Pillow Party Massacre review.
Pillow Party Massacre‘s story is a throwback idea to many 80s slasher movies. A little Terror Train, a dash of Slumber Party Massacre…add even a pinch of Friday the 13th. The low budget production undoes some of the script’s best intentions…but ultimately provides an entertaining, if predictable, watch.
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Pillow Party Massacre
Directed by Calvin Morie McCarthy
Written by Calvin Morie McCarthy
Starring Laura Welsh, Jax Kellington, Allegra Sweeney and Chynna Rae Shurts
Pillow Party Massacre Review
There are a lot of pitfalls that a throwback slasher movie can fall into. Pillow Party Massacre manages to avoid most of them while uncovering some new ones. By building a classic era invoking script from the ground up…it succeeds better than it has any right to. It can’t overcome some imitations…or its incredibly predictable killer reveal…but it can make you nostalgic for a very specific type of post-Halloween horror movie.
Two years after an April Fool’s prank goes wrong…the group of girls responsible reunite for a weekend vacation. Unfortunately, they learned nothing from the slew of 80s horror movies about this very subject and a masked killer arrives to slaughter them. Pillow fights give way to a fight for survival as the friends are forced to confront the past they’ve tried to leave behind.
I’m going to keep referring to Pillow Party Massacre as a throwback even though I can’t prove that it was made so intentionally. The title of the movie (a thinly reworked version of Slumber Party Massacre) would seem to indicate that it was intentional. It burrows from that series of movies (though not the most recent version with its inversion of expectations) as well as other classic films from that era. The opening concept is straight out of Terror Train. A prank gone horribly wrong leads to deadly implications.
These are less overt nods than recycled concepts. But they’re also what make Pillow Party Massacre work. Instead of falling into the parody trap that is so easy for movies like this to do…Pillow Party Massacre plays it straight. That’s where the nostalgia button is. Not in being hit over the head with visual cues and exaggerated period acting…by playing with an earnestness. Pillow Party Massacre takes its silly story seriously. That’s why it’s funny.
When I say that it’s funny…believe me I don’t mean funny in a comedic way. You could argue that it was in desperate need of some jokes…some witty observations to cover its more lacking moments. But that may have hurt the overall package. Characters being glib or referential about their situation can be entertaining…but we’ve seen that before. Is it worth hurting the pure joy of seeing grown women engage in a slow-motion pillow fight without so much as a wink of its ridiculousness? Not for my money.
When that pillow fight ends one of the characters (forgive me for not remembering which…like the movies Pillow Fight Massacre evokes…it simply doesn’t matter) says “We needed that”. She was referring to the pent-up hostility the group has for each other given the fallout of their disastrous prank years earlier. But you know what? The viewers needed that too. So much horror cinema has become poking fun at the silliness of horror. Especially when it comes to these types of slasher movies. It’s been a long time since someone has played it this straight…when the thing they’re playing is this silly. That pillow fight represents what this movie has to say. Fun can be had without trying to be too cool for the fun. It’s not just a pillow fight…it’s a mission statement.
Now, whether that mission is accomplished is up to you as a viewer. I couldn’t stop thinking about my first time watching a movie like Terror Train or Slumber Party Massacre (maybe more specifically Slumber Party Massacre II) while watching this movie. There are any number of problems you can point out in the story and production. Some scenes are too long without anything interesting to show or tell…acting is all over the place (but I’d argue it works for what it’s going for) …the mystery couldn’t be more obvious if the killer didn’t wear a mask. I’m not here to argue that Pillow Party Massacre is a great movie. It isn’t.
What it is, however, is a fun movie. A movie that feels like it knows exactly what it wants to be. If you are a fan of specific early-80s slasher movies…the ridiculous ones where characters have to say the dumbest things with no hint of irony…you know exactly what it wants to be too. I’ll take this version of a “not very good” movie over the one that thinks it’s funny while it makes fun of it. I’ll take the clear passion for the screenwriting and filmmaking process here over the overly serious version that leads to no fun whatsoever.
Pillow Party Massacre is handicapped by enough to prevent it from being anything more than it is. There are some digital blood effects mixed in which never work. But it goes out of its way to try and present you with a fun image of gore when it can. That kind of sums up what Pillow Party Massacre is. It knows what it can’t be…and it knows what it is. It’s also confident enough to be that without having to wink about it.
Scare Value
Pillow Party Massacre feels like it gets as much out of its concept as it can with its budgetary restraints. It wants to give you fun kills and the feel of a simpler time in slasher films. It can’t fully pull these things off…but it isn’t for lack of effort. It’s a movie made with love for viewers who share the same passion. If you are a fan of those early to mid 80s light slasher movies…they made it for you.
2.5/5
Pillow Party Massacre Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
