THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE

US, 1982, 76 minutes, Colour.
Michele Michaels.
Directed by Amy Jones.

The Slumber Party Massacre is one of many (very many) multiple murder films of the early 1980s. Taking their cue from Halloween, with the addition of Friday the 13th. and students being massacred, these films generally took the shell of the story and used it for exploitation and visual gore. This film does the same though in some ways with more restraint. There is more suggestion than long visual close ups.

The film is of interest as it was written by a woman, Rita Mae Brown and produced and directed by a woman, Amy Jones. The film focuses on college girls and recreates the atmosphere of school, basketball, the talk in the changing room and the slumber party where the girls stay over with touches of pot and drink. However, by and large the film does not exploit the sexual themes. Where the film is different is in its better than average characterisation of the main girls. The heroine is a strong character and generous. There is the girl who is ousted by the others who, of course, is heroine at the end (with the aid of her ugly duckling younger sister). There are some men in the cast, generally sympathetic, but they are disposed of by the mad murderer. Within the short running time there are several murders. However, the film abounds in red herrings, playfully put forward to scare the audience (and effectively so), and in the use of all kinds of cinematic techniques for horror films. In this sense the film is also an exercise in elaborate scare and shock techniques for use in horror films. It is a nightmare with ugly and gory touches but, of its kind, effectively done.