The Sleepover

Woodsboro. Haddonfield. Crystal Lake. Fictional locations that have all shared the same, shameful burden; the serial killer. Luckily for us our own visitations to these cursed spots are limited to just a couple of hours; imagine having to grow up in a town with its very own knife wielding psychopath.

So goes the premise for The Sleepover. Coming from writer/director team Jennifer Raite and Chris Cullari, the flick shows a typical night in a town where the local serial killer is considered less an unstoppable force of nature and more like a minor irritant, albeit one that carries a machete. Cars have bumper stickers supporting Moms Against Serial Killers (MASK), sleepovers have a check list of rules to follow and babysitters are specialists in armed and unarmed combat.

Although not the scariest, The Sleepover is both smart and hilarious, effortlessly twisting the deeply ingrained tropes of the slasher movie genre. The film was made as a proof of concept, and won official selection at a host of festivals, including Fantastic Fest, Shriekfest, Seattle International Film Festival, Florida Film Festival, Vassar FilmFest and the Knoxville Horror Fest. Fingers crossed it eventually makes it to feature.

The Sleepover (2012) is one of those short films i have discovered on Youtube and yet it's still one of the interesting short films i have ever seen. Writer/Director Jennifer Raite and Chris Cullari did a great job on this horror short film and the child actor is definitly good at the same time and despite there's a a few mild language where this one kid says the 'Bull' word and mentioning the word "Boobs". Plus this town Derry in this short film is a reference to Derry in Stephen King's Novel "It". If your really into Horror short films, as well as Coming of Age Horror Movies like It, the Craft, Ginger Snaps, Sleepaway Camp, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and the Lost Boys (1987). This Horror short film is worth watching since it's on Vimeo and perfect to watch around Halloween and no surprise this short won the Shriekfest Award for Best Super Short Film!

The Sleepover starts like most horror flicks nowadays and doesn't do anything particularly interesting, especially since it's entirely based around a recycled fairytale (the Boogie Monster). But where The Sleepover goes right is it's suspense, sudden rises in action and a unique and effective soundtrack. There were a few jokes thrown in there and honestly I don't know if I would've preferred this as a comedy/horror or just a straight horror, part of me wishes it didn't end the way it did, but you'll have to watch for yourself to understand what I'm saying.

But since the idea was to make it a comedy/horror, it's actually a very lighthearted, somewhat creepy and well put-together flick. The acting of Josh Feldman and Gus Kamp (the boys) was stop-and-go, while most lines were delivered effectively, some just didn't match up with the correct emotion and it was somewhat off-putting. I would've liked the first bit of action to be more sudden even though I dislike jumpscares, but the timing seemed off to me. But aside from a few small setbacks, The Sleepover is a quality horror/comedy short film worth 6 minutes of your life.