The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)


Written by feminist author Rita Mae Brown and directed by Amy Holden Jones, this fun, deceptively unconventional slasher follows a group of teenaged friends menaced by a power drill-wielding maniac during a sleepover party. On the surface, The Slumber Party Massacre is an exploitative, low-budget, trashy B-flick. However, throughout its duration, a slyly subversive edge becomes apparent. While directed completely straight by Jones, with a brisk pace and no-nonsense style, it was originally written as a parody of morally conservative slasher films. Released during the hey-day of the 1980s slasher, during which time the subgenre’s tropes and conventions had well and truly been established, Brown’s knowing screenplay adds a few wee rebellious elements to the mix by skewing the conventional use of the male gaze in slasher films, touching on social pressures experienced by young women, and generally highlighting everyday misogyny and violence against women. And it does so in a really fun, entertaining way.

Yes, the plot is as standard as they come, the characters of course are of the type you’d expect to find in a 1980s slasher (teenaged, hormonal), and there’s copious nudity and gore. However, there is a bit more characterisation with all the main female characters, who have their own interests and different personalities, and, most significantly for an 80s slasher, are all defined outside of male relationships. There’s a strong sense of friendship between the young women, so when the maniac strikes, they stick together and try to help each other. Even the banal conversations they have (as they’re unwittingly spied on by their male classmates and the killer) are focused on their interests, each other, other girls (particularly neighbour and classmate Valerie who was not invited to the party) and not just the boys they’re interested in. The attention drawn to the male gaze through Jones’ direction, and Brown’s screenplay, none-too-subtly highlights different ways in which women are the subject of invasive, unwanted male attention. Elsewhere, women characters - even the secondary ones such as the electrician at the school and the carpenter installing a door peephole at coach Rachael’s house - are presented as adept, skilful, and capable. 


When the maniac strikes and the blood begins to flow, not one, but several characters become proactive and not only fight back, but actively pursue the killer. There’s a lot of humour alongside the tension, and use of amusing symbolism, such as the now infamous shots of the killer’s ridiculously long drill bit filmed from between his legs, and the moment it is cut in half by a machete-brandishing Valerie. Now, The Slumber Party Massacre is by no means Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but it is a hugely fun, subversive slasher with satirical humour and a weird charm all its own. 

Popular posts from this blog

Whistle and I’ll Come to You (2010)

Image
Dir. Andy de Emmony After placing his senile wife in a care home, retired astronomer James Parkin (John Hurt) heads for the coast to revisit their ‘old haunts’, including the now out-of-season hotel they honeymooned in. By day he is stalked along the windswept beaches by a spectral figure dressed in white, and by night he is terrorised by strange sounds and someone, or something, attempting to enter his room… In the 2000s BBC4 attempted to reignite the old Ghost Story at Christmas tradition by adapting MR James’s A View from a Hill (2005) and Number 13 (2006). This series was seemingly short lived though, as their next outing wasn’t until 2010, and an unusual reinterpretation of James’s classic chiller Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad . While de Emmony’s direction captures the atmosphere and tone of James very well, this film differs significantly from other adaptations, including Jonathan Miller’s supremely unsettling 1968 take . Neil Cross’s screenplay only incorpo
Read more

Caveat (2020)

Image
Isaac, a brooding drifter suffering from memory loss, agrees to look after Olga, the niece of his acquaintance Moe. A troubled woman prone to bouts of catatonia, Olga lives in an old, ramshackle house on an isolated island in the middle of a dark lake. Isaac agrees to wear a chained harness that prevents him from going into certain rooms. He gradually comes to learn of the unsettling history of the house and the unquiet dead it harbours within its walls... Written and directed by Damian McCarthy,  Caveat  is steeped in the Gothic tradition. With distinct echoes of the work of Edgar Allan Poe, it is ripe with a lingering atmosphere of morbidity and decay. McCarthy's screenplay toys with themes such as psychological rot, dark family secrets, and the aftermath of unspeakable violence and cruelty. The story unfolds within the creepy confines of the lonely, mouldy house, with myriad forbidden rooms, hidden passageways and concealed bloody secrets. The house itself is cut off from civili
Read more

Landmine Goes Click

Image
2015 Dir. Levan Bakhia Landmine Goes Click is one of those films best viewed without knowing anything about it.* Echoing the likes of Phone Booth (2002) and Buried (2010), and indeed Levan Bakhia’s own debut feature, 247°F (2011), it holds much promise with its high-concept premise. Boasting a constantly twisting plot which intrigues as much as it infuriates, the film explores how the lives of three American friends are altered forever when, travelling through Eastern Europe, one of them steps on a landmine... Unable to move for fear of detonating it, he and his friends are the captive audience of unveiled secrets, shifting dynamics and the darker side of human nature. Head over to Exquisite Terror to read my full review .  *My review is spoiler free and I've tried to be as sensitive as possible regarding plot details. Well, beyond the obvious, anyway. 
Read more