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Slumber Party Massacre 2, 1987
Following on the events from the original film, Courtney (Crystal Bernard) is the younger sister of Valerie, who is now in a mental institution. Courtney and her friends go to a vacation house for a weekend away, but Courtney is haunted by gruesome visions, including a rockabilly murderer (Atanas Ilitch) who threatens and taunts her.
Now that's what I'm talking about.
If Saint Maud was my first real hit of scary, intense horror for the month, this one was the first real hit of awesomely winky, camp.
I imagine that a lot of people would have a pretty tepid response to this film, which is admittedly kind of a mess. But I thought that it was an endearing mess that continued the first film's cheeky take on slasher dynamics.
In the first film, I thought that the intended criticism of the leering horror camera was only medium successful. Here, though, I thought it was hilariously wonderful. Like the scene where a character talks to her boyfriend on the phone---she's totally covered while he's inexplicably sprawled on his bed in just underwear. Or the funny (though very PG rated) beefcake fantasies the main character has about her boyfriend. There's also the dynamic that the main girls are in a (pretty good!) band, and their boyfriends are mainly relegated to the groupie role. A scene where the girls all have a pillow-bra fight was also totally goofy and funny.
There's something scattered and a bit repetitive about the film for the first hour, which is why I imagine most people not loving it so much. It's basically just Courtney having various scares, seeing the driller killer pop up or seeing one of her friend's faces melt. Or--my personal favorite--being attacked by a raw chicken from the fridge. But these sequences are all so obviously not real that they don't produce much tension. Fortunately, I thought that they were all pretty funny.
Things shift gears as the film goes into its third act and the driller killer becomes more of a presence. I enjoyed Ilitch's smirking, absurd performance as the killer, especially because he seems very aware of Courtney's fragility.
Maybe this one got a bump because I watched it on the heels of Saw, but I was very entertained.
+
Slumber Party Massacre 2, 1987
Following on the events from the original film, Courtney (Crystal Bernard) is the younger sister of Valerie, who is now in a mental institution. Courtney and her friends go to a vacation house for a weekend away, but Courtney is haunted by gruesome visions, including a rockabilly murderer (Atanas Ilitch) who threatens and taunts her.
Now that's what I'm talking about.
If Saint Maud was my first real hit of scary, intense horror for the month, this one was the first real hit of awesomely winky, camp.
I imagine that a lot of people would have a pretty tepid response to this film, which is admittedly kind of a mess. But I thought that it was an endearing mess that continued the first film's cheeky take on slasher dynamics.
In the first film, I thought that the intended criticism of the leering horror camera was only medium successful. Here, though, I thought it was hilariously wonderful. Like the scene where a character talks to her boyfriend on the phone---she's totally covered while he's inexplicably sprawled on his bed in just underwear. Or the funny (though very PG rated) beefcake fantasies the main character has about her boyfriend. There's also the dynamic that the main girls are in a (pretty good!) band, and their boyfriends are mainly relegated to the groupie role. A scene where the girls all have a pillow-bra fight was also totally goofy and funny.
There's something scattered and a bit repetitive about the film for the first hour, which is why I imagine most people not loving it so much. It's basically just Courtney having various scares, seeing the driller killer pop up or seeing one of her friend's faces melt. Or--my personal favorite--being attacked by a raw chicken from the fridge. But these sequences are all so obviously not real that they don't produce much tension. Fortunately, I thought that they were all pretty funny.
Things shift gears as the film goes into its third act and the driller killer becomes more of a presence. I enjoyed Ilitch's smirking, absurd performance as the killer, especially because he seems very aware of Courtney's fragility.
Maybe this one got a bump because I watched it on the heels of Saw, but I was very entertained.
+