since this film was released more than 30 years ago and I just watched it, I must say that it holds up very well and should be considered a five (5) C which stands for Canadian, Campy, Creepy, Cult, Classic!

I give Killer Party an entertaining 8 out of 10 rating!

"Killer Party" is another one of those eighties sorority horror films, but it isn't completely like the others. It doesn't rely much on female nudity or gore, but more on cheap laughs. The opening sequence is one of the best of any eighties horror; first, we have a bizarre scene of a woman getting stuck in a coffin with her mother and then getting cremated with her. It turns out that it's just a movie being watched at a drive in by a teenage couple. The boy wants to take the next step, of course, so the girl says she wants popcorn and heads to the concession stand. We soon find out that this is just a music video by the band White Sister.

We are then introduced to three college students named Phoebe, Jennifer and Vivia. They are trying to join the sorority and just participate in the usual unusual activities that come with joining a sorority. Weird things start happening in the sorority house.

This film is clever but still lacks something that makes it stand out among the countless other sorority horror films of it's day. The three lead actresses: Elaine Wilkes, Joanna Johnson and Sherry Willis Burch are good, and so is Ralph Seymour as a nerd named Martin. The audience may also remember actor Martin Hewitt from the 1981 classic "Endless Love". I enjoyed this movie. Sure it's mindless entertainment, but it's entertainment nonetheless.

"Killer Party" is a pretty dumb and righteously forgotten mid-80's horror-comedy that only gets funny when it's meant to look serious and vice versa. That's quite painful already, and it gets gradually worse with bad acting and total lack of gore or inventive gimmicks. After not one, but TWO (not even counting the super cheesy music video) misleading opening sequences, we're introduced to three cheerful girl friends that desperately want to be part of a prominent campus sorority of which the name has already slipped my mind. They're accepted, but only because one of them – Vivia – is a master in pulling April fool's pranks. The girls are referred to as "goats" (quite appropriately) and they're assigned to freak out the boys of a frat club during a party held at a haunted frat house. What follows next is a series of lame red herrings disguised as fraternity pranks and a handful of bloodless killings, supposedly committed by a student who died in the house 20 years ago. Is it all a set-up? Will the girls ever bath naked in the hot tub again? Do we honestly even care?? With the exception of lead actress Elaine Wilkes' portrayal of Phoebe, all the characters are completely insufferable and their deaths nearly weren't painful enough in my opinion. "Killer Party" is boring up until the last fifteen minutes, then it gets over-the-top campy and totally implausible. Not even the spirited guest appearance of Paul Bartel ("Eating Raoul", "Death Race 2000") as the grumpy teacher can save this movie from being an utter mess. Check out "April Fool's Day", instead.

This is a movie people will either love or hate. I have an infinity for 80's and some 90's horror. I think they are the building blocks of what people consider horror today.

Which there hasn't been in good horror flicks in a long time, if you don't count Insidious or The Conjuring. Even then those did not make the hair on my body raise.

But Killer Party did back when I was a kid. Not so much the atmosphere did but it was the character of Jennifer that did. What she did was give me nightmares at eight years old.

The three friends are easily the best characters and actors in the movie if you don't count Martin, who is the comic relief.

If anything watch for Jennifer and Martin.

It's a story you've probably heard somewhere else but what makes it different is how the story is set up. I just wish that there had been more background info on the evil itself.

I liked how the movie ended but there is no second party because the movie flopped. So there's no resolution. It's an open ended ending.

I did find out that there was suppose to more gore and scenes but had to re-edited and filmed due to the MPAA rating.

Give it a try if you like campy fun with a little hair raising.

Imagine a cross between Animal House and The Exorcist but without humour or horror and you have 'Killer Party'. Even the beginning start as some bad rock music rip off of Thriller. The acting, script and direction are awful, although you might recognise the bearded teacher played by Paul Bartel. This is one of those movies you have to watch because it's so bad.

Sorority hazing gets interrupted by pranks, horny boys, a serial killer, and assorted gruesome shenanigans. The movie delivers on what it obviously is offering but nothing more, so aficionados of splatter-fests or fans of clever camp may be disappointed. At least it didn't take itself too seriously - it is what it is and it knows it. Thoughtfully, the obligatory skin-scene is early-on, sparing single-minded viewers the need for fast-forwarding.

