Murder Party

Accepting a strange party invitation, a middle-aged man finds that the event is really a ruse by a group of psychopaths intending to kill him only to continually thwart their attempts in the process and has to save himself from the remaining group finishing what they started.

This could've been quite the fun and enjoyable effort. What really tends to give this one a lot to work with is the exceptionally silly and goofy premise at the forefront of this one. The general concept of their ruse makes for a fun twist that's given right at the beginning of the film and the utterly cheesy premise has a lot of time to really work itself out with plenty of crazy encounters featuring him at the mercy of the group. The initial scenes of him mingling about the group where he's unaware of what they're going to do to him as they begin getting really obscure and off-the-wall makes for an overall stellar start to the film. As well, the way this quickly delves into the bonkers territory with their games and torture tactics which has a sense of unease in what's going on as they go through their routines and games with him which is where this one does slip somewhat but still has enough overt weirdness about it to really generate some fun times with their treatment of him setting up the film's best aspects in the final half. Consisting of a series of chases around not only their captive warehouse but also the neighboring art installation which ramps up the gore nicely but also has some thrilling action overall. Given that there's a lot of stellar gore and bloodshed, this here really makes for quite a fun time while it does have a few minor problems. The film's main issue is that it tends to downplay its stellar premise from the get- go with the idea of basically strapping him down in a chair for the main part of the film. He doesn't have much to do for almost nearly an hour into this and then has just slightly more to do than that in the overall finale so he really could've been written out of the film and not changed it much. That really does lower this one significantly since he doesn't do anything and has nothing to do with the story overall, rendering him somewhat useless than what should've been the case. As well, most of that is due to the film's other big issue with the really banal and overlong round of interviewing they go through which takes up so much time to accomplish nothing but irritation as nothing happens during these countless sessions and manages to drag this out with it's meandering and utterly unnecessary moments which are unneeded in the end. As well as the somewhat obvious low-budget nature of the film, these here are what really lower this one.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and heavy drug use.

I stumbled across 'Murder Party' last night on Netflix and thought it looked worth a watch. It was apparent pretty early on that this was filmed with a very low budget (the trivia section claims it was made with "no money"). The actors were unrecognisable, the sets were reasonably basic and there were not going to be any special effects at any point in the film clearly. None of that means it can't be a good film however. Hell, look at Kevin Smith's 'Clerks' for proof.

The director of 'Murder Party' has gone on to make some very well received horror/thriller films, so it very cool to see where he, Jeremy Saulnier, got his start. There are some elements to the film that would indicate there was class behind the camera. A lot of the dialogue is quite intriguing and surprisingly well written (a must for a low-budget film). Also considering the budget the horror scenes that feature later in the film were very well created. The film is short at only 80 minutes and even then feels like it could have shaved 15-20 minutes off. The pacing in the first half of the film is a slight issue. Also I wouldn't have minded seeing a more creative ending. All in all though this is a watchable enough film if you stumble across it on Netflix late one night.

I first saw this in 2007 on a dvd which I own. Revisited it recently. Considering the budget n the team's inexperience, flaws can be overlooked n the last 30 mins will compensate the initial 50 mins boredom. It is about a loner n depressed guy living alone with his cat named Sir Lancelot. The guy wants to watch a horror film on a Halloween night but his cat doesn't get up from his chair n so our guy goes out to a private party uninvited after finding the invitation card on the road, unknown to him that the hosts has plans to murder the guy for some art collection. Nothing happens for 50 mins but the last 30 mins is full of bloodbath and hilarity.

A man picks up a piece of paper blowing around on the street which turns out to be an invitation to a "murder party". Being rather lonely he takes up the invitation and soon finds he will be the subject of the murder.

From here things get strange and sometimes quite humorous.

It's certainly worth a look and you won't feel you've wasted your time.

Granted I gave it 10 stars, but I have no affiliation with this production. However I did go to UCLA Fine Art and WOW these guys hit the art scene on the belly button, jabbing Rabies needle right through, and into the inside of your spine! This film cracked me up, from beginning to end, it has a Jim Jarmusch feel to it in some spots, and lots of great indy, almost short film artsy fartsiness to it, but hits them all with great satire and loathing. I almost feel, like the adjoining film & art buildings at UCLA, that these guys film school was next to the euro hippy liberal art scene I was stuck in. And they fed off of and were tortured by no doubt. I can see now, how both artistes & film makers probably looked at each other like the grass is greener... only it's illegal and not bucolic.

I got that turn around pass at Blockbuster so I can rent dvds just as fast as I can watch them, thusly most dvds don't get past 7 minutes, but this will be one of those rare DVDs I will buy! And it will fit in with my fond memories of those KRAZY DAZE & KRAZY NIGHTS. Along with Mystery Train, Wild at Heart, the Moderns, School Daze, etc... it really hits a chord and made me crack up! The humor was awesome, biting, real, and so... well awesomely lame. Just like it was...is...shall ever be.

Great job guys, I hope you made a profit, to make your next.