It’s been almost 40 years since the release of Amy Holden Jones’ The Slumber Party Massacre, the low-budget, Roger Corman-produced, feminist slasher satire film. This month, filmmaker Danishka Esterhazy (The Banana Splits Movie), writer Suzanne Keilly (Ash vs. Evil Dead, Leprechaun Returns), and SYFY have released Slumber Party Massacre, a reboot of the original 1982 film. The new film stars Hannah Gonera (Spell), Frances Sholto-Douglas (Black Mirror), Mila Rayne, and Rob van Vuuren (Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell) as the franchise baddie, the Driller Killer.
Slumber Party Massacre follows Dana (Gonera), whose mother was the only survivor when Russ Thorn, a known psychopath on the loose, had butchered her friends in a remote cabin at a slumber party during the 1990’s. Dana’s mother escaped by defeating the killer, leaving him for dead. Now, thirty years later, Dana and her friends find themselves conveniently broken down at the same campsite, decide to stay the night in one of the cabins, and have their own slumber party. Little do they know, the Driller Killer is alive and well, looking for a party to crash.
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I’ve never really had much of an attachment to the original Slumber Party Massacre (I like it, but two is better!), so it was nice to go into this without any sort of bias toward the original. I will say though, this is very much not a remake of the original film. There are certainly some references and inspirations taken from the original franchise, including the Driller Killer, but the story is completely different, putting it in more of the reboot category. Without spoiling it, the story takes a hard turn pretty early on to completely separate it from it’s predecessor. It made me think of the 2019 Black Christmas, which I enjoyed, but got its share of hate from the original’s loyalists.
The acting wasn’t anything to write home about, though expected in the slasher genre, and especially one inspired by an old Corman-produced film. However, there were some great mother-daughter moments, which added development to Dana’s character and motives throughout the film. My biggest issue is that Slumber Party Massacre felt like it struggled to find its identity. It noodles back-and-forth between trying to a little too hard to capture the natural cheesiness of the original, while also trying to be a darker, grittier reboot. It felt like what the 2003 remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre would have been like if they tried throwing in the cheesiness of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Because of this, the Driller Killer didn’t feel imposing nor silly, he was just there.
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Conversely, some of the issues I had with the story and feel were offset with some extremely funny comedic moments, especially those purposely done as silly reverse throwbacks to the original film, like a full-on pillow fight featuring a half-dozen half-naked men. I also enjoyed the creativity of the kills. Like a lot of the more recent SYFY originals, Slumber Party Massacre went heavy on the practical effects, offering extremely bloody and inventive kills and lots of gore, which are both essential for a slasher that may understandably lack in other departments.
Overall, I didn’t love it, and I didn’t dislike it, but I’m glad I watched it. I thought it was a fun one-time watch, but probably won’t garner the cult classic love of the original among the fans of the franchise. Slumber Party Massacre is available to stream on the SYFY app, and available to rent on Amazon.
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