The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

Director: Amy Holden Jones

Starring: Michelle Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella, Debra Deliso, Andree Honore, Jennifer Meyers, Joseph Alan Johnson, David Millbern, Jim Boyce, Pamela roylance, Brinke Stevenes

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Close your eyes for a second... and sleep forever.

Plot: It's all fun and games till someone gets an eye poked out, and that could easily happen when escaped psycho Russ Thorn runs amok with a power drill, terrorizing teens with his grisly antics. Young Trish Devereaux (Michele Michaels) throws a slumber party and, naturally, a gaggle of randy boys turns up. But when Thorn crashes the bash, the mood turns gruesome. As the teens go toes up one by one, three brave girls draft a plan to stop the killer.

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again? Absofuckinglutely!

#250 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 1 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)


Man, this was a friggin' hoot! I can't believe I've never seen this. I remember the totally awesome video cover back in the 80s video stores but I never picked it up for some reason. It's too bad, too, because it's loads of fun. There's a lot of nudity and gore, just what you'd expect in an early 80s slasher but there's also a lot of humor but this is by no means a comedy. I laughed my ass off a few times. It's dark but it's also really, really good.

Filth. Pure filth. That's just wrong.

I really dig how there are so many false scares where you think the killer is about to strike but it turns out to be something else, and they explore all kinds of ways to do it. Classic. There's a scene where Valerie is in the basement trying to find the right tool to attack the killer with that's really funny. I suspect it was this scene that inspired Tarantino to do what he did in PULP FICTION (1994) with Bruce Willis's character.


The final scene when the girls go up against the killer outside by the pool is grisly. I actually cringed when...well, you need to see it. You might think I'm nuts for rating this so high but it really is a top notch blast and the best part is it's only about an hour and fifteen minutes long. There's no fat;this is a lean, mean, fun killing machine. It's also written and directed by women which makes it all the more awesome. They clearly had a blast with this movie. Director Jones didn't direct much after this but she did write the screenplays for MYSTIC PIZZA (1988) and INDECENT PROPOSAL (1993) among others. Her brother, Ralph, provided a really good and effective organ score, too. SPM is the only non-TV project writer Rita Mae Brown did and that's too bad. I would love to see what else they could have done in the genre. This is a home run.