Customer Reviews

Slumber Party Massacre 2 [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I orginally discovered this classic in the very back of the horror section of my local video store. Truth be told, it was only one video casette away from being in the porn section. Because it looked delightfully bad, and had about an inch of dust on the cover, I decided to give it a rent.
I watched it with another bad movie fanatic, and this fit the description of the perfect movie with no problems. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't seen the first movie, or the fact that the writers were severely mentally handicapped, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the ghost of a 50's rock star (wearing mismatched leather no less) would want to kill a group of topless teenage girls with a giant drill somehow connected to an electric guitar.
Another favourite scene of mine involves death by acne. One of the central characters is actually engulfed by a rapid growing zit, until it pops all over the protagonist and she is presumed dead - that is until she walks through the front door about 10 minutes later. This, of course, set up the perfect reason for the police to ignore the phone calls of the teens when they were ACTUALLY being killed by a psychotic ghost, they just couldn't be fooled into believing a story like that AGAIN.
This movie never seems to loose it's lack-luster charm, and I have actually rented it several times since the innitial discovery, Every time I watch it, I discover a new layer of cheese that I can make jokes about to no end. For instance, the premis of the weekend is for the all female 80s punk band to practise for a big show, and everytime they pick up a guitar, it sinks into psudo music video shots of them rocking it out, and them playing in the pool, and them having their three millions topless pillow fight of the evening, and then when the song is over, they're right back to where they were at the beginning with their untouched instruments in front of them.
Forgive me for using the title of this review as a summary to review it, but this movie is most definately total crap, but I LOVE IT! This ranks right up there with the ultimate cliche movies of the eighties, such as Little Darlings. I have to say, I'm surprised this series doesn't have as much of a cult following as it should. If this were created and released intentionally, it would be reveared as a masterpeice, but because it wasn't, I have to say that it belongs on the very back shelf where I found it.

Slumber Party Massacre II just doesn't work, the producers obviously tried to be a little different with this follow up to the original drive in classic, but SPM II fails to live up to its predecessor.One of the survivors of the first film, Courtney who is now in high school dreams of the driller killer returning to butcher her. When her and a group of friends escape to a parent's summer home for a weekend of sex and rock 'n roll, the driller killer comes out of Courtney's dreams and begins killing again. This time he's a 50's rocker with a big drill extending from his guitar...pretty silly stuff. Instead of another riff on Halloween, which was what the first Slumber Party Massacre did, part II veers into A Nightmare on Elm Street territory with some truly strange moments (a girls head turning into a giant zit). The killer is really annoying as he dances around singing and prancing before he kills. The guy looks as if he's doing a bad John Travolta from Grease. Of course, all of this sounds like it could be fun, it just isn't. It's terribly pedestrian and uninspired. Even the gore and nudity are kept to a minimum.Slumber Party Massacre II has a lot wrong with it and not much good about it, even at 75 minutes, this one seems a bit long, the killer dosn't show up until the last twenty minutes and before that, there's hardly anything besides a scantly clad pillow fight to maintain interest. Skip this entry and go to Slumber Party Massacre III, it's much more like it.

The ultimate SLUMBER PARTY. It is suspensful and downright funny. It is about Courtney (Crystal Bernard)who is all messed up by what happened in the original. She is in the school band and going away for the weekend to practice with them. She is having horrifying nightmares about this maniac with a guitar drill. She is also hallucinating very scary things. Then Courtney's nightmares and hallucinations turn real and a new gory massacre begins. Rent this Science Fiction Horror Fantasy Thriller tonight.

i totally love this movie its got a great mix of dark comedy and silly horror

Takes the typical teen horror genre and stretches and subverts it into a blackly comic musical with a great psychobilly beat. The film works both as an entertainment and a slyly witty deconstruction of American B movie-making and pop culture. If you got the right sense of humor, it's very, very funny. I read the film was banned in UK for a "particularly virulent association of humor, rock music, and sex."

