The Slumber Party Massacre [Blu-Ray]

Director: Amy Holden Jones

Cast: Michelle Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella

Release Date: Now Available for the first time on Blu-Ray

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10

Disc Rating: 9/10

Plot Summary:

An eighteen-year-old high school girl is left at home by her parents and she decides to have a slumber party. There is friction between some of the invited guests and the new girl, who is better at basketball than they, so the new girl decides to stay at home (which is conveniently across the street from the host’s house). Meanwhile, a murderer of five people with a propensity for power tools has escaped and is at large, and eventually makes his way to the party, where the guests begin experiencing an attrition problem, with only the new girl to help them.

The slasher cult classic ‘The Slumber Party Massacre’ finally arrives on Blu-Ray for the first time and you can witness the wrath of the infamous driller killer like you’ve never seen it before. The film was initially released in 1982 and has certainly gained some cult status since that point in time. It tells the story of a group of friends who have a slumber party while parents are away and end up being tormented by an escaped mental patient wielding his trusty drill and looking for fresh victims.

The one thing I’ve seen some folks complain about over the years is the fact that the killer is almost immediately revealed and therefore no mystery is present in the story. Personally I found this to be a refreshing change from so many slasher films and I think it really helps the film to stay true to the fun, bloody and comedic tone intended, as this really is a satire in just as many ways as it is a slasher film. I first had the pleasure of ‘The Slumber Party Massacre’ in high school when me and a few friends rented it on VHS and I have loved it ever since. It was quite a treat to have the opportunity to view this one in a new High Definition transfer taken straight from the original camera negative and it is definitely a title I will be revisiting a number of times in the future. Shout/Scream Factory continues to deliver on bringing all of these great cult classics to Blu-Ray for the first time, and with impressive transfers and collections of bonus content to boot. Fans of this one will definitely want to make sure and pick up a copy because you will surely want to make sure this title is included in your Blu-Ray collection.

VIDEO:

Scream Factory’s Blu-Ray release of ‘The Slumber Party Massacre’ features a new 1080p High Definition transfer from the original camera negative which utilizes the film’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation on this one looks startlingly fantastic when you consider the age and likely budget of this movie. The colors are sharper than I think they have ever been before, while all of the grain and pops (very noticeable in the screencap of the title screen above, the first screencap from the top) and old school cigarette burns are still present and accounted for providing that old school cheap horror film vibe. I’m fairly certain that fellow fans of this one are going to be quite thrilled with the high definition video transfer on this Blu-Ray release.

AUDIO:

The Blu-Ray release features a lossless Mono DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack which holds up quite satisfactorily on this one. The voices and effects are all clear and discrete while maintaining that hollow and high pitched tone at times so commonly present with these types of old low budget slasher films. This lossless mono soundtrack perfectly complements this movie and is almost certainly the best this film has sounded over the years.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

While the Blu-Ray release of ‘The Slumber Party Massacre’ doesn’t contain quite as much in the way of bonus content as a lot of the Scream Factory blu’s do, it certainly includes some very interesting and informative bonus features, and far more than you see from a lot of companies on titles such as this. Included is ‘Sleepless nights: The Making of The Slumber Party Massacre’ featurette which looks back at the production of the film and clocks in a bit over 20 minutes. Also included are an audio commentary with director Amy Holden Jones and a couple of the actors in addition to the films theatrical trailer.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of Shout/Scream Factory and Sante Fe Productions.

Film Rating: 7/10

Disc Rating: 9/10

‘The Slumber Party Massacre’ is now available to own for the first time ever on Blu-Ray from Scream Factory.