The Slumber Party Massacre 1982 -Review

PLOT

Trish’s parents leave town for a while, so Trish decides to throw a slumber party and just invites the “gang” for old times sake. She later changes her mind and would like to invite the “new” girl Valerie. Diane doesn’t approve, and talks trash about her. Jealous much?

Valerie over hears it and declines the invitation when Trish asks anyway. Meantime, we eventually get a shot of a newspaper that sports the headline…”Russ Thorn escapes!”. What do you bet Russ Thorn invites himself to the girls slumber party?!?!

REVIEW

Slumber Party Massacre was originally released on November 12, 1982. It’s one of the shortest horror movies I have ever come across. Running at only 77 minutes! It was directed by Amy Holden Jones. It was surprisingly written by Rita Mae Brown, a feminist.

So we start with Trish, plotting the slumber party. We find out Russ Thorn is on the loose, who is responsible for a slew of brutal slayings that took place in Venice, CA back in 1969, according to a radio news cast playing. Some how Russ ends up at the girls high school and kills a telephone repair girl. He then follows another girl back into the school because she
forgot a book. When she realizes this dude is about to kill her she tries to escape the school. Every door she comes to it’s all chained locked. So i’m like wtf? Can we say “fire hazard”?

Some how Russ knows where this party is going to take place and shows up in the neighborhood. All these movies like this must have killers with psychic powers. To top that off, it just so happens Valerie lives right  across the street from Trish. The movie takes place mainly at Trish’s house. But it also swings over at Valerie’s house in between shots of the action.

The boys eventually show up, like always. They are not supposed to be there, but they wanted to scare the girls. They sneak into the garage and shut the power off using the fuse box. Which in turn brings the girls out to investigate. They succeed in scaring the girls. One got punched in the eye, so they felt sorry for him and invite them both into the house. Diane soon after wants to ditch the party to go back to her boyfriend’s house for a romp in the  sack. When she returns to his car, she discovers he was decapitated. She soon gets picked off afterwards.

During a phone call the girls make to their coach about some game, the call is abruptly cut short due to the line being cut by Russ. Coach Jana becomes concerned and calls Valerie to ask her if she would go check it out. She’s reluctant to do so. Pizza shows up at Trish’s, but when they open the door the pizza dude falls forward into their living room, dead! The guys now decide they have to help the girls. So they decide to split up and leave the house going in separate directions. Needless to say, their attempts to get help are not successful.

Eventually, we are down to just Trish left at the house. Courtney, who is Valerie’s younger sister comes up missing. Valerie looks out the window just in time to see Courtney heading over to Trish’s. Valerie goes after her. The two soon realize something is terribly wrong when they find one of the girls murdered and was stuffed into the refrigerator! Courtney hides under a piece of furniture. She sees the killer lay on the floor and pulls a blanket over his body to hide. Valerie looks for a weapon in the basement. Coach Jana has arrived just in time to find the killer hiding under the blanket. While she battles him, Valerie find a machete!

The end is near!

I actually liked this movie, in spite of some of the nonsense and things that don’t make sense. Like how does Valerie not see the blood stain on the back door of Trish’s house when she goes over there? The kills in this movie are not creative by any means. It’s just Russ and his huge ass two handed drill. He turns it on, sticks it in and we see a little bit of blood and that’s it. But the end of the movie shows its most graphic scenes when it’s just Valerie battling Russ out in the back yard next to the swimming pool. Not that there aren’t any more survivors, I just don’t want to give away the end of the movie for those that may not have seen it. But it is an old early 80’s horror movie. So don’t expect to much. I think the movie also was decently written and directed for its time. Still a favorite among old horror movie goers. So to the newer generation of fans out there, I recommend it. Especially to see what happens to Russ!

CAST

Michelle Michaels as Trish Devereaux
Robin Stille as Valerie ‘Val’ Bates
Michael Villella as Russ Thorn
Debra Deliso as Kimberly ‘Kim’ Clarke
Andree Honore as Jackie
Jennifer Meyers as Courtney Bates
Gina Mari as Diane
Pamela Roylance as Coach Jana

Lilith’s Tidbits:

Feminists back then protested the movie. They felt like it was a slap in the face and didn’t get the inside joke. Can we say “no sense of humor”. The director said in an interview that the haters were taking the movie and its violence way to seriously.

Michael Villella researched his role as Russ Thorn by reading the book, “Helter Skelter”.

Michael Villella had originally tried to get the part of the neighbor, David Contant.

Michael Villella purposefully stayed away from other cast mates during the making of the movie.

Robin Stille’s first movie.

The climactic ending scene in the backyard near the swimming pool was added to the film from a re-shoot.

On the original poster for Slumber Party Massacre, the woman laying on the floor with blonde hair is Jillian Kesner, who is not even in the movie. But, Andree Honore is in the movie and the only one featured on the poster.

In Memoriam:

Robin Rochelle Stille, better known as Valerie Bates in Slumber Party Massacre, passed away on February 9, 1996. She was only 34 years old.

Robin was born November 24, 1961 in Philadelphia, PA. She moved with her family to Los Angeles, California, she ended up graduating from Garden Grove High School in 1979.  Robin Stille eventually became a mother of twin boys, Justin and Joshua Creadick.

It has been rumored that Robin may have had a very serious drinking problem. No word on any drug use. But it is unsure if excessive drinking did in fact contribute to her suicide in any way. Robin committed suicide on February 9, 1996, she was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery located in Los Angeles, CA.

RIP  Robin Stille

According to a “Jim Kelley” on Yahoo Answers, who appears to answer the question of how Robin committed suicide, he states:

“I was living with Robin as her long time boyfriend at the time. Robins cause of Death was complicated but the direct cause of death was due to perscitiong drug use (zanex) which was due to a so called friendship with a plastic sugeon in orange county. It was very tragic and such a waste.”

Yahoo Answers

I have no idea how legitimate this “Jim Kelley” is, but someone did leave him a comment as if they knew who he was and asked about how Robin’s twin boys were doing.

Robins FindAGrave: Robin Rochelle Stille

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