Where to begin ... :)

When reviewing horror flicks, it's often hard for me to know where to begin. First off, are we talking about a "serious" horror flick, that's really trying to scare the carp out of you ... or are we talking about a sillier flick, whose obvious and often addmitted main purpose was to partial undress young women and prance them around for a bit before killing them?

Well, to begin with, this is not a serious horror flick, nor was it ever intended to be, I don't imagine. For me, the entire "Slumber Party Massacre" series falls into the second category of horror flicks that ... well, let's just admit it, is a product of and panders to the sexual frustrations of men who simply can't get enough sex and find some amount of release in movies such as this.

While serious horror flicks sometimes explore the nature and origins of human fear, (a totally different topic) this sort of movie usually isn't even slightly frightening. And when you read the reviews written by people who enjoy this sort of movie, myself included, you'll quickly discover that it's all about various combinations of nubile and attractive young women, the extent to which said young women are completely or partilly undressed, their exposure to not very convincing danger and violence, their participation in not very explicitly rendered sex and the quality (and, perhaps more often, the lack thereof) with which these various goals are achieved.

In short ... these movies are all about sexual frustration. :)

Part 1 - the skin

Many people watch this sort of movie, at least in large part, and I include myself in this category, in order to watch attractive young women who aren't wearing much clothing. How did I "learn" this? Well, when I started allowing myself to watch X rated movies, my interest in such flicks dropped a bit. Why kid ourselves? These movies aren't scary or horrifying ... but they do feature cute girls wearing little or (in some cases) no clothing. And that's a big reason we watch. We're not seeing enough of this sort of thing in our day to day lives, and this is one way to see more. Seeing such things is stimulating ... (with quality levels varying wildly) why deny it?

Part 2 - "danger"

If it was just about skin, then this sort of movie wouldn't get made ... we'd all just watch bikini/beach movies, and that would be that. But, as most of us know, some level of perceived danger in the "story", even if it is pretty lame danger, can intensify the sensation of sexual tension in such flicks, and it taps into the energy of frustration we're feeling. Sex + Danger can be a more interesting feeling than just sex, because it acts as a sort of magnifier. Again, keeping in mind, the quality of both of these (sexuality and danger) in most flicks of this sort is pretty low.

Part 3 - Violence

Violence, in short, is about putting a quick and expeditious end to frustration. Got a problem? Kill it? In movies, I find that this kind of violence is an artistic (and I use the term losely) expression of wanting to put a rather selfishly quick end to frustration. I'm not getting what I want ... boom. Violence is about allowing ourselves to simply TAKE what we want in the most selfish way possible, with no regard for our victim or even our own future well being. And that's why violence can be a "desireable" element in such films ... it adds to the air of self gratification we're looking for.

Part 4 - Lameness

Believe it or not, the lameness of the sex and violence and danger in these movies is actually a part of the reason they work. If these movies were highly realistic and graphic in all three elements of danger, sex and violence, they would utterly fail in their intended "mission" which is to provide some guilt free guilty pleasure.

Now ... when you mix scantily clad / naked young lovelies with lame danger and violence, you're talking about a perfect vehicle for dealing with sexual frustration ... the guilt free (too lame to feel real guilt) guilty pleasure. Those of us who watch such movies more than once know this and some of us openly admit it. Feeling frustrated ... watch a slasher flick. It helps ...

Now ... are the Slumber Party Massacre movies "good" examples of this sort of flick? Well, personally, I found them uneven. In places they were fun, in places they were dull ... in places they delighted with lovely scenes of very attractive women shown to their cheasiest and shallowest sex appeal ... at other times they frustrated with scenes that were neither sexy nor appealing. In some places the faux violence was effective, in other places, just stupid.

If these movies are about allowing yourself to enjoy silly, stupid, sexual escape without any emotional depth or self exploration, this series of flicks will do the job if your needs aren't too demanding. If you're looking for the "state of the art" in this sort of movie ... well ... this isn't it, at least not consistently.

