SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE III (1990)

 

(a.k.a SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE 3. Director: Sally Mattinson. Screenwriter: Catherine Cyran.)

 

Storyline

A high school girl invites her girlfriends to spend the night at her house, only to have it crashed by a murderous nutjob with a drill motor.

 

Review

In Venice Beach, California, high school senior Jackie Cassidy (Keely Christian) throws a slumber party in her parents’ house. Unfortunately, there are a few male weirdos lurking around the girls, and one of them is a psycho with a drill motor.

Considered the worst entry in the SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (SPM) trilogy, III is an in-name-only, by-the-numbers sequel that recycles a lot of its scenes from the two previous films. III was directed by Sally Mattinson, who said in a later interview she hated horror films─ she made it was because she wanted to direct her first film, and producer Roger Corman offered it to her. She probably hated III more when Corman told her she had to put an unnecessary rape scene in it, one that messes up the continuity of the film and makes the occasionally plucky characters come off as dumb(er), cruel, and cowardly, before they recover their courage.

As with the first two films, III is a brightly lit terror flick, with little suspense, groan-worthy humor, gratuitous nudity, and lots of run-knock-down-killer-run-again scenes, except this time there’s no satirical feminist bent to help III stand out from other slasher works. It does, however, move along quickly, have an impressive body count (twelve), a good, postmortem intestines-ripped-out scene (as well as a don’t-bathe-with-that scene). Not only that, SPM films are the only franchise to be written and directed solely by women (shame on the industry, a plus-point for SPM films).

The cast, who play stock slasher characters (blame the writing), sports some names which appeared in other notable horror flicks:

Maria Ford (NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD, 1993) as Maria;

Hope Marie Carlton (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER, 1988) as Janine;

Maria Claire (SOCIETY, 1989) as Susie;

Brittain Frye (HIDE AND GO SHRIEK, 1988) as preppie Ken Whitehouse;

Michael Harris (SLEEPSTALKER, 1995) as Dr. Morgan Herdman, Jackie’s pervy neighbor;

Yan Birch (THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, 1991) as The Weirdo;

Marta Kober (FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 2, 1981) as “Pizza Girl”;

Wayne Grace (FRIDAY THE 13^th: THE FINAL CHAPTER, 1984) as Officer O’Reilly;

Alexander Folk (FRIGHT NIGHT PART 2, 1988) as Detective Davis.

 

Sharp-eyed low budget fans might notice two other things about III, like that fact that the poster girls for III are not in the film, and that III’s interior set─located in Corman’s Venice Beach studio─were later used in another Corman franchise sequel, SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE II (1990).

Would I recommend III? For most people, no. However, if you’re looking for a generic, video-slick 1990s production (although III enjoyed a successful, limited-release theatrical run) with some T&A and an unnecessary, strange (though not explicit) rape scene, this might be a flick to fall asleep to.

PIRANHA (1978)

 

(Director: Joe Dante. Screenwriters: Richard Robinson and John Sayles.)

 

Review

Plot: At the height of summer, a pushy, impulsive skiptracer, Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies-Urich, billed as Heather Menzies, SSSSSSS, 1973), tracking two missing adolescents in the Lost Lake River area, breaks into an experimental military lab with help from a reluctant, local drunk, Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman, DEMON, DEMON, 1975). While inside the facility, she drains the deadly pool where the teenagers died, unwittingly unleashing genetically engineered, hyperaggressive fish into local waters. Then the military shows up, worsening a bloody, out-of-control situation.

To say any more about the plot of this darkly funny, sometimes gory, campy cult classic (in the best, truest sense) is to ruin it. It’s a gutsy work, nobody—not even children—get spared in it (something that might upset sensitive parental types), an economically shot, fast-moving, lots-o’-nudity, truly-a-B-movie with a love of old horror and camp (not surprising, considering its director, Joe Dante, and its producer, Roger Corman).  Its fish-attack scenes, often shot in extreme closeups (amidst water-cloudy gore) are effective and gripping, something that can be said about all aspects of this grindhouse gem, one worth watching and rewatching, unless you’re planning to go swimming in the immediate future. Followed by PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING (1982).

