Pillow Party Massacre

Within seconds, and I do mean seconds, I absolutely fell in love with Pillow Party Massacre. The neon titles; the retro music; the use of slow motion; it's all there as our cast is assembled at a High School dance in which an April Fool's Day prank goes wild. The music stops only momentarily as the girls gathered get their drink on and then - BOOM! - the party is momentarily abandoned to go make out in a mausoleum of dirty socks.

Pillow Party Massacre, directed by indie filmmaker Calvin, is a delightful homage to the 1980s slasher genre with a modern twist. It successfully marries nostalgia with contemporary storytelling, offering a thrilling and hilarious ride that keeps you hooked from start to finish.

The film kicks off with an unmistakable '80s vibe, evident from the very first frame. The neon titles, synth-heavy soundtrack, and an array of vintage fashion choices transport you back in time.

Get your pillows ready and Parrrrrtaaay!

But this is some of the most garbage ive seen on the horrorfront this year, its absolutely horrendous and etched a sketch amateur slasher flasher with poor sound quality, a filmatographical mess of ''lets make a movie, i just got the new iphone'' kinda camerahandling, the playbook has been made insitu, and the lack of any sort of script burns through at any moment.

The idea to make a horrorslasher is lingering in there, and with a bit more comprehensive insight on the baseline of featurefilm filmaking it couldve been maybe a should see film, but this was lower than trash, even the gory scenes screams for more, and the dumb descisionmaking that drives this genre is taken to the absolute peak of the limit.

Goodlooking actresses doesnt make them good on the act, and when the dire sets in its just so generic and forthcoming. Its not even laughable stuff this movie shows, its a total blunder of darkfiltering homemoviemaking. The grumpy old man says its a no see.

When a tight knit group of high school kids pull a prank on one of their friends...it causes the target of the prank to snap, and murder the boy who set her up.

Fast forward two years later, and we have this same group reconnecting at a cabin in the woods.

Where they start being hunted by a not-so mysterious killer.

Because, on top the plot being horribly constructed.

What's supposed to be the "twist" at the end...is just way too predictable.

With the bulk of the film being almost entirely irrelevant to the conclusion.

The whole movie is just loathesomely bad, on practically every front.

And is barely able to hold your attention.

The fact that not a whole lot happens in the run-up to the underwhelming finale...just renders the whole thing to be overtly boring.

The pillow fight (seemingly for which the film is named) is inexplicably forced into the story; characters are thrown in, simply for the sake of dying (and upping the kill count); while plot elements are introduced, and just left as loose ends.

Also...if you think about it...the killer could only ever be one of two people.

And they make the one one option so obvious, that you just reject even considering it as being reasonable.

So, by process of elimination, it's really not that hard to sus out who the killer is, pretty much straight from the get-go.

Thus, the whole thing is just way too predictable, in it's blatant (yet failed) attempt to be unpredictable.

Not to mention, the whole thing is poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly constructed.

With no attention to detail.

And a finale so underwhelming, it's almost funny.

But it's not.

And the kills suck.

Rendering the whole thing borderline unwatchable.

It's only redeeming value, whatsoever, is quite literally, it's rad post punk soundtrack.

So do yourself a favour and pass this one by.

It's just not worth the time wasted.

1.5 out of 10.

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.

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 !