This is a typical 80's cheese horror slasher. Bad acting (but really unintentionally funny at times), unbearably horrible 80's custom made pop type music, some nudity (but really a bare minimum in this case) but unfortunately in this case, no gore and this one would've vastly benefited from it. Over-all, its not good but it did manage to get a few laughs out of me (the main character in the last third of the movie gives a performance that would make anyone laugh even dough that wasn't the intention). So if you're looking for legit horror, you should give this one a pass but if you're in the mood for an unintentionally funny cheesy typical 80's B horror. This could do it.

Killer Party goes from zombie movie to music video to slasher to ghost story to possession film to frat comedy so many times during its runtime that you might want to wear one of those airplane pillows to prevent whiplash, but it balances all these genres and subgenres better than any film should be able to and it's never dull. It keeps things moving fast enough so you don't have a lot of time to think about how a lot of it doesn't make much sense.

"Killer Party" is a cut - or should that be a slash - above the average slasher movie. It is surprisingly well shot, and seems to have a pretty decent budget that was able to handle multiple locations, and convincingly represent college life.

The actors are also better than you'd expect, particularly the guy who plays the shy, nerdy college student - Martin - who for once isn't just a stereotype but feels like a believable person, and the Shakespearean professor.

However, I realised early on that I had already seen "Killer Party", and forgotten about it. What jogged my memory was the scene where one of the sorority pledges has to say "I prefer a nice fat juicy cucumber" in response to a question asked her in class, and the scene where the professor dismisses his class early and only Martin stays.

So unfortunately the movie isn't very memorable, in spite of its distinguished production. I'd say the screenplay needed some work.

Killer Party seems a bit confused. Is it a frat boy/sorority girl comedy a la Revenge of the Nerds? A demonic possession film? A zombie film? A slasher movie? A ghost movie? A White Sister music video? Turns out, it's all of those things.

Some will tell you that a a movie which mixes so many genres and subgenres can only lead to trouble and confusion, but in Killer Party's case, it only leads to fun. Sure, the tone is a tad wonky, but the performances aren't too bad and the pace is pretty tight and fun.

If Killer Party had anything going against it, it's that all the death scenes appear to have been brutally edited for TV (in fact, I first saw this one TV years ago and they barely had to cut anything out). At the same time, this gives the film a safe, comfortable quality that makes rewatches a treat. It's one of those movies you can watch multiple times.

'Killer Party' is a unique entry in the 80's slasher genre, which is evident in the opening 10 minutes, which in itself is rather cleaver and fun way to open a movie and starts everything off on the right foot and the fun continues the likable characters and tone that plays like a teen comedy part of the time, before the slasher/supernatural elements really kicks in.

The slasher genre was starting to die down by this point, but this was like a breath of fresh air. You can tell the writer Barney Cohen was going for a more horror/comedy hybrid with this flick and although the movie does have some genuine funny moments, the horror elements are taken seriously which is much appreciated.

The direction by William Fruet is solid he creates a full on 80's aesthetic with vibrant colours which leaps out at you with every frame and it's glorious, the soundtrack is really cool also with some nice catchy tunes. But what stops this from being a true classic is the severely edited gore, which wasn't the filmmakers fault by any means, but having almost all of the violence removed does lessen the final act which could have been even more epic than it was.

Overall 'Killer Party' is still a fun ride and a lot more unique than most 80's slashers with a great cast and an interesting concept.

I remember seeing the tape of this movie in my lokal videostore, back in the early nineties. I never got myself to rent it, somehow the cover didn't appeal to me. Yesterday, more than 30 years after it's innitial release I decided to give it a go, concidering the fact there was nothing on tv. Boy, was I glad I never spent a buck on this thing. The biggest problem with this film is the fact it's neither funny nor scary. he first hour is especially boring,and looked like one of those very unfunny 80's comedies. There were maybe one or two jokes I found mildly amusing, but otherwise it was a borefest. Then (after a wait of more(!) than one hour), the killing finally starts. Not that this made the film better, because most of the cast gets killed in about one minute and at such an amazing pace that you don't even have time to blink. It was like the director thought "Oh I forgot, we're shooting a horror comedy let's kill some people." The kill scenes for that matter are bad. All happen offscreen and there is virtually no gore. Technically the film is not bad, and some of the actors are doing a decent job, considering a plot so thin you can see through it. Hardcore 80s horror fans (like me) will not like this too much, but I guess completists will have it anyway.