 

PIRANHA’s other standout players and crew include:

Richard Deacon (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, 1956), as Earl Lyon, Maggie McKeown’s skiptracer boss, who assigns her the missing teenagers case;

Keenan Wynn (KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, 1974-75, and THE DEVIL’S RAIN, 1975) as Jack, Paul Grogan’s easy-going friend, who loves fishing with his dog;

 

Kevin McCarthy (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, 1956) as Dr. Robert Hoak, frenzied, onetime head of a long-dead Vietnam War-era project (“Operation: Razorteeth”) that spawned the genetically engineered piranha;

 

Barbara Steele (THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, 1961) as Dr. Mengers, scientific lead and media spokesperson of the military team trying to contain piranha/their media release, and kill the fish;

 

Bruce Gordon (CURSE OF THE UNDEAD, 1959) as Colonel Waxman, Dr. Menger’s like-minded commander of the military team;

 

Dick Miller (GREMLINS, 1984) as Buck Gardner, a local real estate agent, also interested in hiding the truth about the piranha;

 

Paul Bartel (DEATH RACE 2000, 1975) as Mr. Dumont, head lifeguard—pompous, tough-love aggressive;

 

and

 

Belinda Balaski (THE HOWLING, 1981) as Betsy, the lifeguard who tries to comfort Suzie, a girl who’s afraid of the water.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

PIRANHA is John Sayles’s script-penning debut. He also played a “Sentry” in the film.

 

According to IMDb, “The piranha [attacks] were done by attaching rubber fish to sticks.”

 

Also from IMDb: “The extras were all paid $5 a day and given a box lunch.”

 

Also from IMDb, Universal studios was going to sue New World Pictures for making fun of Steven Spielberg’s JAWS (1975)—acknowledged by PIRANHA filmmakers early on, when someone is seen playing a JAWS video arcade game. The suit didn’t happen because Spielberg saw PIRANHA, really liked it, and declared it “the best of the JAWS rip-offs”.

 

PIRANHA director Joe Dante later worked with Steven Spielberg on THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983).

 

Actor Richard Dreyfuss, one of the leads in JAWS (1975), had an early-in-the-flick cameo in Alexandre Aja’s 2010 remake of PIRANHA 3D.

 

In Anthony Petkovich’s article “If It’s a Good Picture, It Isn’t a Miracle: An Interview with Joe Dante” (Shock Cinema magazine, issue 61, February 2022, p. 38), Joe Dante said that Kevin McCarthy was a Method actor (more so than co-star Bradford Dillman). Because of this, Dillman was “scared” when McCarthy’s character (Dr. Robert Hoak) attacked Paul Grogan (Dillman’s character) when they first meet in the film.

SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE II (1987)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Deborah Brock)

Plot: Young female collegiates have a slumber party. Unfortunately, one of them is Courtney Bates, younger sister of Valerie, who was stalked by a drill-wielding murderer in the original SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE. . . a surreal situation Courtney and her friends find themselves in!

 

Review

The second entry in producer Roger Corman’s “all-girl franchise” SLUMBER trilogy, like its other films, was scripted and directed by women. This time out, it was director/screenwriter Deborah Brock. In a post-SLUMBER II interview, she said it was largely inspired by the 1975 science fiction musical film THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, also noting that it, like ROCKY, was made as a satire.

SLUMBER II, officially a sequel, is an updated, musical, and loosely scripted remake of the original film. Valerie Bates, main Survivor Woman from the first flick, is now in a psych ward. We see this in the dreams of her younger sister, Courtney, whose nightly horrors include visions of a transmogrified, breakdancing rockabilly Driller Killer, wielding a Gibson guitar with a big drill tip. He dominates Courtney’s surreality─a surreality where she and her friend will likely end up dead.  

This incarnation of the Driller Killer (DK) is obviously not the original DK. DK 2.0 has a flashier, rock ‘n’ roll personality and displays musical talent (Atanas Ilitch, who played him, is a real-life musician with several solo albums).

SLUMBER II furthers the franchise’s virgins-afraid-of-sex theme, and Brock tries to inject levity, absurdity, and suspense into it, but its fuzzy logic, rambling screenplay, lack of character development, and 1980s-generic cut-away scenes nullifies any suspense that might’ve been achieved─SLUMBER II feels longer than its hour-and-fifteen-minutes run time. To its credit, it has occasional, fun-cheesy gore, especially the infamous exploding giant zit scene.

Notable actors include longtime gospel singer Crystal Bernard (WINGS, 1990-97) as Courtney Bates, Jennifer Rhodes (HEATHERS, 1989) as Mrs. Bates, Courtney’s mom, and Kimberly McArthur, PLAYBOY magazine’s January 1982 Playmate, as Amy (she keeps her clothes on in II).

Its unsurprising dovetail finish is not bad, but given what comes before it, it doesn’t matter. A series-ending sequel, SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE III (a.k.a. SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE 3) followed in 1990.

THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982)

 

(1982; director/uncredited co-screenwriter: Amy Holden Jones, billed as Amy Jones. Co-screenwriter: Rita Mae Brown.)

Plot: A girls-only slumber party gets an uninvited guest─a power drill-wielding, escaped serial killer, who turns their fun-time into a bloody, traumatic gathering.

