The Slumber Party Massacre

The Slumber Party Massacre
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Amy Holden Jones
Produced by Amy Holden Jones
Written by Rita Mae Brown
Starring Michele Michaels
Robin Stille
Michael Villella
Debra Deliso
Andree Honore
Music by Ralph Jones
Cinematography Stephen L. Posey
Edited by Wendy Greene Bricmont
Sean Foley
Production
company
Santa Fe Productions
Distributed by New World Pictures
Release date
Running time
 77 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $250,000 (estimated)
Box office $3,589,000

The Slumber Party Massacre is a 1982 American slasher film directed by Amy Holden Jones and written by Rita Mae Brown, starring Michelle Michaels and Robin Stille. The film follows a high school senior who, left alone by her parents for the weekend, gathers her friends for a slumber party, not knowing that a murderer using a power drill is on the loose in the neighborhood.

The film was originally written by Brown as a parody of the slasher genre; however, it was instead filmed as a straightforward horror film. As a result, the movie contains more humor, both intended and unintended, than usual for the genre. When originally released, the film received mixed reviews, but has since developed a cult following.

Two sequels, Slumber Party Massacre II and III, followed the film in 1987 and 1990, respectively. It is the first horror film series in history whose films were directed exclusively by women.[2]

Plot

Trish Devereaux-Craven, an 18-year-old high school senior, decides to throw a slumber party while her parents are away for the weekend. Their neighbor, David Contant, is given the job of checking in on the girls during the night. She awakes to the sound of her radio and gets dressed shortly before going to school. Meanwhile, Russ Thorn, an escaped mass murderer with a preference for power drills, kills a telephone repair woman and steals her van. Trish meets up with her friends Kim, Jackie, and Diane, the girls on her basketball team. A new girl, Valerie Bates, is invited by Trish, but refuses after hearing Diane talking cruelly about her. Russ watches the girls leave school from the van and a girl, Linda, goes back inside the school to retrieve a book for a test, only to be locked inside and attacked by Russ, who injures her left arm. She eventually hides in the shower room, but the killer finds out where she is because of her blood loss, and kills her before escaping to the van.

That evening, the party begins as the girls smoke marijuana and talk about boys. Valerie lives next door and is babysitting her younger sister, Courtney, while their recently divorced mother is away for the weekend with a new boyfriend. Diane's boyfriend John, and two boys from school, Jeff and Neil, arrive and spy on the girls undressing. Russ attacks and kills Mr. Contant with his power drill; meanwhile, Courtney is begging Valerie to go to the party, but Valerie protests. Diane makes out with John in the car and gets out to ask Trish permission to go with him, she comes back to find him decapitated. Diane tries to flee, but is murdered also.

While the girls are on the phone with their coach, Mrs. Jana, the pizza guy is shown with his eyes drilled out. Coach Jana hears the girls screaming and calls Valerie to check on them, then decides to drive over to the house to check on them herself. The girls try calling the police, but Russ cuts the phone line before they are connected. The teens arm themselves with knives and Jeff and Neil try to run for help, but are killed by Russ. Russ gains entry to the house, murders Jackie, and chases Kim and Trish upstairs. Courtney and Valerie go over to the house, but find the house dark, unaware of the horror that has happened. Trish and Kim have barricaded themselves in Trish's bedroom. They hear Valerie and ignore her, thinking she may be the killer's friend. Russ enters the bedroom through a window and disarms Kim, stabbing her with her own knife and Trish flees to hide.

Courtney and Valerie enter Trish's house and find Kim dead. Russ attacks them, but Valerie escapes to the basement while Courtney hides under the couch. Coach Jana arrives and beats Russ with a fireplace poker, but he murders her. Trish stabs Russ with a butcher knife, but it barely slows him down. Valerie chases Russ with a machete out the back door. She severs his drill bit and his left hand, and he falls into the swimming pool. As the girls embrace, Russ emerges from the pool and attacks them. Valerie kills him by impaling the machete, killing him. Valerie and Trish break down into tears upon killing Russ. Courtney looks on in a state of shock as police sirens are heard in the distance.

Cast

  • Michelle Michaels as Trish Devereaux-Craven
  • Robin Stille as Valerie 'Val' Bates
  • Michael Villella as Russ Thorn
  • Debra Deliso as Kimberly 'Kim' Clarke
  • Andree Honore as Jackie
  • Gina Smika as Diane
  • Jennifer Meyers as Courtney Bates
  • Joseph Alan Johnson as Neil
  • David Millbern as Jeff
  • Jim Boyce as John Minor
  • Pamela Roylance as Coach Rachel Jana
  • Brinke Stevens as Linda
  • Rigg Kennedy as Mr David Contant
  • Jean Vargas as Mary (Telephone Repairwoman)
  • Howard Purgason as Mr Devereaux
  • Anna Patton as Mrs Annette Devereaux

Production

Conception

Author and feminist activist Rita Mae Brown wrote the original screenplay, titled Sleepless Nights, as a parody of the slasher film. Producers repurposed Brown's script to make a "serious" slasher film against her wishes.[3]

Amy Holden Jones, a film editor,[4] wanted to direct and asked Frances Doel for advice. Doel gave Jones a number of scripts. Jones chose the script that would become The Slumber Party Massacre, then going by the title of Don't Open the Door, and decided to film the first three scenes. Her husband, cinematographer Michael Chapman, acquired equipment and film and hired actors from the University of California, Los Angeles,[5] and they shot the scenes at their house over a weekend for $1,000. She showed the result to Roger Corman, who agreed to finance the film.[5] Jones had to turn down a job editing Steven Spielberg's E.T. (1982) as a result.[6] The soundtrack was composed on a Casio MT-30.[7]