This movie needs a soundtrack. This movie has some great catchy toons on it such as "tokyo convertible", "why do you want more" and "let's roll" but the the downside about this movie is... that it is just plain stupid!!!! Heres a lead. A guy with an electric guitar which has an drill attached to the end, and goes around singing and dancing and killing all at the same time. If you can figure out why please e-mail me. With an ending which is more confusing than a labyrinth. But this movie is not supposed to be picked judged on plot, or plausibility, it is supposed to be just for fun, and it does entertain although i am not sure it's intention was to make us laugh. Crystal Bernard's debut... I am not saying anything

This sequel to slumber party goes way down hill from the first film. There is continuation of the story however. Courtney (the little sister from the first part) is now in high school. Her sister Valerie, after escaping alive her experience with the serial killer years before, is now in a mental instituion.
Courtney, who in the first film is a young adolescent girl who wants to crash the slumber pary and enjoys looking at playgirl magazine, is now a more grown up and sophisticated girl, however plagued by horrible and constant nightmares. Her and her rockband friends go away for the weekend to a new condo of one of the girls parents.
There is not a lot of action for most of the film, and later you see the killer, who has come to life from Courtney's dreams, singing and dancing Rock n' Roll and smoking cigarrettes as he kills with his guitar/drill. The movie has a surprise ending which will probably disappoint more than anything else,

This movie was clearly conceived while heavily medicated. The story was silly at best, only out done by the acting and costume choices.

OK.. so we know story is not key to a rock-n-roll dream killer, B-movie. It is the gore, suspense, and lovely ladies. So how did it do on these fronts?

For gore, the movie did OK. It is part of the driller killer series, so most of the action takes place as the rotating spear comes crashing through people's chests.

Suspense... come on... he is a rock-n-roll guy with a drill on his guitar.

The ladies... While they are certainly mostly cute, I don't think it was quite enough to make the movie a repeat watch.

The original slumber party massacre was a pretty decent little horror film. You had the same stereo-typical characters as in other films, a killer, and some kill scenes. The killer was pretty creepy. They didn't give you a reason for his rampage, but doesn't that make it all the more creepy? Yeah, it was an I am woman here me roar movie, but all in all not bad.

When you rent a sequel to a horror movie, you expect
basically the same things as the first one. I mean, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm, the characters and subtleties change, but the story remains the same. The "same" can not be said for Slumber Party Massacre 2.

When I watch a horror movie I always look for three things. First, is the film well made? You can have a great story line, and a great killer, but if it looks crappy, and the acting is terrible, it's not enjoyable to watch. Second, are the death sequences believable? They should be kind of gross, and have just the right amount of blood that makes you make that "eww..." face. Finally, does it end well?

First, Slumber Party Massacre 2 or SPM2 looks well made. I must say it looks much better than the first one. The acting is also much better. Crystal Bernard is a beautiful woman and a pretty good actress. She brought something special to the movie. The other girls are pretty typical, but good for a horror movie. The camera work is great, looks professional, and the script is tolerable.

Where this movie faulters is the death sequences. It's not the deaths persay, it's the killer. In the first one you had a guy with a portable power drill. Pretty cool (althought the drill was a symbol for something else.....ahem.....I am woman, hear me roar...) In this movie you have a guy with a drill strapped to the endo of his electric guitar. He runs around with his guitar, singing incredibly bad versions of 1950's hop music. You know "Go greased lightning....go greased lightning"???? Well yeah, it's that bad. I thought I rented a horror movie, not Grease 3. Because of this, there's really no tension here, you just laugh for the first 30 seconds and then hit fast forward. The only really terrifying thing, is the fact that you actually paid money for this....

Third is the ending. Yeah, it's not bad. It wraps things up, and it's nothing you can't see coming. But once again, the ending is killed by the 6 minute 50's rock chase sequence.

All in All, I thought it was pretty bad. You watch these types of movies because they are so bad...they're good. But this one is just plain bad.