10 reasons why Slumber Party Massacre III rocks!!!

10 reasons why Slumber Party Massacre III rocks!!!

To celebrate Shout Factory's latest release of the killer driller double feature of both Slumber Party Massacre 2 & 3 I decided to express my love for these super cheesy slashers over this past week. After expressing my love for part 2, I decided to say screw it and show why Slumber Party Massacre 3 is just as good and a classic slasher. Remember guys, there was some truly awesome horror movies made in the early 1990's. A fact I feel many forget. So here are 10 reasons why the highly underrated part III, a film I actually just watched for the first time this past weekend and LOVED!

1) Going back to the straight darker slasher format. 

- I think it's safe to say how over the top and crazy part II was. Instead of being a straight up slasher, things went in an opposite direction making it look like some colorful MTV twisted rock video. With part III they stuck more to the original and went to more of a straight up horror movie. In fact, I instantly knew I needed to check this movie out after hearing that some people were actually disturbed by how mean spirited it was. Wanting to check it out I was highly surprised by much I liked this darker and more serious direction they went with this one.

2) Filmed in 1990, yet feels like an 80's movie.

- Filmed in January of 1990, this movie truly looks and feels like a true 80's slasher. It takes the same format that these movies usually have. You got a bunch of girls having a slumber party, they get half naked, drink, eat junk food, the boys in the neighborhood crash the party, a killer is lurking around, people get killed, the girls fight back, and bang! The killer goes down. Well this movies sticks to this, but between the fashion, the fact it takes place in LA, and even the old school gore just makes you believe it's an 80's movie. Still, this is yet another reason why the 1990's truly had some great hidden gems. I truly believe horror wasn't dead until Scream. I think it was alive and well...depending on who you ask.

3) The setting of the house being in a neighborhood. 

- I really loved the house featured in this movie. I read somewhere that it's featured in one of the Sorority House movies as well. Much like Halloween, it goes to show you don't need to be in the middle of nowhere and be unsafe. This was the early 90's. LA wasn't exactly the safest place, and there were psychos everywhere. One of the most disturbing scenes is the girl going to her car and having the killer pop out from the backseat. Here he holds her hands back as she struggles and screams. Mind you this happens in the middle of the day, on a busy street and boom, he drives the drill through the back of the seat killing her. Whoa. I really liked the layout of the house where the slumber party takes place in, and how creepy it is that all these people are getting killed and attacked and the neighbors don't seem to hear a thing (...) I also loved the scene of the delivery girl walking back to her car with the killer running behind her. Holy shit!

4) The killer's twisted motive. 

- This movie suffers from a weak script. You truly have to pay attention to see the clues behind the twisted killer's actions. Mind you, this is a cheesy slasher movie, they weren't trying to be some Oscar winning film. Still, if you pay close enough attention you'll see some details that make things clearer. Ken, the cute guy that some of the girls know from school on the beach, is invited by one of the girls and shows up later. If you notice when he goes upstairs to have sex with her as soon as she goes to unzip his fly he can't get it up. Afterwards it's revealed that the girl he took upstairs is found dead in a closet. Posing as the victim, everyone believes it was this creepy guy they saw earlier on the beach that was lurking found. Ken shows his true colors after he says he'll run down the street to his uncle's who's a police officer. Well, another guy goes with them and he attacks them, only to call the teens hiding inside that he called the police and they will be there soon. (The girls called the police earlier, only to be dismissed as a prank call. In this same scene, at the police station one of the cops are shown reading a newspaper showing that a retired police officer just recently killed himself. When the other officer asks about if he knew him the cop shrugs saying there were rumors he was gay.) During the rest of the movie Ken attacks everyone inside of the house raving about his uncle and what they did to him. He breaks down several times, and when one of the girls tries to touch his crotch to earn his trust and not get murdered, he completely flips. In fact he acts uber violent whenever anything remotely sexualy happens. He's shown at one point in his van with the other corpses and a shrine to his dead uncle, including photographs and newspaper clippings. He vows he'll make them pay (For what exactly is beyond me.) At the very end he starts to have flashbacks of what I guess is meant to make the audience believe that his uncle molested him as a child. In the last scene it shows one of the girls find a photograph of Ken when he was a child kissing his uncle. Unsettling to say the least. Had this script been stronger I feel it would have been ten times more clearer. Still, pretty sketchy stuff and makes this movie much more darker.

