The Slumber Party Massacre films, all three directed by women, will now finally be available on re-release with killer bonus features. You can also get a cool SPM pillow case, too!
Don’t Open the Door was a script written by feminist author Rita Mae Brown (she wrote Rubyfruit Jungle, which appears in Tish's bedroom in the first film) as a response to the recent slasher films that created modern slasher stereotypes like Halloween (1978), and parodied the obvious cliches by setting a slumber party in the path of a deranged lunatic killer wielding a phallic electric drill. Roger Corman, who gave many women horror directors their first shot, allowed first-time director Amy Holden to have a go at it. The film was an immediate hit for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, eventually spawning two sequels that were subsequently more ridiculous. It also spawned the career of actress Brinke Stevens, who made her very first shower-appearance in the first 15 minutes of the film.
All three Slumber Party Massacres are being released October 5th in one DVD set from Shout! Factory, in association with New Horizons Picture Corporation. The 2-DVD set includes The SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE: Special Edition, SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE II, and SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE III, as well as such killer all-new bonus features as a three-part documentary, "Sleepless Nights: Revisiting The Slumber Party Massacres," a photo and poster still gallery, and an essay on the Slumber Party phenomenon, "Close Your Eyes For A Second … And Sleep Forever."
Thanks in part to a brilliant marketing campaign pushing a feminist angle because the film was written, produced and directed by women, the story of a girls’ basketball team drilled to death at their celebratory slumber party became a staple in mom-and-pop corner video stores of the 1980s. Bulked in with the “best” of the early slashers, The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) had a secret weapon: a wicked little brain and a dark sense of humor layered between the three nude scenes and one very brief sex scene. The girls take on the masculine roles (playing sports, working as telephone repair women, basketball coaches, carpenters and always willing to fight back against the “Driller Killer”), while the somewhat effeminate boys made the stupid decisions typically played out by women in the subgenre. Additionally, the boys died more violently on screen than their counterparts.
In The Slumber Party Massacre, directed by Amy Holden Jones, 18-year-old high schooler Trish (Michelle Michaels) decides to invite her high school girls' basketball teammates over for a slumber party. What she doesn't know is that the girls will get an uninvited guest -- Russ Thorn, an escaped mental patient and murderer of five people who's weapon of choice is a portable power drill.
The only sane survivor of the first incident, Courtney (Crystal Bernard of "Wings" fame), dreams of the driller killer returning in the first sequel, Slumber Party Massacre II (1987, directed by Deborah Brock.) She can't help shake the feeling that she and her friends will be viciously tormented by the killer. Her nightmare becomes reality when the killer returns, reincarnated as an evil rocker with a deadly guitar, who goes about slaying more teens.
The final, installment, Slumber Party Massacre III (1990, directed by Sally Mattison), is a re-imagining of the first film, but with more gore and violence. After a relaxing day at the beach, a group of teens decide to have a slumber party. Their boyfriends predictably show up to scare them, but there is something much scarier lurking in the shadows as the group starts getting attacked by an unknown killer with a fixation on drilling.
Comments
Well, I am picking up the set, so I might have to visit the Shout! Factory site. I do need a new pillowcase....
I love the first film!