Filming

Filming began in the summer of 1981.[1] The film was shot on location in Los Angeles, California, mainly in Venice Beach.[8]

Release

Distributed by New World Pictures, the film was screened in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in March 1982, and later premiered in Los Angeles on September 10, 1982.[1] It was given a limited release in New York City on November 12, 1982.[1] It grossed over $3,000,000 at the box office on an estimated budget of $250,000.[1]

Critical response

The Slumber Party Massacre received mixed reviews from critics. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote of the film: "The Slumber Party Massacre is just the usual cavalcade of corpses, all of them dispatched by a maniac who wields a power drill. At the end of the movie, a woman who has miraculously survived the carnage breaks his drill in half. That's feminism for you, and symbolism too."[9] Time Out gave the film a middling review, noting: "Despite the unlikely script credit for Rita Mae Brown, Jones's debut feature is little more than a Halloween clone, reliant on buckets of blood and sudden surprise rather than suspense."[4] David Hinckley of the New York Daily News awarded the film 1.5 stars out of 4, noting that the performances are "uneven," and "the special effects are not special."[10]

Variety's published review, however, praised the film: "Besides its obviously catchy title, Slumber Party Massacre is an entertaining terror thriller, with the switch that distaff filmmakers handle the 'young women in jeopardy' format."[11] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader also gave the film a positive review, noting its even pacing and direction by Jones.[12] Leonard Klady of the Los Angeles Times also noted the film's pacing, writing in a retrospective that the film boasted a "darkly humorous vision and a breathtaking pace."[13]

Dale Schenck of The Morning Call deemed the film a "rousing thriller" that "delivers as many vicarious thrills as one could want from this sort of cinematic mayhem."[14]

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 36% of 14 critics gave the film a positive review; the average ratings is 4.4 out of ten.[15]

Home media

It was later released on VHS by Embassy Home Entertainment.[16]

The film has been released on DVD three times in North America. 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.[17] The company subsequently re-released the film on a double feature DVD alongside Slumber Party Massacre II in July 2003.[18] These versions are both currently out of print. On 5 October 2010 Shout! Factory released Slumber Party Massacre, Slumber Party Massacre II and Slumber Party Massacre III on a two-disc special edition DVD set.[19]

Shout! Factory, under their subsidiary label Scream Factory, released The Slumber Party Massacre on Blu-ray on March 18, 2014.

In the United Kingdom, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) re-titled the film The Slumber Party Murders, as the word "massacre" was felt to be too suggestive.[20] In the U.K., it has had two releases to DVD, with both editions not containing special features. The most recent edition was released by Matrodome Entertainment under the company IN2Film.

The film is included on the Massacre Collection DVD, along with Sorority House Massacre, Sorority House Massacre II and Hard to Die.[21]

Sequels

There have been two sequels to the film, Slumber Party Massacre II and Slumber Party Massacre III. Jason Paul Collum directed the documentary Sleepless Nights: Revisiting the Slumber Party Massacres (2010).[22]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Slumber Party Massacre". The American Film Institute (AFI). Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  2. ↑ Shary 2014, p. 182.
  3. ↑ Nashawaty 2013, p. 187.
  4. 1 2 "The Slumber Party Massacre, directed by Amy Jones". Time Out. London, England. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  5. 1 2 Kart, Larry. "Why one tough woman turned down 'E.T.' for 'Slumber Party Massacre'". The Guardian. London. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Nashawaty 2013, p. 185.
  7. ↑ Nashawaty 2013, pp. 184–85.
  8. ↑ Muir 2012, p. 279.
  9. ↑ Maslin, Janet (November 12, 1982). "'The Slumber Party'". Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  10. ↑ Hinckley, David (November 12, 1982). "'Slumber Party Massacre': Sleeping sickness". New York Daily News. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Variety Staff (March 31, 1982). "Review: 'Slumber Party Massacre'". Variety. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  12. ↑ Kehr, Dave. "The Slumber Party Massacre". The Chicago Reader. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  13. ↑ Klady, Leonard (October 12, 1987). "Movie Reviews: 'Slumber Party Massacre II'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
  14. ↑ Schenck, Dale (May 6, 1983). "This 'Slumber Party' will keep you awake". The Morning Call. Allentown, Pennsylvania. p. D3 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on April 30, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Company Credits for The Slumber Party Massacre". imdb.com. Retrieved April 12, 2011.
  17. ↑ "The Slumber Party Massacre (DVD)". dvdempire.com. Retrieved April 12, 2011.
  18. ↑ "Slumber Party Massacre/Slumber Party Massacre II (DVD)". dvdempire.com. Retrieved April 12, 2011.
  19. ↑ Shout! Factory Bringing Home the Slumber Party Massacre Collection!
  20. ↑ Harper 2004, p. 166.
  21. ↑ The Slumber Party Massacre Collection
  22. ↑ 'Slumber Party Massacre' DVD Series Getting Re-Released Archived 2011-07-12 at the Wayback Machine.

Works cited

  • Harper, Jim (2004). Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies. Critical Vision. ISBN 978-1-900-48639-2.
  • Muir, John Kenneth (2012). Horror Films of the 1980s. 1. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-786-47298-7.
  • Nashawaty, Chris (2013). Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman: King of the B Movie. Harry N. Abarms. ISBN 978-1-419-70669-1.
  • Shary, Timothy (2014). Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in American Cinema Since 1980. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-75662-5.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.