Teenage Slumber Party Nightmare

I get that this is a low budget movie that was probably made by a group of friends, but for the love of God use some common sense! You can't use an electric power drill if it's not plugged into the wall. You also can't drill into something (or someone) when there's no bit in the drill! And why is everyone going to bed when it is still clearly daylight out? I can forgive a movie like this for bad effects, bad acting and even a terrible script, but the total lack of common sense (or is it just laziness) is unforgivable!

THE GOOD:

• Some great surreal humor (the phone gag, the age gag, Marlo's bizarre acting style, etc.).

• Loving pastiche of Slumber Party Massacre.

• Likable cast (especially Marlo).

• Good self-parody (actual ketchup for gore effects).

• Efficient use of low budget, decent visual style.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:

• Doesn't really have a consistent humor style. The surrealist stuff is maybe 10% of the jokes. The rest are very basic and juvenile. (The film actually presents it as funny to say "wieners" instead of "hot dogs," and it makes about ten ham-fisted attempts at innuendo with that in a row.)

• The dialogue is repetitive WITHIN scenes, many of which drag on for way too long.

• The dialogue is repetitive ACROSS scenes, many of which retread the same ground.

IN SUMMATION: If you like campy stuff, there's enough in here to enjoy. I half-heartedly recommend it.

A group of teen girls are hounded by an infatuated stalker (Massage Parlour of Death's Kirk Munaweera) who harasses them with creepy phone calls and love notes, and once he stumbles upon a mask and electric drill, they'll either reciprocate his advances or pay the ultimate price for their rejection! A retro-style throwback to horror movies of the late Seventies and early Eighties, 'Teenage Slumber Party Nightmare' is B-movie director Richard Mogg's fifth film, and he delivers 74 campy minutes of the girls getting drunk, watching porno, talking about boys, and then fighting for their lives against the killer. It's greatly inspired by the teen horror classic 'Slumber Party Massacre', and there's some nice little nods to the original 'Halloween' as well.

The film is essentially carried by the three girls, and Kaitlyn Yurkiw, Lauren Richardson and Hillary Kaplan all bring great personality and energy to the flick. All the gorgeous ladies have that beautiful yet relatable girl-next-door quality that retro horror followers find so appealing, and their welcome ample cleavage on display never becomes too crass or revealing. A large amount of the movie is made up of long scenes with just the girls talking for minutes at a time (and it looks like they ad-libbed the majority of the dialogue), so some viewers may find a few spots get a little tedious or uneventful. But the girls have a wickedly immature sense of humour, a very natural chemistry together and likable interaction with each-other, so despite some dialogue meandering on from time to time, one of them will randomly offer something so awkwardly laugh-out-loud funny that it's impossible not to love them! Add in cheesy yet perfectly appropriate practicable gore effects, memorable deaths in the finale, a simple yet effective soundtrack of mostly eerie synth drones, enough sexual innuendo to make Leisure Suit Larry blush, and, most important of all, dancing and pajama party pillow fight montages (and bless you Richard for leaving in Hilary's accidental butt shot - with her permission, of course!) and you've got a perfect night of trashy guilty pleasure viewing covered!

As with the Bluray/DVD release of his previous film 'Massage Parlour of Death', Richard provides a wealth of extras including bloopers, raw footage, breezy interviews with some of the cast and trailers, and a 'making of' segment where he discusses not only the inspiration for the killer but talks honestly about wanting to make a better work than his previous movies. But best of all is his lively commentary where he discusses everything from his thoughts on screen nudity, shooting on a minuscule budget and use of profanity, to simple pleasures to keep your cast and crew happy.

Richard provides plenty of bright colour to give the movie a visually interesting look, his dorky sense of fun and warped sense of humour is still firmly on display, and he's constantly honing and improving his craft with each film, especially evident in some nice subtle reflective moments - the scene near the end with the girls playing a game of 'Quarters' with the soft dissolves and warm piano score is really lovely and restrained (as well as a nice tribute to 'Blood Lake'), and the moment where the stalker takes in the environment that the girls were recently in is unsettling. 'Teenage Slumber Party Nightmare' is Mogg's best film to date, another great title for SRS Cinema, and fans who understand and relish the low budget, do-it-yourself horror movie mentality should have a great time with this! 8/10