Pillow Party Massacre

I bought Pillow Party Massacre on Prime Video.

Along with Jim Wynorski's Murderbot, Calvin Morie McCarthy's Pillow Party Massacre has been a film I have been following the progress of on FB since last year. And have been looking forward to.

This slasher movie does the things. The girls are attractive and scantily clad. The kills are gory and interesting. And there's a mystery about who the killer is, that is held back until the end. And that reveal works.

There's a musical reference to a band that I was obsessed with for a bit in the 80s but haven't heard anyone mention since the 90s, if then.

This movie really works for me.

The best thing I could say about Pillow Party Massacre is that the director did in fact pull off making a feature length film which is no easy feat.

There is sincerity and passion behind this project, and two or three of the kills are creative and use some decent makeup effects. This is definitely a step in the right direction for the creator and hopefully a learning experience which will lead to bigger and better projects down the line. But all that being said, I cannot recommend this film as entertainment value on any level.

Despite its tongue-in-cheek title, Pillow Party Massacre never becomes the silly 80's-inspired romp that it keeps on promising to be.

The script is thinner than most direct-to-video horror films would allow their own script to be. Every line of dialogue in this film is soulless exposition, and none of the characters have any personality or identity. By the end of the film I couldn't remember a single character's name, and the few moments where the screenplay tries to be meta are lazy and uncommitted. You can tell that the filmmakers have intended to make their own version of Scream without the wit, knowhow or brilliance that made that film work. And the resulting project is soulless, boring and so glacially paced that the short running time felt phenomenally longer than it actually was.

The film is also riddled with technical flaws. The CGI looks unbelievably cheap and not in an ironic way, and the majority of the kills look incredibly fake without it even being humourous. There are way too many dance sequences in the film which drag on for way too long with the intro scene being the most notable example, and the camera seems to linger on the feet and legs of the characters for an uncomfortably long amount of time as if the director of photography has some kind of strange fetish. The colour grading is terribly off, the sound editing is consistently weak, there are numerous lines of dialogue that are obviously dubbed or sometimes layered multiple times out of order, and the cinematography seems to be using a camera that operates on a steadycam gimble yet also manages to shake all the time. Why you would shake the camera whilst also trying to steady it goes completely beyond me, it's like ordering a diet coke with a side of sugar.

Ultimately, the film is just boring. It was made with the best intentions but without proper expertise or a screenplay worth filming. I didn't laugh, I wasn't scared, I wasn't entertained. This film is no massacre, it's a drag.

Perhaps the worst ovie of the year.

A bunch of totally unattractive Gez Z'ers get together in a house years after pulling an April Fool's prank on one of the students. Heard it before? Of course you have.

The movie is filled with used up cliches: Jump scares, Truth or Dare games, you name it. Only none of it is effective in this horribly boring movie.

What makes it worse is that the cast cannot act their way out of a proverbially paper bag and they are down right fugly so you don't even want to look at them.

Don't even think about crisp, exciting, directing. Watching paint dry is more exciting.

After meeting up with old friends, a group of girls on a getaway trip to reminiscence at a remote house in the woods to get together end up finding their trip ruined by the remnants of a prank they committed when they were younger that left a person dead and must now find a way to stop the vicious killer.

This was a pretty solid and enjoyable throwback slasher effort. One of the better features of this one is the rather fun setup that serves as a fine inspiration to set everything in motion. Featuring the expected prank and the aftermath that serves as the inspiration to start a revenge rampage on the ones responsible for what went down, the resulting aftermath of which takes place when they get together years later being unoriginal but perfectly suited to this kind of throwback style. That also goes along rather nicely with the rest of the setup involving the girls trying to get over their issues while meeting up which generates a sense of strain and tension amongst the group. None of this is, again, all that clever or unique and tends to allow it to fall victim to plenty of cliched moments or scenarios that arise because it's following this kind of structure but there's still enough going on here to serve as worthwhile for the type of film this is presented as. This gives the film quite a lot to like in terms of being a straightforward slasher once the killer arrives. Given a great mask and a solid disguise, this one comes off quite nicely in that regard as the types of attacks that emerge here aren't that bad including the first attack on the police officers or the confrontations with the boyfriends who are clearly there to enhance the body count. Turning to the girls and stalking them through the house, the fact that they're aware of the killer from the start with him appearing to the group as a whole and causing some solid chases throughout gets quite fun with the interactions involving him taking out a few of them in obscure locations around the house. As these scenes not only give off the kind of low-budget slasher thrills which are necessary for this type of feature but also offer a nice frenetic energy in the best part of the film, these all come together to give everything quite a lot to like about it. There are some minor drawbacks to be had with this one. One of the few minor issues is the somewhat staggered pacing that takes quite a while to get going. Since it's running through some familiar territory involving the prank and its outcome as well as getting the friends back together at the house which includes not only the journey there but also the various scenes of them sitting around hanging out about what happened that the kills are instead pushed back to the last half of the film. While it's great to get a sense of their relationship with each other in stuff like their trip to the store where they encounter the homeless guy, their slow-motion pillow fight or the arrival of a boyfriend, these scenes end up dragging everything out to having most of the action take place in the last half-hour so it can feel like a struggle to get going. Combined with that aforementioned familiarity and a general sense of obeying genre conventions, these are the main drawbacks in store for this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, and mild drug use.

I enjoy the slasher sub genre more than any other, having been there in the golden age. As a result I'm always looking for new "throwback" additions.

Most fail because they try to do something new or put a fresh twist on things. That's now how it's done. The key is knowing that the "formula" works and following that formula with your own new and unique story.

This young filmmaker did a great job following the formula. The story works and he pieced it together nicely. It is a well done by the book slasher. A nice watch for the OG fans of the sub genre.

Things for this filmmaker to look at to improve in his next foray in the slasher arena:

Likeable characters: Outside of Jax Kellington's "Alana" all of the female characters were unlikeable and the cliche "you wanted them to die" could be said. May have been the script, nay have been the performances. Either way, outside of Alana, the cast didn't work. Kellington could be another Quigley in the making, who knows.

Soundtrack: I will chalk up the lack of atmosphere and tension to a fairly weak soundtrack. Use of ambient sound and synth tracks to brood and build tension would have helped tremendously. Similar to Carpenter's original mistake with Halloween.

Atmosphere: A little less daylight, a bit more dusk and night time. The daytime shots were ok but needed to contain more fun interaction and some light hearted humor tossed in as opposed to the girls bitching and moaning about everything that we got. Also, the killer's "costume" was on point but the 21st century smiley mask can be 86'd. It's too "Scream"(y) and not scary.

To the filmmaker, great job on a throwback slasher. You succeeded where many have failed. Better casting, outside of Kellington, and a more intense, suspenseful soundtrack would go a long way. Keep following the path you're on !