Massacre à la perceuse

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 movie seemed like a completely separate film. I don't why, it just feels like it. Well, It's still a good slasher though! You have 6 beautiful women running around in their underwear with no way of protecting themselves. What more could you want? The killer turned out to be predictable. But I guess it's because I've seen too many slashers. This one had more T&A than the other two. Although I'm not complaining. It's still a good movie. 6 out of 10.

I love the first SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE partially for nostalgia value but mostly because it's a genuinely fun movie, so I figured I'd give a go at this one, ignoring warnings such as the 4 Star Joe Bob review on the front of the video box. I watched it with several friends, and I'll tell you what, we never had such a good time making fun of a brain-dead exploitation movie before. This one really does reach new depths of stupidity, and for that reason alone I adore it!

The plot is basically summed up in the title - Jackie (Keely Christian, whoever she is) throws one last sleepover party for her giggly high-school friends (who look no younger than 25), some dumb guys sneak over and try to scare them and a psycho killer shows up with his portable electric drill and starts laying into these idiots. Apparently the ladies in the house don't know how to open a door or window to escape, which becomes almost a running gag after awhile. They also hilariously fail to subdue the killer despite being given half a dozen chances to do some serious damage. The list of possible suspects is pretty ridiculous, especially the peeping tom next-door-neighbor, who spies on the girls dancing topless with his telescope, and "The Weirdo," a mute voyeuristic albino who earlier in the day was caught staring at the girls during their beach volleyball game.

There's one moment of sheer hilarity when the psycho surprises a guy at the door with his large, high-powered drill, sending a half-dozen lingerie-clad babes shuffling back and forth in front of the camera in a panic. Another highlight is Maria Ford's gratuitous bare-ass shot as she tries to escape up through the basement window but keeps falling. And we've all seen the standard electrocuted-in-bathtub death scene countless times before, scene, though instead of the usual hair dryer or radio being tossed in the tub, this time it's caused by a vibrator that one character plugs in and leaves sitting on the sink while she's taking a bath. A guy who gets his feet cut off with a chainsaw manages to crawl all the way back across town to the house in a matter of minutes. The acting (aside from the guy who plays the killer, who's awful) really isn't too bad for this type of film, some of the songs on the soundtrack are pretty good and if you like your movies trashy, bloody and silly, you'll find a lot to enjoy here. For sheer entertainment it gets a 7 out of 10 but playing by the rules of movie reviewing (i.e. quality), it's about a 3. I'll go ahead and give it a 4.

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.

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

This is the third and final installment in the series. It is better than part 2.

This one has dumb fellas who wanna close a glass window of the basement so that a killer doesn't enter. Why cudnt they jus close the door of the basement which connects the house.

It has a lil bit gore n nudity but absolutely no tension or suspense.

There is lousy scene where one girl keeps the killer busy, two other girls rather than taking advantage, stays in one corner just to scream later. They cud have run away or attack the killer.

So the conclusion is that part 1 is way much better than part 2 n 3.