Slumber Party Massacre
Ever wonder what a slasher / horror movie would look like if it was made by feminists? Well in 1982 we got just that with the screenwriter being no less a big name feminist author than Rita Mae Brown. But there was an ironic twist to the whole deal as Brown had written her original script as a SPOOF on the sexist horror movie ideals where women were expected to do nude scenes before the kills started up. But after selling the script to producer Roger Corman, Brown herself would have no say or input in where the production of the actual film went from there (even though her writing credit was prominently featured on the film) as Corman would hand over directing duties (along with expected script rewrites) to one Amy Holden Jones, an editor and production assistant who wanted to direct and thus chose this project to be her big break. The script would go into production as a more or less straight horror movie unlike the so called spoof that Brown intended it to be, and the final results are rather mixed even as it grows more powerful and intense towards its conclusion. The killer here is a guy named Russ Thorn (Michael Villella) who is first brought to our attention in one of the first shots of the film depicting a closeup of a newspaper headline announcing his escape from prison while subsequent radio broadcasts tell us that he was originally incarcerated in 1969 for the killings of 5 people. Thorn of course, would shortly be known by the nickname he was branded with by the producers of āThe Driller Killerā because of his propensity to use a specially equipped power drill to commit his murders, a weapon that would almost come to define him much like Jasonās machete or Freddyās glove, so much so that when the concept turned into a franchise, The Driller Killer (although not played by Villella) would find a way to return in different incarnations mainly to torment those who had survived this initial outing. But here, Villellaās Russ Thorn might strike some as being one of the more unimpressive looking of horror villains, a sweaty, middle aged, slightly built man in a red t shirt, denim jacket, blue jeans and cowboy boots for that extra swagger. The power drill itself that he enjoys using (keeping in mind the source writer) can definitely be seen as a phallic symbol, one that he uses to penetrate his female (and male) victims since he couldnāt have been expected to do so any other way and the moment when he finally speaks towards the end reveals him as being someone who ālovesā women so much that he considers killing them with his drill to be an āact of loveā that ārequires a lot of love to be able to doā. Sadly, thatās the most that we get of any character development out of him not to mention the fact that he carries a complete lack of motivation or backstory for anything that he does. Another VERY ironic note here is in the girls themselves that make up the female cast as not only are they mostly very plain (by horror movie standards) but the absolute best looking ones in the film are killed right up front in the early minutes of the film starting with the gorgeous blonde telephone repairwoman (by far the hottest girl in the film) who gets about 90 seconds of screen time before being grabbed in her van by Thorn and drilled to death. The next (also hot) victim is future 80s Scream Queen Brinke Stevens who never even makes it to the party and is attacked and killed by Thorn in the school locker room. That leaves us with the main cast, ostensibly the members of the high school girlsā basketball team but none of whom are particularly beautiful in the sense that the viewer would want to root for any of them. There is also the new girl in town living across the street (Robin Stille, who sadly committed suicide at age 34) who is very pretty even as she watches her little sister Courtney (Jennifer Myers, who never acted again). As many know, it was the character of Courtney (as played by Crystal Bernard) who would return in Part 2 as the lead heroine taking on a ārebornā version of The Driller Killer (in the guise of a rock star who has the drill bit built into his guitar). Thereās also the 2 dipshit horny guys (neither of whom is dating any of the girls) who show up to spy and snicker at the various girls through the window before they play the prank of cutting the power (haha very funny) and then get invited inside by the girls mostly out of pity than anything else. At times, the movie gets confused as to where it wants to set its feet down, showing just as many scenes with the two sisters across the street (where the house is dark and quiet even with the two of them there) along with the girlsā basketball coach who is across town but staying in contact with her players so that she can possibly come to the rescue (even as she gets startled by her cat in what is the cheapest of scares since we know that Thorn is nowhere near where she is). There is also the obviously gay neighbor next door (because he walks around wearing a Hawaiian shirt) who is keeping an eye on things for the parents of the girl who is throwing the slumber party (Michelle Michaels, who is probably the plainest looking girl in the whole movie) and a dipshit jock boyfriend for one of the other girls who sneaks her into the garage for a quick make out session only to realize that heās not going to get very far ahead in life. Through all this, the most fascinating character still remains Villellaās Thorn (although thatās not saying much) who despite not wearing a mask or being scarred and deformed in some way (he more rather resembles somebody whom you would see standing in line at McDonaldās) does at least project the aura of being a person who is so determined in his psychotic nature to rack up a respectable body count (something which we do know that he keeps track of and takes pride in) that when the point comes where he starts taking heavy physical punishment and yet still gets up and keeps on coming, you almost find it believable that his dopamine and adrenaline levels are so sky high that it explains just exactly why he is taking shots that would knock out a normal man and keep him down. In short, the reason that Thorn works as being a compelling villain (despite his plain, nondescript appearance) is because given his limited backstory and lack of motivation, he does come off nonetheless as being an enigmatic figure, having busted out of prison and then choosing to go after this particular group of girls in their cozy, suburban corner of the world simply because he liked the way that they looked. Thatās not withstanding his tendency to do surprisingly random things at times like lay down on the floor and cover himself with a blanket as if heās going to sleep or dead (a trap that should never have been expected to work but yet somehow does due solely to a new character whom he had no way of knowing would just randomly show up walking in through the front door mere minutes later) or killing the pizza delivery boy just so that he can prop his dead body up at the front door and pretend that heās still delivering the pizza to the hungry girls. As stated though, the whole thing picks up some serious steam in the climatic moments as Thorn finds himself set upon by the surviving characters and beaten down and knocked around soundly and even has the drill bit at the end of his primary weapon lopped off by a machete in what has to be considered a monumentally humiliating moment for him. As far as looking for the clues or signs that this is either a feminist take on slasher horror or just a straight up spoof of the genre (other than the aforementioned symbolic castration), really this feels like by the numbers for the genre if not for the mysterious yet always seen in plain sight killer and his trademark weapon (which at least is responsible for some decent gory bits when it comes to several kills). The film also sports a weird organ synthesizer score that seems almost gothic in its nature as if weāre supposed to be watching a vampire movie but it also evokes the creepy, no budget atmosphere of the films of the most oldschool Godfather Of Gore himself in the legendary Herschell Gordon Lewis. Why this sort of works is hard to say except maybe for the powerful nature of the ending (which in itself was a reshoot after it was thought that the original ending sucked) and while Part 2 was superior in every way (with its ridiculously over the top, retrofitted version of The Driller Killer) and is an underrated classic, this remains a modestly watchable, no frills horror movie that is well directed enough to make it memorableā¦
7/10