Slumber
Party Massacre II (zero
stars)
review by Jon
Waterman
After the events of that fateful night when escaped convict
Russ Thorn went on his second killing spree, life has been
quiet for Courtney. She was unfortunately at the scene of the
crime, and, along with her now-institutionalized sister, she
helped thwart further senseless deaths. Russ Thorn may be dead,
but the fear still lives on in her dreams. Lately she’s
been having some crazy nightmares. Most likely, it’s
stress telling her that she needs to relax a little bit and
enjoy her high school days. So, Courtney and some girl friends
head out for a weekend retreat at a friends’ brand new
house. Lightning can’t possibly strike twice, can it?
If you thought the first “Slumber
Party Massacre” movie
was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. It’s all
just so terrible; I don’t really know where to start.
How about the killer? So, in the first movie, the killer was
an actual guy that escaped from prison and went on another
murderous spree. This time the villain starts out as a figment
of Courtney’s imagination and then eventually breaks
out of the dream world to wreak havoc against the teenagers.
That’s not the worst part. The worst part is that he’s
some rockabilly leather clad ghost-like thing who slaughters
his victims with an electric guitar that has a drill attached
to it. Yep. He’s Andrew Dice Clay meets Freddy Kruger.
And he sings and makes all kinds of lame music references as
he chases the girls around. Maybe whoever dreamt him up should
be killed.
My guess is it was writer/director Deborah Brock in her feature
debut. I guess having a female writer doesn’t guarantee
that the female characters are any smarter. These characters
aren’t just vapid, they’re flat out stupid. I could
give you several examples, but honestly then you wouldn’t
have any fun yelling at the dimwits as they make mistake after
mistake. Sure you can argue that is all intentional to get
the crowd yelling “No, don’t do that!” but
I don’t buy it in this case. Even so, that doesn’t
make the film better, because it still isn’t scary. It’d
be much more effective if we were seeing smart people making
good decisions yet still falling victim to the drill guitar.
So, aside from the dumber than rocks characters, the strangest
and lamest choice for a movie villain ever, and the horrible
directing, what else could go wrong? Well, I think I already
mentioned how the film isn’t scary in the slightest.
Everything is not only expected, but we see it from a mile
away. Brock leaves absolutely no room for shock or surprise.
You can’t rely on the gross-out factor alone, because
honestly that’s not very strong either. The only saving
grace amidst the myriad horrible dream/nightmare sequences
and possibly the most insanely stupid endings I have ever seen
is that the lead Crystal Bernard is actually an above-average
actress in terms of cheap predictable horror movies. Still,
I don’t think anything can take away the bad taste that
the songs, the script, the characters, the directing and really
the whole picture leaves in your mouth. Prime for mockery,
this should only be watched with a group.
respond to jon@filmbrats.com
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