A good, better than usual Halloween clone set in a quite Venice suburb of Los Angeles where an 18-year-old girl, Trish, decides to throw a slumber party for her friends, members of her school's girls basketball team. Little do they know that a wild-eyed, middle-aged, maniac named Russ Thorn, who killed five people back in 1969, has escaped from a mental hospital and spots Trish and follows her to and from school to her house and, undercover of darkness, invades their party. Pre-slumber party killings include a telephone repairwoman named Mary, whom Thorn steals her van and drill he needs for the killing, and teammate Linda (played by Brinke Stevens in an early movie role) but they woun't be missed by the others. This one has all the elements of a good 1980's slasher flick, a high body count, a fair amount of splatter, a most phallic weapon, lots of false shocks, some gratuitious female nudity, etc. Given that this was writen and directed by women one would expect anything other than this material would have been given an edge of parody or irony, but it's all played straight. There is no masked killer, no surprise killer, no twist in the end, just straight-forward horror. Despite some cheap qualities it's all not badly done, especially in the last 20 minutes where the driller killer finally breaks into Trish's house and the girls dashing from room to room getting killed one by one, all the while the girl next door, Valerie and her little sister, Courtney, are oblivious to the going-ons. It is notable for Robin Stille as Valerie in the Jamie Lee Curtis heroine role and Andree Honore and the party goer with the largest bust.
Contents: 11 killings, good graphic gore (including a head lost and a hand getting chopped off), female nudity galore, lots of screams, a more stylish-than-usual, energetic flick.
Contents: 11 killings, good graphic gore (including a head lost and a hand getting chopped off), female nudity galore, lots of screams, a more stylish-than-usual, energetic flick.