The Slumber Party Massacre

Name: The Slumber Party Massacre
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Released: November 12, 1982
Duration: 77 min
Rating: 51

1982

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	Your Score
6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Slumber Party Massacre

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Movie Details & Credits

New World Pictures | Release Date: November 12, 1982 | R

Summary: An eighteen-year-old high school girl is left at home by her parents and she decides to have a slumber party. There is friction between some of the invited guests and the new girl, who is better at basketball than they, so the new girl decides to stay at home (which is conveniently across the street from the host's house). Meanwhile, aAn eighteen-year-old high school girl is left at home by her parents and she decides to have a slumber party. There is friction between some of the invited guests and the new girl, who is better at basketball than they, so the new girl decides to stay at home (which is conveniently across the street from the host's house). Meanwhile, a murderer of five people with a propensity for power tools has escaped and is at large, and eventually makes his way to the party, where the guests begin experiencing an attrition problem, with only the new girl to help them.… Expand

Director: Amy Holden Jones

Genre(s): Horror, Comedy

Rating: R

Runtime: 77 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

Noel Murray

What Slumber Party Massacre lacks in style, originality, and satire, it makes up in entertainment value. It’s blessedly unpretentious. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Out of traditional horror material consisting of red herrings, sudden shock movements into frame, etc, helmer Amy Jones develops some very stylish sequences. Read full review

Dave Kehr

One of the better Halloween carbons, thanks to an unusually appealing cast and generally good pacing by director Amy Jones. Read full review

Scott Tobias

Though the sequels to The Slumber Party Massacre venture into outright sex comedy, Jones tries the more effective tack of playing the slasher stuff straight and inserting clever visual jokes when she has the opportunity. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

While Jones' direction is nothing special, the script by Brown does have its share of male ego-deflating laughs--mainly some obvious Freudian jokes--and actually takes some time to develop the victims as characters instead of mere gore-fodder. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Despite the unlikely script credit for Rita Mae Brown, Jones's debut feature is little more than a Halloween clone, reliant on buckets of blood and sudden surprise rather than suspense. Read full review

Janet Maslin

The fact that Miss Brown and Miss Jones have obviously tried to inject a little satire and innovation into the genre just makes the ultimate vulgarity of their film all the more disappointing. Read full review

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User Reviews

Computey18

Dec 25, 2022

A decent film from the hack n' slash era of movie making and if you need an hour to waste, watch this movie.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

ForeverFinalGir

Dec 20, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a fun 80’s horror movie that checks all the boxes for a good slasher flick. We get good kills, nudity, and cheesy lines. This all wrapped up in a nice bow by Amy Holden Jones, a female horror director.

PLOT

You know how girls love to scream.–Jeff

A teenage girl has a slumber party with three of her friends. Unbeknownst to them a serial killer has escaped and now he is prowling her neighborhood looking for his next kill. And his weapon of choice is a drill. A large drill.

MY THOUGHTS

We get twelve kills in this film. 11 are killed by Russ and the final kill is the death of Russ. The drill is the weapon for most kills. And yes, I get the symbology of the drill resembling a male phallic member. I just think it’s a cool weapon. Though I’m not sure if you can behead someone with it. The only kill that bothers me is the Coach’s. She shouldn’t have died. Val took too long picking a weapon. She first picks a circular saw that requires an electrical cord. And FINALLY she decides to take the machete. I don’t know about you, but I would have picked that first. If she would have come up early the Coach probably would have lived.

We’re here for the orgy.–Jackie

Since this is an 80’s slasher movie there will be nudity. It’s fairly early on with the girls changing clothes and the obligatory shower scene. Though I read that it was a requirement for Amy Holden Jones to have some nudity because Roger Corman wanted it and he was financing it.

The characters and actors were pretty good for this genre. Thanks to Slumber Party Massacre we get the great Scream Queen, Brinke Stevens, in her first role. Other than that we get the mix of “nice” girl, **** girl, and the rest are somewhere in between.

The only complaint I had was (and it’s really minor), during the scene where the Coach is beating Russ on the back with a poker, you can see the poker shake like a rubber/fake prop. I know I shouldn’t mind it, but I stopped the movie and rewound it just to see if I actually saw it.

Slumber Party Massacre only took three weeks to film.
Amy Holden Jones caught a lot of flack for having nudity in the movie. A lot of critics and feminists expected no nudity in the movie since it was directed by a woman. Little did they know it was a requirement by Roger Corman in order to get financial backing.
If you want to see my other Slumber Party Massacre reviews, click here: Slumber Party Massacre Franchise.

Let’s get into the rankings:

Kills/Blood/Gore: 3.5/5
Sex/Nudity: 3/5
Scare factor: 2/5
Enjoyment factor: 5/5

My Rank: 3.375/5
IMDB: 5.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 4.2/10 audience: 4.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.1/5… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

royalguy07

Mar 24, 2023

A clear descendant/ripoff of Halloween, just 100x hornier. The bad guy is pretty weak unfortunately, just like a random short goon, he kinda redeemed himself with a good monologue near the end. Features a completely bizarre side plot of the girls trying to remember who scored all 6 runs inA clear descendant/ripoff of Halloween, just 100x hornier. The bad guy is pretty weak unfortunately, just like a random short goon, he kinda redeemed himself with a good monologue near the end. Features a completely bizarre side plot of the girls trying to remember who scored all 6 runs in the MLB game the night before, multiple scenes and conversations are dedicated to this.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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