Director: Michael A. Hoffman and Michael T. Wells
Year: 2012
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Bikini Spring Break Massacre
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Going to a small, isolated house for spring break, a group of cheerleaders trying to have a girls-only weekend find their activities halted when a masked madman arrives looking for retribution against the girls for their perceived promiscuity and forcing them to fight him off to survive.
Review:
This here turned out to be quite an enjoyable and entertaining effort that has a lot going for it. One of the biggest pluses is the fact that, as a slasher comedy with comedic touches, it would've been painfully obvious to try to make the killer a rather weak and almost joke-like individual. This really could've been a hammy one-liner spouting joke for the most part, but that's thankfully avoided here with the killer being kept to a threatening role and only appearing to dole out a quick death or initiate a chase, and with the striking mask and choice of weaponry used it creates some powerful images at times in terms of being an imposing figure. Coupled with the nice reasoning that they give here for why they're engaging in such a killing spree, regardless of the cliched nature of the reasoning offered for chasing them down, all gives this quite an impressive killer.
That leads into the film's best aspect, the high amount of slasher action featured here. The adult video shoot massacre is great with all the flailing body parts featured in the rampage, containing the slaughter of the video crew and several of the models, several of the briefer inserts of the killer striking some of the outer members of the group in remote locations. The last half is also rather interesting with the killer striking them throughout the darkened house as the gradual rise in dead bodies found in the different rooms is quite well-done offering up some nice atmospheric touches and the confrontations start getting more and more intense, revealing some nice twists with the revelation about the killer's identity alongside the fine chasing and making this quite enjoyable.
The cast here isn't that bad and works nicely for this kind of effort. Katie Peterson is fine as Rebecca Foster, the typical lead in these kinds of films. The victim of an overbearing religious family, the need to break out and rebel against her pious upbringing makes her a charming, engaging lead once we see her get influenced by her friends. Shea Stewart is incredibly memorable as Missy Pratt the domineering, bossy type who tries to keep everybody under her thumb and does a fun job with her role. Brandy Whitford as Mandy Rhode is a fine addition being quite a loose cannon, always ready to tackle a drink or get her friends into doing something far more dangerous than they really should be doing, Caley Hayes as Kelly Morris offers nothing much here being just a brain-dead ditz, and Krystyna Ahlers as Lisa Kapowski isn't around long enough to know much about her other than she's constantly drunk and super easy. The rest of the cast plays into this type of film rather nicely and keeps this one fun rather nicely, where alongside with all the nudity and gore featured makes for an attractive addition to the movie.
The main problem with this one, though, is a common feature in many of these hybrids where the comedy here is just lame and not that funny. Ranging from jokes about religion to overweight individuals and how drunk they are, it's quite lame and tiresome to see these lame styles of jokes repeated over and over in these types of films so their use here is completely aggravating. The nature of the jokes really needed a bit more variety to really spice some it up so that there's not much repetition running throughout here. As well, it tends to run a tad too long with several rather unnecessary subplots that serve just to add bodies to the fray, keeping this one a bit too long than than it really should be. The situations here really don't need to be as involved as it does with several of the situations not really being worthy of getting stretched out as much as they are but overall it's not too bad regardless.
Overview: *** 1/2/5
While there are some minor issues to be had here with some the pacing and questionable comedy, beyond that there are some rather fun times to be had with this enjoyably cheesy slasher piece. Give this one a chance if you're into these goofy, silly slasher films or have a low tolerance for the genre as a whole, while those looking for some more substantial pieces should definitely heed caution with this one.
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