I've always had a soft spot in my heart for "Slumber Party Massacre" ever since I first saw it at the ripe old age of 11. Sure it's not the bloodiest, scariest, well acted or written horror movie that wonderful 80's produced- but it does have something that makes it special and a standout on its own.

Trish (Michelle Michaels) is a popular basketball player whose parents have gone away for the weekend. Just so happens that the night before, convicted killer and mental patient Russ Thorn (wonderfully played by Michael Villella) has escaped from confinement. Awww...timing is everything! Val (Robin Stille) is the new girl in school as well as on the basketball team, who also happens to live right next door to Trish. Of course, Trish decides to gather her girls for a night of fun at her empty house. She suggests they invite Val, and is of course is rejected by her snobby & trampy friend Diane (Gina Mari).

Cut to the chase...the girls have there slumber party. Of course Russ has been following them around all day and is just waiting for his moment to strike. Val on the other hand is alone too next door, with the exception of her boy crazy 13 year old sister Courtney (Jennifer Meyers). When the pizza delivery boy shows up dead on Trish's doorstep- mayhem ensues. The girls (along with some boys who have crashed the Slumber Party) are scared to death. They are afraid to leave the house - so the boys volunteer to make a run for it.

One by one our teenagers get hacked away. Eventually Val and Courtney get involved in the goings on and before you know it our girls are in some serious trouble.

The movie works due to some genuinely funny comedic dialogue- and Michael Villella's great portrayal of the Driller Killer. When he says "I love you" in his sick and twisted way- you genuinely feel creeped out! The music is also quite good as well. With a 77 minute run time- Slumber Party Massacre doesn't drag and keeps pace quite nicely. If you collect horror and are a big fan of the classic cheesy horror movies from the beloved 80's, Slumber Party Massacre is worth an entry into your DVD collection.

While her parents are away for the weekend, Trish invites a few of her girlfriends over for the weekend. Their plans include beer, weed, and pizza. Plans are interrupted, however, by an escaped mental patient with a very large power drill that he enjoys plunging into his victims. Girls in pajamas (or less) and a deranged killer - sounds like a good mix.

I never realized the screenplay for Slumber Party Massacre was written by novelist Rita Mae Brown. Over the years, I've enjoyed her Mrs Murphy mystery series. I've read that she originally intended the movie to be a parody of the slasher genre, but the producers went ahead and made it a more serious movie. There's still a lot of humor in the film that I find quite funny - the refrigerator door scene near the end being one example. Also, knowing that this was originally meant to be a parody, it helps explain a lot to me about the killer and the rest of the movie. On his own, Russ Thorn is not very frightening - just odd. Some of his facial expressions in the finale are priceless. I haven't read through all the comments on IMDb, so I'm sure this has been endlessly written about, but exactly what kind of power source was he using with that drill? There was no power cord and I've never seen a battery powered drill that can maintain that much power for that length of time. It must have been one of those nuclear drills so popular in the early 80s. The giant drill also makes for a very unwieldy, noisy weapon. Not the weapon of choice when sneaking up on people. I'll bet this was most likely a leftover irony from the original script.

Since its release, I think I've now seen Slumber Party Massacre three times. I enjoyed it much more this time, but still can't rate it higher than a 5/10. I think that had they gone ahead and made this a full- on parody, it would have been a much better movie.

I've seen this one three different times - once in childhood, once in my teen years and finally again now as an adult as part of IFC's month-long "80s Slashback" series (August 2005). I watched every single retro slasher film they played and this one was by far one of the most enjoyable. Sure it is just a simple low-budget horror outing rife with chances to criticize it (as Siskel and Ebert, Leonard Maltin and many others did upon release), but what is maybe not-so-simple and not-so-typical in this critically disreputed genre is that it is put together with enthusiasm, a good sense of humor and surprising attention to detail. And while it provides the requisite nude scenes and gory murders, it does not put viewers to sleep in between the exploitation.

In other words, compared to the absolute crap we horror fans are subjected to nowadays, this movie is funny, clever, entertaining and fast-paced. SPM possesses a genuine sense of fun that is just about extinct in today's slasher movies. The principle cast (Michele Michaels, Debra DeLiso, Robin Stille...) is comprised of mostly unknown young actors and actresses, but they are fun, natural and appealing and none of them walk through their roles acting disinterested in the material. Brinke Stevens, one of the most ubiquitous Scream Queens of the past twenty years, has an early role here, as does Aaron Lipstadt, the director of the sci-fi sleeper Android (1982) with Klaus Kinski. Humorously scripted by feminist author Rita Mae Brown (of 'Rubyfruit Jungle' fame).

Score: 7 out of 10