{"id":3684,"date":"2024-08-28T20:48:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T20:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3684"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:33:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:33:26","slug":"slumber-party-massacre-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/28\/slumber-party-massacre-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Slumber Party Massacre II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Slumber Party Massacre II <\/strong>(1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Concorde\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 75 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, gore, nudity, some sexual content, drug and alcohol use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Deborah Brock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Deborah Brock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Richard Cox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Thomas L. Callaway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 16, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Crystal Bernard, Kimberly McArthur, Juliette Cummins, Heidi Kozak, Patrick Lowe, Joel Hoffman, Scott Westmoreland, Cynthia Eilbacher, Atanas Ilitch, Jennifer Rhodes, Michael DeLano, Hamilton Mitchell.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1.3M (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body Count: 7<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0As a general rule, sequels aren\u2019t equals. They\u2019re generally inferior product. This is especially true of horror sequels that bypass theaters and go straight to video. Just like with every rule, there are certain exceptions. I\u2019m not saying that Slumber Party Massacre II<\/strong> is better or even equal to the 1982 original. It doesn\u2019t suck either. It\u2019s just, for lack of a better word, different. Take the new \u201cDriller Killer\u201d (Ilitch) that terrorizes a new group of nubile teen girls at their slumber party. He\u2019s a cross between Freddy Krueger and Danny Zuko from Grease. He\u2019s born of the nightmares of one of the girls. He sings and dances like John Travolta. His weapon of a choice is an electric guitar affixed with a big drill bit. That is some whacked out s***. I love it! It saves Slumber Party Massacre II<\/strong> from being just another horror sequel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The heroine this time is Courtney (Bernard, Happy Days), one of the survivors of the previous slumber party massacre- i.e. the 12YO little sister. Now a high school senior, she still experiences nightmares stemming from the trauma that put older sister Valerie (Eilbacher) in a mental hospital. The star of her bad dreams is a leather jacketed greaser who tosses off one-liners Freddy would reject for being too corny. For her birthday, her overprotective mother (Rhodes) allows her to go away for the weekend with her friends Amy (Playboy playmate McArthur), Sheila (Cummins, Friday the 13th<\/sup> Part V: A New Beginning) and Sally (Kozak, Friday the 13th<\/sup> Part VII: The New Blood) at Sheila\u2019s father\u2019s new condo. Did I mention they\u2019re also a girl rock band? Well, now you know.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Their parent-free slumber party consists of the usual activities; junk food, booze, drugs, sex and dancing topless in the living room. All the things that made being a teenager in an 80s slasher flick great. That is, until the Grim Reaper comes calling to exact his toll. It takes a while for that to happen in Slumber Party Massacre II<\/strong>. The first half (roughly) consists of the girls dealing with the dumb shenanigans of their male friends Jeff (Westmoreland) and T.J. (Hoffman) and Courtney crushing on hunky football player Matt (Lowe) while she slowly loses her mind. True to horror movie form, the nightmares get worse and she starts experiencing hallucinations causing her friends to look at her funny. Then the killer shows up and drills his way through the group.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can safely say that Slumber Party Massacre II<\/strong> is one of the better horror sequels that didn\u2019t play in theaters. According to Wikipedia, it did open in theaters briefly. I know it didn\u2019t open in Philly; I\u2019d have been all over it. As far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s a DTV (Direct to Video) job. I didn\u2019t rent it when it came out even though I always saw the box sitting on the shelf at my usual video stores. I figured it would be lame. I didn\u2019t watch it until years later. It\u2019s not lame. In fact, it surpasses the original in one (and ONLY one) crucial area. Despite having a lower body count, it has more gore and splatter. Victims are drilled through various parts of the body. One poor sucker gets gutted with the killer\u2019s instrument of death. Good thing I like my slasher movies messy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another thing that stands out about Slumber Party Massacre II<\/strong> is that it\u2019s funny. I never saw a slasher movie where the killer breaks out into song and dance until I feasted my eyes on this twisted flick. He does a rockabilly number called \u201cLet\u2019s Buzz\u201d as he closes in on one victim. It\u2019s one of the best scenes in the movie. It\u2019s also not the only musical break; the girls\u2019 play a couple of tunes too. Okay, so they\u2019re not actually doing their own singing and playing; it\u2019s still pretty good for cheesy 80s rock music. The way these kids dress makes it crystal clear they\u2019re living in 1987.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Once again, I see no point in commenting on the performances in Slumber Party Massacre II<\/strong>. What is there to say really? The guys are good-looking boneheads; the girls are hot airheads. A couple of the girls take off their tops and reveal their boobs while Jeff and TJ peep at them through a window. What is it with peeping toms in these Slumber Party Massacre movies? Incidentally, McArthur is NOT one of the boob flashers; she didn\u2019t want to do any nude scenes after appearing topless in her three previous films including the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Easy Money. Remember, she played the sunbathing neighbor with the huge breasts? ANYWAY, it\u2019s cool seeing a couple of Friday the 13th<\/sup> actresses- one past, one future- together in the same movie. Kozak looks especially good. Bernard is okay in the lead even if she tends to oversell the crazy. Ilitch is great as \u201cDriller Killer\u201d. Hey, I guess there are a few things to say about the performances after all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I like how Slumber Party Massacre II<\/strong> gives props to other horror movies. The two cops who come to the house are named Krueger and Voorhies. Courtney\u2019s last name is Bates. Sally\u2019s last name is Burns, a call out to both actress Marilyn Burns and the character she played in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I\u2019m glad this movie has a sense of humor. Without it, it would be fairly routine and boring. It\u2019s written and directed by Deborah Brock whose only other major credit is the stinky sequel Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll High School Forever. She does a decent job with Slumber Party Massacre II<\/strong>. Although feminist in nature, it doesn\u2019t stray too far from slasher movie formula. It even has one of those tricky \u201cgotcha!\u201d endings that are commonplace in the genre. I can\u2019t say that this movie breaks any new ground but at least it gives us an entertaining Driller Killer.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Concorde\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 75 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, gore, nudity, some sexual content, drug and alcohol use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Deborah Brock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Deborah Brock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Richard Cox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Thomas L. Callaway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 16, 1987 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Crystal Bernard, Kimberly McArthur, Juliette Cummins, Heidi Kozak, Patrick Lowe, Joel Hoffman, Scott Westmoreland, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Slumber-Party-Massacre-II-P.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3684"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5249,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3684\/revisions\/5249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}