5) The pizza delivery scene.

- I love the scene when the pizza delivery woman comes to deliver the pizzas only to run into dorky Duncan with his killer bowl cut. Here he offers her 47$ if he can have her pizza delivery shirt and delivery the pizzas. She agrees and I cracked up when Duncan asks her to turn around so she won't watch him undress. Sadly the pizza delivery girl doesn't get to enjoy her money since the killer follows her down the street as she heads to her car.

6) The cast

- I really liked the cast in this one, filled with tons of B movie actresses who all do a decent job. I mean the acting was pretty horrible, but this is a fun slasher and some of the more intense scenes were actually played out pretty good. The lead of the film looks just like the girl from Orange Is The New Black. They all did a great job posing as a group of friends that all go way back. I found them all likable, mostly Susie. If I'm right she plays a small part in Society. Glad she makes it to the end.

7) The weirdo and the creepy neighbor. 

- Both characters were great. The neighbor cracked me up between his woman's scream, and him spying on the girls only to end up being the one to call the police and have them actually listen when he reports a disturbance. Love how long it takes the police to come, and the weirdo with those intense eyes as he's sitting on the beach staring. They never go into detail about who he was. Maybe he really was just returning the address book. Who knows.

8) How stupid these girls are, and how some actually fight back.

- I watched this with a friend and we both couldn't believe how STUPID these girls were. I mean really? They had a MILLION chances to just run out of the house and get help. Instead they hide inside the house. I'm sorry but I would risk breaking bones and jump from the second floor. I love how one girl actually has the balls to crash through the patio glass door only to knock herself out. Hey at least she tried. Then the killer blocks the outside doorway with a table. A TABLE. The girls act as if it's impossible to crawl over and under to get out. Or the basement window where the girl just can't seem to crawl out of. I would have shoved her ass out. These girls stay like scared little rats inside the house. A few of them actually fight back, and hide in pretty decent places. One girl gets basically molested while her dumb friends just stand back and watch instead of helping or running out for help. Another gets her ass handed to her upstairs in a bedroom, and at least one of her friends is decent enough to run out of her really good hiding space to help her. At the very end finally the girls have enough and fight back. I love how the lead thinks it's crazy to kill him when he's knocked out. Um, he had no problem killing all of you. Hum...still, it takes finally the lead's best friend getting stabbed before finally she grabs the drill and uses it on him. Love how they wrapped him up in the volleyball net. (...)

9) The very over the top moments.

- It's a cheesy movie with TONS of cheesy moments. I mean death by a sex toy? How about Ken screaming about the body being stuffed in a garment bag. The girls dancing around naked (I guess I had lame slumber parties, nobody never stripped.) The pizza stained carpet, the girl eating uncooked pasta in the kitchen, the bleach being thrown at the killer, and so much more. These don't make this a bad movie. In fact in my eyes it makes it all the more cheesy and awesome.

10) The ending. 

- The girls knock out Ken. They wrap him up in a volleyball net and are trying to figure out what to do with him (You know, after you watched your friend get murdered, did nothing, and won't leave the house.) Ken wakes up, there's a huge struggle, and one of the girl's get stabbed. I do love how Ken was basically half blind after the bleach episode and has Susie trapped in the den. Here the lead snaps and grabs his drill ramming it into him over and over and over again until he's dead. Covered in blood she sits there as finally the police sirens are heard in the distance. Here she finds the cramped up blood stained photo of Ken and his creepy uncle. A very dark and twisted ending to a great slasher!

Long live 1990!