 

Review

SLUMBER, a mostly standard slasher film, was originally penned by Rita Mae Brown as a slasher parody called SLEEPLESS NIGHTS. That changed when producers, including Roger Corman, decided it should be filmed with less humor in the mix, causing Brown to revise it, only to have further revised by others. Thankfully, some of the original script’s risible moments can be seen in SLUMBER, giving it at least a few worthwhile and truly funny moments.

As with many movies in this period and genre, bare female flesh is shown, though less than usual. This, according to actress Brinke Stevens, was because several of her fellow actresses wouldn’t appear nude.

It’s inauspicious that much of its seventy-six-minute running time is taken up with lackluster, mostly suspenseless stalk-and-slay scenes (blame producer interference and limited budget) which mar its other, better aspects─among them: solid FX, its slick-early-Eighties look, familiar and good for its low-budget and genre (thanks to cinematographer Stephen L. Posey, billed as Steve Posey); its overt attempts at feminist-minded parody; and the fact that it featured a female director and female screenwriters in a time when few productions did.

The director and actors, young and working with filler dialogue and scenes, do what they can to make it work, but this isn’t high art─it isn’t even solid entertainment. One of the things director Jones does right is end SLUMBER on a memorable moment, a striking cut-off point.

I’d only recommend SLUMBER for viewers who are curious about its smattering of (effective) humor, and fans of the laugh-out-loud bad slasher flicks, Brinke Stevens, and female-helmed and -penned films.

Deep(er) filmic dive

Eagle-eyed, in-the-know viewers may spot the title and the author of the book in Kim’s bedroom Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown.

THE RAVEN (1963)

 

(Director: Roger Corman. Screenwriter: Richard Matheson.)

Storyline

A malevolent sorcerer targets two fellow magicians, one of whom he has turned into a raven.

 

Review

This Richard Matheson-scripted (and family friendly) comedy horror film, set in 1506 and not-really-based on an Edgar Allan Poe poem, is one of my favorite entries in Corman’s Poe-cinematic hexad. Everything about RAVEN, shot in fifteen days, works: the physical comedy and adroit wordplay; the top-notch acting of its masters-of-horror co-leads (Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff) and other actors (e.g., Hazel Court, who acted opposite Price in 1964’s THE MASQUE OF RED DEATH, and Jack Nicholson, who worked with Boris Karloff in the 1963 movie THE TERROR, shot immediately after RAVEN on the same set); its good-for-its-time FX (Price’s spellcasting is shown as bright green laser beam-like rays); its era-evocative, color-rich sets; and its often playful, mood-varied soundtrack. . .  like I said, everything.

THE HOWLING (1981)

 

(Director: Joe Dante. Screenplay by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless, based on Gary Brandner’s 1977 novel of the same name.)

Review

Loosely based on Gary Brandner’s 1977 novel of the same name, the film version is about a television newswoman, Karen White (Dee Wallace, ALLIGATOR II: THE MUTATION, 1991), who’s being stalked by a serial killer. When the psycho, Eddie Quist, falls for a police set-up using Karen as bait, she’s almost raped and killed by Eddie, who’s fatally shot by the cops. Traumatized by this, she suffers from memory loss and has disjointed nightmares about her missing minutes. Her shrink, Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee, WAXWORK, 1988), suggests that she recuperate in a remote resort in the woods, Drago, where Waggner can better guide her healing.

Karen and her boyfriend, Bill (Christopher Stone, CUJO, 1983) arrive in Drago. Everybody’s friendly, if occasionally weird, some of them too friendly. One of those people is Marsha, an exotic woman who flirts with Bill. He fends off her advances, but after he’s attacked by a wolf-like creature, his attitude changes. Meanwhile, Karen is still unnerved by her unfolding-memory nightmares and the wolf howls that fill the night, some of them close to their cabin.

Back in Karen’s home city, her co-workers and friends─Terry Fisher (Belinda Balaski, GREMLINS, 1984) and Chris Halloran (Dennis Dugan)─have done further digging into Eddie’s life and death, and discovered several things: Eddie’s body has disappeared from the morgue; Eddie had an obsession with werewolves, Karen, and an area that bears an uncanny resemblance to Drago. . . Eventually, Terry and Chris head up there at different times, and it’s not long before the true nature of Drago’s denizens is revealed, with wild, bloody confrontations that Karen, Bill and her friends might not survive.

HOWLING is an excellent, humorous, and clever update of the furry moon-beast genre, a satire about media and a cautionary tale about sexual repression. Its tone is lighter than that of its source book (e.g., in the book Karen is raped in her own home, and its ending is different than that of the film). Aficionados of werewolf works might especially enjoy HOWLING’s nods to previous shapeshifter films, like the name of John Carradine’s character (Erle Kenton). In real life, Erle C. Kenton (1896-1980) was a director, actor, and writer; one of the films he directed was HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944), which featured Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot, the iconic Wolfman of several Universal films. In several scenes of HOWLING, Chaney’s first outing as Talbot (THE WOLFMAN, 1941) plays on a television set.

