Samuel LoveThe cult-favourite Slumber Party Massacre films are perhaps best known for being exclusively written and directed by women, offering a feminist subversion of the slasher genre. But the films are also known for just being bloody good fun. While the first film is more traditionally horror in its done and delivery (for the most part), the second film is zany nonsense – critic Scott Aaron Stine writes: “You can’t get much more of an insufferable viewing experience than this slasher flick-cum-musical“. But both films together – each at a wonderfully bitesize 75mins apiece – make for a fun doublebill, which has been made all the more fun by 101 Films’ 4K UHD set.
This is a must-own release for horror junkies and cult film lovers, collecting the first two entries of the gory series alongside an insightful booklet and oodles of special features. Number #40 in their Black Label range, this is another fantastic release from 101 Films.
101 Films presents iconic slashers The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) and Slumber Party Massacre II (1987), on 4K UHD and Blu-ray in the UK for the first time. Conceived as a parody of the slasher movie, The Slumber Party Massacre was eventually shot as a straightforward horror, leading to some uniquely dark humour (both intended and otherwise). The more overtly comical Slumber Party Massacre II was the first of several sequels in what was the first horror series to be exclusively written and directed by women, providing a fresh perspective within a historically male-dominated genre.
The Slumber Party Massacre
It’s going to be the slumber party to end all slumber parties. With her parents away, Trish (Michelle Michaels) is planning a weekend of high jinks fun for her high school basketball team friends – a slumber party at her house. She’s not sure if she wants to invite the newly arrived and talented Valerie (Robin Stille) but someone who is definitely coming is Russ Thorn. Locked up in a mental institution since 1969, Thorn, the nastiest of the driller killer psychos, has escaped and is heading back to town intent on more bloody mayhem. This night no one’s going to get much sleep – there’s potato chips, drinks, dope, severed heads, blood and gore-a-plenty.
Special Features
- Sleepless Nights: The Making of the Slumber Party Massacre
- Audio commentary with director Amy Holden Jones and actors Michael Villella and Debra De Liso
- Interview with actor Rigg Kennedy
- Trailers
- Alternate title sequence
- Still gallery
Slumber Party Massacre II
The only sane survivor of The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), Courtney (Crystal Bernard) dreams of the drill murderer returning. She can’t shake the horrible feeling that she and her friends will be viciously tormented and brutally butchered. Again, and again the nightmare returns. No one believes her, until it’s too late. The drill killer returns, reincarnated as an evil rocker, he methodically stalks them one by one and violently gores them to death … can anyone survive Slumber Party Massacre II.
Special Features
- Original R-rated cut
- Extended unrated cut
- Audio commentary with writer / director / producer Deborah Brock, producer Don Daniel and story editor Beverly Gray
- Sleepless Nights: Revisiting Slumber Party Massacre II
- Trailers
- Still Gallery
