Slumber Party Massacre II

Slumber Party Massacre II
Promotional poster
Directed by	Deborah Brock
Produced by	Roger Corman Deborah Brock Don Daniel
Written by	Deborah Brock
Starring	Crystal Bernard Patrick Lowe Kimberly McArthur Juliette Cummins Heidi Kozak Joel Hoffman Scott Westmoreland Atanas Ilitch
Music by	Richard Cox
Cinematography	Thomas L. Callaway
Edited by	William Flicker
Distributed by	New Concorde
Release date	October 16, 1987 (1987-10-16)[1]
Running time	75 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$500,000[1]
Box office	$1.3 million

Slumber Party Massacre II is a 1987 American slasher film directed by Deborah Brock, produced by Roger Corman, and starring Crystal Bernard. As a loosely-based sequel to The Slumber Party Massacre, the film follows an adult Courtney, from the first film, as she and her friends in a rock band are attacked by a supernatural killer with a power-drilled guitar.

Plot

Courtney Bates, who survived the events of the first film as an adolescent, is now a senior in high school who is plagued by night terrors stemming from the event. In her nightmares, she is recurrently confronted by the killer, now reincarnated as a greaser armed with a guitar fashioned with a massive drill bit on the neck. At school, Courtney takes a liking to her classmate, Matt, and invites him to spend her birthday weekend with her and her friends, Amy, Sheila, and Sally. They plan to stay at a condominium in an undeveloped complex outside town where the girls, who have their own band, can practice music.

Upon arriving, the girls' classmates Jeff and T.J. arrive at the house and spy on the girls as they have a pillow fight before entering the house through an unlocked door and frightening them. That night, Courtney has a dream in which the killer murders Valerie while she sleeps beside her. In the morning, she inexplicably awakens on the kitchen floor. Throughout the day, her visions grow increasingly violent, but she is comforted when Matt arrives at the condominium. After Courtney has a grotesque vision of Sally's head bursting open, Sally disappears and the group are unable to find her. Matt calls the police, who are angry when Sally returns to the house, having left to go to the store.

The group leave to get dinner in town, leaving Courtney and Matt alone. Trying to comfort her, Matt surprises Courtney with a birthday cake, and the two begin to have sex, but are interrupted by the killer, who impales Matt through the chest with his drill. He chases her downstairs, where he confronts the group who have just returned. They attempt to dial 911, but the phone is destroyed when the killer impales Sally with the drill, which breaches the wall and shatters the wall receiver. The group disperses in the chaos, with Sheila fleeing alongside T.J., whose leg has been injured. Courtney, Amy, and Jeff leave in his car, but Jeff is impaled by the killer hiding in the backseat. Courtney and Amy return to the house, barricading themselves in a bedroom. They attempt to call police, but the operator believes it to be a prank based on the earlier house call.

Meanwhile, Sheila and T.J. run to a nearby house for help, but are confronted by the killer, who eviscerates T.J. Sheila manages to return to the condominium and stumbles upstairs. The killer appears downstairs, where he dances and sings an original musical number which echoes throughout the house. He ascends the stairs and murders Sheila before Courtney and Amy are able to unblock the bedroom door. Courtney and Amy escape out the window, and the killer pursues them through a construction site, where Amy falls to her death from an upper floor of the building. Courtney discovers a propane tank, which she uses to light the killer on fire.

Police arrive in the morning, and load Amy's corpse onto a stretcher. When Courtney attempts to say goodbye, Amy suddenly comes to life, cackling in the killer's voice. Courtney awakens next to Matt, realizing the events prior have been a nightmare. She and Matt begin to kiss, but he suddenly morphs into the killer. She again awakens from the dream-within-a-dream, this time inside a psychiatric ward; as she lies in bed, a drill bursts through the floor.

Cast

Production

Filming of Slumber Party Massacre II took place in Los Angeles, California in June 1987 under the working title Don’t Let Go.^[1] The budget was approximately $500,000.^[1]

Release

The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Concorde Pictures in October 1987. It was subsequently released on VHS by Nelson Entertainment.

The film has been released on DVD three times. The first release came from New Concorde Home Entertainment in September 2000. Extras included actor bios along with trailers for Slumber Party Massacre, Slumber Party Massacre II and Sorority House Massacre II.^[2] The company re-released the film on a double feature DVD alongside the original The Slumber Party Massacre in July 2003.^[3] These versions are both currently out of print. On October 5, 2010 Shout! Factory released Slumber Party Massacre, Slumber Party Massacre II and Slumber Party Massacre III on a two-disc special edition DVD set.^[4]It has since been released on Blu-ray.

The Shout! Factory release includes an extended, unrated version of the film, never before seen on home video. It was pieced together using three different sources by Editor/Director Dustin Ferguson.

Reception

Leonard Klady of the Los Angeles Times compared the film's supernatural elements to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), adding: "Writer-director Deborah Brock simply fails to give her film style or wit. The grisly shenanigans are as inane and illogical as the rationale behind making this effort."^[5] TV Guide awarded the film two out of four stars, noting that it follows in the "vaguely feminist tradition" of the first film, adding: "The rockabilly killer is probably the most entertaining slasher ever to grace the screen--sort of like Elvis Presley playing Norman Bates, complete with musical numbers."^[6]

In The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s, Scott Aaron Stine writes: "You can't get much more an insufferable viewing experience than this slasher flick-cum-musical."^[7]

References

External links

• Slumber Party Massacre II on IMDb
• Slumber Party Massacre II at Rotten Tomatoes