So many things make HOWLING work as well as it does. Its running time is kept short (an hour and thirty minutes, every scene important to the film).  Its writing and dialogue is sharp, often clever and funny, with an underlying theme of sexual and social repression woven into its various aspects, verbal and visual. Its special makeup effects, practical not digital (HOWLING predates the latter), are top-notch, overseen by Rick Baker (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, 1981), created by Rob Bottin (THE THING, 1982) and further brought into being by their talented special makeup effects crew.

Its cast is perfect and fun. Beyond Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone (who were married from 1980 until his death in late 1995), and others, everyone nailed their parts.

Kevin McCarthy (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, 1956) played Karen’s boss, Fred Francis (perhaps a reference to Freddie Francis, who directed 1975’s LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF). Dick Miller (AMITYVILLE 1992: IT'S ABOUT TIME, 1992) played Walter Paisley, the bookstore owner who’s also a werewolf expert. Robert Picardo (GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, 1990) played Eddie Quist with playfully sadistic relish. Meschach Taylor (DAMIEN: OMEN II, 1978) played Shantz, a concerned cop. Kenneth Tobey (THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, 1951) played an “Older Cop.”

The denizens of Drago include: Elisabeth Brooks (FAMILY PLOT, 1976) as Marsha; Slim Pickens (BLAZING SADDLES, 1974) as Sam Newfield; and Noble Willingham (THE LAST BOY SCOUT, 1991) as Charlie Barton.

Sharp-eyed horror fans might recognize Karen’s co-anchor, Lew Landers, who appears in GREMLINS (1984), another Joe Dante flick. James MacKrell played Landers in both films.

There are several uncredited cameos as well. Producer/director Roger Corman played “Man in Phone Booth.” HOWLING screenwriter John Sayles played a morgue attendant. Forrest J. Ackerman (RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD II, 1988) played a grumbling bookstore customer. Writer/director Mick Garris (PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING, 1990) played “Man with TV Guide.”

HOWLING is one of my Top Ten werewolf flicks, worth checking out, even if you’re a casual lycanthropy viewer who doesn’t geek out like I did in this review.

THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964)

(Director: Roger Corman. Screenwriters: Robert Towne and an uncredited Paul Mayersberg.)

Storyline

A newly married woman’s relationship with her husband is threatened by his obsession with his dead wife.

 

Review

The last of Roger Corman’s six Poe-inspired films, TOMB has a different feel than Corman’s other Poe flicks in that it was mostly shot outdoors─the other films were largely interior works. In it, the second wife of a rich man finds that her husband’s obsession with his first, dead wife is causing her to have ongoing nightmares, even as the first wife’s black cat stalks and slashes at her. Vincent Price (SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, 1970) played the husband, Verden Fell; Elizabeth Shepherd (DAMIEN: OMEN II, 1978) played The Lady Rowena Trevanian (second wife, with ginger features) and The Lady Ligeia (the first wife, with long black hair). John Westbrook (THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, 1964) played Christopher Gough.

Made from a screenplay by Robert Towne and an uncredited Paul Mayersberg, TOMB is a lesser, okay entry in Corman/Price’s Poe series. That said, this is not terrible film, given the talent behind it─it merely, compared to its predecessor flicks, recycles themes and visual elements that were more richly shown in the first five films. If you’re a fan of Corman’s Poe-cycle movies and a completist, it might be worth seeing once, but don’t expect too much from it.

THE MASQUE OF RED DEATH (1964)

 

(Director: Roger Corman. Screenwriter: Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell.).

Storyline

While the Red Plague stalks the peasantry, a cruel prince and his fellow deviants shelter in his castle.

Review

Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s story, MASQUE is an excellent, possibly perfect film, from R. Wright Campbell and Charles Beaumont’s tightly penned script, its top-notch acting, its vivid, symbolic splays of colors and lighting, to producer Roger Corman’s waste-no-shots directing. (If Beaumont’s name sounds familiar, he was a staff writer on the original 1959-64 TWILIGHT ZONE series.)

MASQUE stars include: Vincent Price (THE TINGLER, 1959) as the cruel Prospero; Hazel Court, who played opposite Price in THE RAVEN (1963) and whose last film was an uncredited role (“Champagne Woman at Hunt”) in THE FINAL CONFLICT (1981); Patrick Magee, as an envious, toady-like Alfredo─two of his later films include A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) and THE BLACK CAT (1981); and an uncredited JohnWestbrook as Man in Red (a.k.a. the Red Death); Westbrook also appeared in THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964). Be sure to look for the background/visual cue callbacks to earlier Corman/Price films, THE RAVEN and THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961)!