Director: Deborah Brock
Year: 1987
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Troubled with strange nightmares, a teen decides to head out to an under-construction condo-site to rehearse songs for an upcoming gig with her band-members for her birthday weekend, but when some sort of demon proceeds to tear through them with a power drill it ends up forcing them to take shelter against the maniac.
Review:
This one here is a pretty nice offering with some rather decent moments. One of the main ones is the sheer 80s cheese that runs through the film. From the kooky dance numbers through the bands’ rehearsals to the slumber party atmosphere that soon turns into a wild group dance and eventual striptease, it feels like an 80s slasher for most of the time. These are quite fun and actually add an air of coherence to the first one, which was pretty similar in that aspect. The weapon of choice, a rather large guitar with the head made out into a giant power drill, leads to a great visual that really allows for some great scenes that only serve to enhance this cheesy atmosphere.
That also comes into the other cheesy factor involved here with the stalking scenes throughout here. There's the sight of the killer chasing after the victims late in the film that has some nice scenes to it because of the large killing object in place. The gore itself isn't that bad for an 80s film and is mostly relegated to the drill boring all the way through the body and out, leaving behind impressive wounds that are really dripping with viscera. The final chase through the under-construction apartment houses are really impressive and is a great way to end the film. The freak-outs provide even more carnage and in some cases pretty creepy surreal images, from the exploding zit and fish sandwich that attacks her and the other strange incidents. These here are all that make the film watchable.
There isn't a whole lot wrong with this one, but it does have a couple of problems. The big one is that the absolute utter lack of a body count in this one. It has almost none, and the few that are killed are killed the same way with the drill rammed through a body part. It's not original or creative and doesn't have very many opportunities to distinguish itself from the other slashers out there. Rather than doing something with it, this one has nothing come from the kills as they're all done the same way and don't go anywhere, with the killing weapon being the difference, and it really would've been better had a few more got knocked off with some other form of weapon which would've been a lot better.
The other thing is that the killing probably should've started earlier in the film than it does, as beginning the killing around the fifty-minute mark of a seventy-minute movie is problematic on several accounts. The first is that there's just that short window of opportunity to get damage in, and it isn't all that great when it occurs. The other is that there's a lot of missed opportunities for most of the time, leaving it for some to appear forever for something to happen focusing on the hallucinations driving her crazy or the girls partying. The last flaw would be the joke of a killer, hopping around like a greaser wannabe, spouting off non-joke one-liners and preening for a non-existent music video with awful music blaring which really takes the fear out. Its cheese-level could be a detriment, but otherwise, this here is just decent.
Overview: ***/5
This one doesn't have a whole lot of flaws but is still a watchable fun cheese-fest that has plenty to make it enjoyable. It’s really recommended for fans of the first one, slasher fans of the time or the plain interested, while the ones who don't have a high tolerance for the cheese or aren’t into this style overall will have little use for this one.
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