The Slumber Party Massacre - How low can it go?

If you've ever watched a 'slasher' film in the nineties and beyond, then you'll probably know the cliches and tropes that are associated with the genre.  In fact, many films (post 'Scream' era) have gone out of their way to point out such cliches and made fun of them in their own films.  If you've ever wondered, 'But where did all these tropes originate from?' then 'The Slumber Party Massacre' may just answer your question.

You all know what a 'slasher' film is: a killer stalks and murders a selection of people in various gruesome ways.  Here, a teenage girl decides to have - you guessed it - a slumber party with her friends while her parents are away.  Unfortunately, a nutter with a drill arrives to gatecrash it.  There's nothing particularly original about the plot, but that's not why people watch these sorts of films.  If they're halfway entertaining then the audience will normally give the story a pass.  However, there are so many bizarre decisions here that by about the halfway mark I was seriously wondering whether I was watching an early form of parody of the genre.

Where do I begin?  The film has numerous pointless shots of female nudity, the camera panning down the actresses' bodies in order to highlight their, er, 'physique.' If you're expecting a script which leaves you guessing as to who the killer is then think again.  The killer is revealed in about the opening ten minutes.  Normally, the antagonist has some sort of gimmick, i.e. a face made out of his victims' skin, an ice hockey mask, a ghost-face mask etc.  Not here.  Here we have a killer who basically looks like an average man and wears 'double denim.'

The characters.  Um, well, they're young women - mainly brunettes.  In fact, most are so interchangeable that you'll be confused as to which one has just been drilled to death.  Naturally, they're all roughly in their thirties while playing teenagers, which is odd to say the least.

The gore: there's not that much.  I know the film was made on a shoestring, but I've seen plenty of low budget films that make the most out of what they have and can pull off some pretty impressive practical effects.  Not here.  You get a few bl00dy stab wounds, but nothing you haven't seen before.

I have to say that I was hoping for something more from this film.  It's just the film that was the basis for all the slasher parodies which followed.  The characters make absolutely random decisions which will leave you shaking your head.  It's watchable, but only because you'll be curious as to just how bad it gets.  Oh, and it's short, so you don't really feel like you've wasted too much of your time on this.  Probably shocking for its day, but now just one of so many similar films in the genre.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights