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Film: Slumber Party Massacre
Year: 2021
Director: Danishka Esterhazy
Writer: Suzanne Keilly
Starring: Hannah Gonera, Frances Sholto-Douglas and Mila Rayne
Review:
This is a film that I remember coming out. I assumed that it was going to be bad, but to be honest I heard reviews being more positive. What made me move this up on my list of films to see was because I thought this would make for a good Featured Review for Women in Horror month. Our director and writer are women, plus our lead characters are as well. This also doubles as an Odyssey through the Ones watch and finishing out the franchise for me.
Synopsis: Dana (Hannah Gonera) and her friends are going on a weekend trip. After their car breaks down in the very same town where her mother once fought the Driller Killer, she and her friends come face-to-face with the man who has haunted her mother’s life for the past 30 years.
We start this with a woman walking briskly through the woods. She comes to a vehicle, gets something out of the trunk and is spooked by a guy. The woman is Trish (Masali Baduza). She is spooked by her ex-boyfriend, Chad (Arthur Falko). She is here with her friends, as is he. He’s trying to apologize for cheating on her and wants to get back together. Trish isn’t interested. She’s on a girl’s trip and wants him to leave.
Returning to the cabin, the friends act out slumber party clichés—dancing in pajamas and baking brownies. They also have cookies the owner left them. Chad is seen peeping through the window, noticing Russ Thorne (Rob van Vuuren) also watching. Russ, wielding a large drill, begins killing the friends. Trish is the last survivor. She fights back, knocking him into the lake. He is presumed dead, but his body is never recovered.
It then shifts to the present. Dana Devereaux is listening to a podcast about the incident. Something interesting is that her mother is Trish (Schelaine Bennett). This ordeal has scarred her. She doesn’t leave the house often. She’s worried about Dana going on a similar trip like she did. She pushes in hopes that her daughter will cancel. That’s not the case and we see her leave with Maeve (Frances Sholto-Douglas), Beanie (Alex McGregor) and Ashley (Reze-Tiana Wessels). They hit the road.
It is during their trip that they make an interesting discovery. They have a stowaway. Alix (Mila Rayne) is the younger sister to Maeve. She’s tagged along. They don’t figure it out until they’re too far to turn back. It is decided that she’ll join them for the weekend. They then run into another issue. They have car trouble. They need a radiator hose in order to fix the problem. The group goes into a local store, run by Kay (Jennifer Steyn). They inquire about a place to stay. She just happens to have a cabin.
The group settles in, mirroring the events of 30 years ago. The arrival of John (Michael Lawrence Potter) and Matt (Eden Classens), who saw Alix on the dock, interrupts their plan. When the men knock, the group produces weapons, torn between their plan and warning the guys. Alix also finds Dave (Richard Wright-Firth) from the gas station dead in his truck. Survival becomes a struggle, complicated by misinterpretations.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’ll start is that this is a fun re-imaging of the original film. It is paying homage to that one, along with the sequel, which I do appreciate. Something interesting to go along with that, it does seem that the director wanted to cut out the elements that Roger Corman put in the original to help make it sell. Danishka Esterhazy ramped up the female gaze as a commentary against the male gaze that we normally see in slasher films like that. Some of this works, while others not so much.
The film is a clever take on the original trilogy, with a cold open mirroring what we’d get in those. What we get there later is similar when Dana and her friends arrive at the cabin, which is a deliberate and effective choice. Subverting expectations, the girls later watch the guys' "slumber party," and the only nudity is a male shower scene, which is a welcome deviation from the norm for this type of movie.
As a slasher film, the practical effects for the brutal kills were appreciated. I did see a complaint of CGI use in another review. I didn’t necessarily notice that, outside of enhancing things. That is the best use for me. The good cinematography helped hide any seams. The large cast, mostly for cannon fodder, is what's desired in this subgenre. The film is well-paced; the cold open quickly leads to the kills, and the 90-minute runtime is perfect. Slasher films aren’t my favorite, so what this did worked in this respect.
There are elements that don’t work for me. I do think that this goes a bit too over the top with the meta nature. There are jokes that feel like dialogue in a movie and not how people would talk in real life. It doesn’t ruin this by any stretch, but when certain things are said or did, it feels like a movie. If that could have just been reined in a bit, I think this works just a bit better.
Other themes to explore would include the burden of survival that has crippled Trish, causing her to project onto Dana, who seeks to break the cycle. The film satirizes toxic masculinity, with the drill as a clear phallic symbol, connecting to Russ's killings and the theme of blaming victims. A vital theme is female solidarity, which aids survival and deconstructs the trope of women bickering and splitting up. These are incorporated well in my opinion.
The acting is generally over-the-top, playing into tropes. Gonera is strong as the determined lead, reflecting the theme of breaking cycles. The rest of her group (Sholto-Douglas, Rayne, McGregor, Wessels) works well. Van Vuuren's portrayal of the killer is effective. Steyn, Bennett, and Baduza fill their roles adequately. Notably, the male characters (Potter, Classens, Falko, and others) are underdeveloped, a reversal of the norm for female roles, which is a credit. Overall, the acting suits the film's requirements.
In conclusion, this 2021 reboot is a commendable and self-aware slasher film. It succeeds in updating a notorious franchise by centering the female gaze, subverting classic genre tropes, and offering a fun, bloody ride. While its meta-commentary occasionally borders on being too stylized, the strong themes of female solidarity, the effective pacing, and the commitment to practical effects make this a standout entry. It serves as a respectful homage to the original while offering a modern, satirical critique of the genre's history, making it a definite recommendation for horror fans.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10