Director: Sally Mattison
Year: 1990
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Following a day at the beach, a group of friends decide to go back to her house for a sleepover, and as they party away throughout the night their friends crash the festivities where they soon discover that a mysterious killer is among them and taking the group out one-by-one causing them to to get away/
Review:
As far as cheesy 80s slashers go, this one isn't that bad with some good parts to it. One of the better features here is that it really encapsulates all the aspects that allow it to feel like an 80s slasher for most of the time. From the kooky dance numbers at the party to the slumber party antics and atmosphere that soon turns into a wild group dance and eventual striptease and special effects, these are quite fun and actually add an air of coherence to the later scenes involving quite an unusual and cheesy flair especially at the point where they all stay together and goof around. These are really fun to watch and are actually rather interesting, which is punctuated nicely with the highly enjoyable sleaze to give these segments some silly fun.
That leads into the other fun aspect here in the rather fun stalking scenes. The early scenes taking out the stragglers around the house or the series of encounters in the house where this one offers up some enjoyable scenes where it ramps up the action with some stellar kills. The gore itself isn't that bad for an 80s film and is mostly relegated to the drill boring through the bodies, mostly all the way through the body and out, leaving behind impressive wounds. This one also provides a couple of others that are non-drill related where a real estate post is stabbed in the chest, a power saw slices through a person's ankles and another is whacked in the head with a sledgehammer, giving this some really nice kills for the gorehounds. Add in the spectacular final chases, which are just over-the-top and fun, with plenty of chasing, screaming and tons of bloodied bodies thrown apart, this one is relatively enjoyable.
This one wasn't that bad, but there are some problems with it. The biggest issue is the fact that most of the work with the killer here is subpar which is quite weak on most accounts. His geeky, preppy nature is hardly intimidating, the whole attire is quite laughable and many of the scenes here featuring him interacting with the girls comes off as sloppy and flimsy with scenes including the over-the-top rape attempt that no one interrupts or the inability to team up and overpower such a scrawny figure. Another one is the fact with the subplot with the beach weirdo isn't handled really well. It's fairly obvious that it's a red herring, but the insistence upon trying to make it more serious with the same method is really troublesome, and it doesn't really need to be there other than add to the body count.
The other factor to this one is how most of the kills are done the same way, with the drill rammed through a body part. It's not original, it's not 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 except for the amount of blood unleashed being the differences. It really would've been better had a few more got knocked off with some other form of weapon, as those were pretty good and broke up the monotony of seeing all the kills done in the same manner. The last flaw would be the cheese level which might not be for some who want it to be more of a serious case film and it could be a detriment. Otherwise, this here is just decent.
Overview: ***.5/5
One of the better entries in the series, this one is a real blast and is really fun, especially for the really big cheese-fans. Recommended mainly to them, as well as the fans of the first two in the series as well as 80s slashers, while this one won't be really enjoyed for those who aren't big fans of the others.
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