| 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 |
| Editing by | Wendy Greene Bricmont Sean Foley |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 12, 1982 |
| Running time | 77 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $250,000 (estimated) |
The Slumber Party Massacre is a 1982 slasher film directed by Amy Holden Jones and written by Rita Mae Brown.
Contents |
Trish Devereaux (Michelle Michaels), an 18 year old teen decides to throw a slumber party while her parents are away and their neighbor Mr. Contant (Rigg Kennedy) is given the job of checking in on the girls during the night. That morning, she gets up, dresses and heads to school. Meanwhile, a mass murderer with a fondness for power drills, Russ Thorn (Michael Villella), has escaped from prison, killed a telephone repair woman (Jean Vargas) with a power drill and steals her van. Trish meets up with her friends Kim (Debra Deliso), Jackie (Andree Honore) and Diane (Gina Hunter) and the girls on her basketball team. The new girl, Valerie Bates (Robin Stille) is invited by Trish, but refuses after hearing Diane talking cruelly about her.
Russ Thorn watches the girls leave school from the van and a girl named Linda (Brinke Stevens) goes back inside the school to retrieve something, but is attacked by Thorn and murdered with a power drill. That evening, the party and the bloody decimation begins of the girls, as they smoke pot and talk about boys. Valerie lives next door conveniently and is babysitting her younger sister Courtney (Jennifer Meyers). Diane's boyfriend John (Jim Boyce) and two other guys from school Jeff (David Millbern) and Neil (Joe Johnson) who spy on the girls undressing. Thorn kills Mr. Contant, drilling through his neck, and meanwhile, Courtney is begging Valerie to go crash the party, but Valerie protests. Diane begins making out with John in the car and after she gets out to ask Trish permission to go off with John, she comes back to find him decapitated. Diane tries to flee, but is murdered with the drill.
While the girls are on the phone with their Coach, Mrs. Jana (Pamela Roylance), the pizza guy is discovered dead with his eyes gouged out by the girls. Coach Jana hears the girls screaming and calls Valerie to check on them. Coach Jana starts on her way to the girls house. The teens arm themselves with knives and Jeff and Neil try to run for help, but are gorily killed by Thorn. 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 empty and dark, unbeknownst to the horror that has happened. Trish and Kim have barricaded themselves in Trish's bedroom. They hear Valerie, but ignore her, thinking she may be the killer's friend. Thorn enters the bedroom through a window and stabs Kim to death. Trish flees and hides. Courtney and Valerie enter Trish's house and find Kim dead. Thorn attacks them and Valerie escapes to the basement while Courtney hides under the couch. Coach Jana arrives and seeing the killer, she beats him with a fire poker but he quickly murders Coach Jana. Trish manages to stab Thorn with a butcher knife, but this barely slows him down. Valerie runs up with a machete and chases Thorn out the backdoor, managing to sever his hand and slash his stomach, forcing him into the swimming pool. A shaken Courtney, Valerie and Trish embrace but Thorn arises and attacks the girls. There is a struggle but Thorn proceeds to fall onto the machete accidentally, finally killing him. Sirens are heard in the distance as the movie ends.
Written by author and feminist activist Rita Mae Brown, the film was intended as a parody of the Slasher film. Producers filmed it not as a parody, but a straight genre film. Because of this, the film contains more humor than other slashers of the time period.[1]
The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by New World Pictures in November 1982. It was later released on VHS by Embassy Home Entertainment.[2]
The film has been released on DVD three times. The first release came from New Concorde Home Entertainment on September 2000. Extras included actor bios along with trailers for Slumber Party Massacre, Slumber Party Massacre II and Sorority House Massacre II.[3] The company subsequently re-released the film on a double feature DVD alongside Slumber Party Massacre II in July 2003. [4] 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.[5]
There have been 3 sequels to the movie: Slumber Party Massacre II, Slumber Party Massacre III and Cheerleader Massacre. It's also in the Massacre Collection which also includes Sorority House Massacre, Sorority House Massacre II and Hard to Die.[6] Jason Paul Collum directed the documentary Sleepless Nights: Revisiting the Slumber Party Massacres (2010).[7]
|
||||||||