#pseudo slasher

Slumber Party Massacre III (1990)

There’s a strange trend in horror movie series where a disappointing second entry is followed up with a spectacular third. Well, Slumber Party Massacre III proudly bucks that trend by being the worst in the series. Unlike part II, which connects itself firmly to the original before going completely off the rails, part III makes no attempt to connect to the original beyond using a drill as the primary massacring tool. Overall adding nothing new to the established formula: girls have a slumber party, some guys show up, people get killed via drill. Or rather they try to add a whodunit angle, but reveal the killer’s identity incredibly early and put almost no effort into the plausibility of their red herrings. They try to give the killer some—very problematic—motivation, but it just comes out of nowhere and does nothing to explain why they would orchestrate a premeditated killing spree. Overall, just more of the same boobs and blood, but lacking the charm of the original, or insanity of the sequel.

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

Slasher type films have a tendency to start with a bang, and then hit a major lull before picking up again in the third act. However, while The Slumber Party Massacre doesn’t start off less spectacularly, it does bring in the action early and keep it running fairly consistently throughout. Unfortunately, as is often the case with pseudo-slashers, the killer himself has a deeper connection to the characters or overall plot of the films. He is just an escaped murderer killing a bunch of people with a drill for no particular reason.

Is it a good movie? No, of course not. But is it a fun movie? Absolutely, as should be expected whenever Roger Corman is involved.

Phantom Brother (1988)

A movie that almost has a point. There are good elements, but none of them are ever explored in any meaningful way. However, the worst part is an incredibly inconsistent tone throughout. It seems like it wasn’t intended to be a comedy, but partway through they realized the movie wasn’t very good and switched gears to try and make it a comedy. The comedic elements shot at the main location get progressively more over the top as the movie progresses, but then wherever it cuts to another location you’re immediately hit with a style of overacting that makes Scary Movie 5 look subtle and restrained by comparison. I will admit, there is one funny joke, but even the setup for that joke makes little to no sense.

Decampitated (1998)

An entirely watchable horror comedy, which if you know me you will know is high praise for a horror comedy. It seems to have been made with at least some basic understanding of the slasher subgenre and does play a bit with the associated tropes for some good gags. It is overall just a bit of wacky dumb fun, with something of an emphasis on the "Dumb," as a lot of the comedy is based around the characters all just being very stupid. However, they do overuse some of the bits to the point where it goes from wacky to tiresome, and there so some problematic Edgy 90s Humor™ in there which is just uncomfortable to watch. So, worth a watch if you're willing to put up with its faults.

Bloodstream (1985)

A movie about a deranged filmmaker taking revenge on a sleazy distributor for stealing his film. Which is a fun concept, and one that is executed... in a style that one might reasonably expect from a super-low-budget slasher-type film. My only real complaint is a bit of padding in the form of characters watching movies, which I assume are clips from the director's previous works, which does start to get old after a while, although fortunately it stops shot of trying to drag things out to a full 90 minutes.

Fatal Pulse (1988)

A straightforward pseudo-slasher about sorority girls getting murdered with their tits out. Now, I’m generally a fan of movies where sorority girls get murdered with their tits out, and if nothing else I do have to respect this movie’s dedication to making sure each set of tits are unleashed before or during the death scene, but unfortunately this is a movie that even a comical amount of tits can’t save. As the murders occur, everyone just kinda fails to react for the most part, the entire sorority gets killed, and yet the final girl is still in the house where it keep happening. The leading man is also aggressively unremarkable, with stiff wooden acting and motivations that make no sense. It’s not even clear if we’re supposed to suspect that he’s the killer, other people suspect that he’s the killer because he can't account for his whereabouts during the murders, but neither can the audience. He is a character that only seems to exist when he is on screen, and then just kinda despawns whenever he’s not. So overall just not worth the time to watch it.

Camp Massacre (2014)

In theory, a horror comedy about a massacre at a reality TV fat camp. In reality, mostly just two hours—yes, TWO HOURS—of juvenile fat jokes. The saddest part though, is that there's an almost okay movie underneath that.

Ghostkeeper (1981)

A move with a nice atmosphere and eerie secluded location, but not much else. There is a story, and in general it seems like it's going somewhere. Like, information is being given which feels like it is building up to something, but then it just doesn't, ending with a weak twist that feels like they ran out of money to film the real ending—incidentally, that is what the legends say is what happened.