The Director: Amy Holden Jones
The Cast: Michele Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella
Release Date: November 12, 1982
You have to squint really hard to see it - or at the very least set your brain to "receive" and let it wash over you - but The Slumber Party Massacre is more than it seems to be. What some viewers miss about this slasher flick, which offers up a lot of the boobs and blood you'd expect, is that it was designed to be a statement against the average male dominated slasher flick of the '80s.
In fact, Slumber Party Massacre happens to be one of the few films of its type to be directed and written entirely by women. Director Amy Jones and writer Rita Mae Brown take steps to show the drill that is used by the male killer as a phallic symbol, and the girls are painted into the type of extreme stereotypes that these movies made famous. The idea, I guess, is to point out the idiocy of these films by going too far over the top. The flick isn't entirely successful at pulling off its feminist goals - at the end of the day, it can easily be mistaken for just another stupid slasher flick - but it's an interesting piece of horror nostalgia that has a few tricks up its sleeves.
(Ummmm....I can't really show you the trailer for this flick without moving this blog into the R-rated district. It's on YouTube, if you want to see what you're in for....)
