Slumber Party Massacre 2 (1987)

Tagline: Let’s take a shit on Joe Pelone’s childhood.

Curiosity: I hated this movie so much when I was a kid. But it came bundled with Slumber Party Massacre so…

Plot: Courtney (Crystal Bernand, Wings) is a well-liked teen. Her high school crush Matt (Patrick Lowe) seems interested in her. Her band, which sounds like The Bangles which really means they sound like The Hollies with female harmonies, is starting to come together. And now she’s going to take a weekend vacation with them to celebrate her birthday. Yep, everything is totally awesome for Courtney.Then a dude with a giant power drill (Atanas Ilitch) shows up and murders them all.

Thoughts: Man, fuck this movie. Slumber Party Massacre 2 completely loses sight of what made the original film so great. Slumber Party Massacre was an uncomplicated slasher flick that doubled as a dark comedy. It offered simple thrills, if you wanted them, but it was also pretty darn funny, all but guaranteeing itself a cult-following. The sequel, however, gets everything wrong.

The original was a crowd-pleaser, dishing out nudity and gore right away. The sequel doesn’t get to the murderizing until the final 30 minutes. While it offers a few bogus “dream sequence” scares, they’re all stupid. Courtney bites into a sandwich and thinks it’s a hand! SpoOoOoky! The film tries to push this “is it real or imaginary” angle by implying that Courtney is insane, which I honesty buy because A) she has some pretty intense/idiotic hallucinations and B) it’s the only way I can accept that the killer is a leather-clad rock ‘n’ roller with a guitar/drill. I feel like producer Roger Corman sat down with writer/director Deborah Brock and was like, “What do kids like? Rock ‘n’ roll, right? Put that in there!” The Driller Killer is so cartoonishly designed to seem cool that he just looks pathetic.

Slumber Party Massacre 2 cribs moves from Rocky Horror Picture Show and A Nightmare on Elm Street (and shamelessly plugs Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, another Corman production starring The Ramones. Broke actually went on to make a sequel to it, and it was just as crappy as this movie), but it never coheres into the sort of sexy/creepy/fun set-up of those films. While there are cool/graphic kills late in the film, overall it is neither scary nor kitschy enough to function as a horror or comedy film. And that ’80s soundtrack hurts, man.

Also, there aren’t enough boobs.

Reflection: If I was Courtney’s friend… wait, no. We would never be friends. Bitch is crazy.