The Slumber Party Massacre (also known as The Slumber Party Murders in the UK) is a 1982 American slasher film produced and directed by Amy Holden Jones and written by Rita Mae Brown. It is the first installment in the Slumber Party Massacre series, and stars Michelle Michaels, Robin Stille, and Michael Villella. The film follows a high school senior who gathers her friends for a slumber party, unaware that an escaped power drill-wielding killer is loose in the neighborhood. The film was originally written by Brown as a parody of the slasher genre but was shot as a straightforward horror film instead. As a result, it contains more humor, both intended and unintended, than usual for the genre at the time. The Slumber Party Massacre grossed $3.6 million at the box office on a budget of $220,000, and received mixed reviews from critics. Despite the reception, it has obtained a large cult following since its release. Two direct sequels, Slumber Party Massacre II and Slumber Party Massacre III, followed in 1987 and 1990, respectively, with a fourth film following in 2021. Two spin-off film series forming a wider Massacre franchise were also produced: the Sorority House Massacre trilogy (1986–1990), and the Cheerleader Massacre films (2003–2011), the first film of the latter series having been filmed as Slumber Party Massacre 4 before being renamed.
Plot In Venice, Trish Deveraux, an 18-year-old high school senior, decides to throw a slumber party while her parents are away. Their neighbor, Mr. David Contant, is given the job of checking on the girls. She awakes and gets dressed shortly before going to school. Meanwhile, Russ Thorn, an escaped serial killer, kills a telephone repairwoman and steals her van. Trish meets up with her friends Kim, Jackie, and Diane. She invites the new girl, Valerie, to the party, but Valerie declines. After school, one of their classmates, Linda, goes back into the school to retrieve a book but gets locked inside. She is attacked and presumably killed by Russ, armed with a power drill. As the party begins that night, the girls use marijuana and alcohol, while Valerie babysits her younger sister, Courtney, across the street. Two boys from school, Jeff and Neil, arrive and spy on the girls while they change clothes. Russ kills Mr. Contant outside with his power drill. Diane asks Trish permission to go with her boyfriend, and goes to his car to find him decapitated. She is then murdered as well. The girls order pizza and, while on the phone with their coach, Rachel Jana, the girls answer the door and find the pizza delivery man with his eyes drilled out. The teens arm themselves with knives as Jeff and Neil run for help, but both boys are killed. Russ gains entry to the house and murders Jackie. Trish and Kim barricade themselves in Trish's bedroom, but Russ enters through a window and kills Kim as Trish flees. Valerie and Courtney enter the house to find Kim dead and hide from Russ. Coach Jana, having become concerned after the earlier phone call, arrives and is confronted by Russ, who disembowels her with the drill. Valerie chases Russ with a machete, eventually severing his hand before slicing his stomach. Russ falls into a swimming pool and sinks beneath the water, only to emerge moments later and attack them again, but Valerie finally kills him with the machete. Valerie and Trish break down in tears as Courtney looks on in shock.
Cast
Production
Conception Author and feminist activist Rita Mae Brown wrote the original screenplay, titled Sleepless Nights, as a parody of the slasher film. Producers repurposed Brown's script to make a "serious" slasher film against her wishes. Amy Holden Jones, a film editor, wanted to direct and asked Frances Doel for advice. Doel gave Jones a number of scripts. Jones chose the script that would become The Slumber Party Massacre, then going by the title of Don't Open the Door, and decided to film the first three scenes. Her husband, cinematographer Michael Chapman, acquired equipment and film and hired actors from the University of California, Los Angeles, and they shot the scenes at their house over a weekend for $1,000. She showed the result to Roger Corman, who agreed to finance the film. Jones had to turn down a job editing Steven Spielberg's E.T. (1982) as a result. The soundtrack was composed on a Casio MT-40.
Filming Filming began in the summer of 1981. The film was shot on location in Los Angeles, California, mainly in Venice.
Release
Box office Distributed by New World Pictures, the film premiered in Los Angeles on September 10, 1982, and was given a limited release in New York City on November 12. It grossed $3.6 million at the box office on an estimated budget of $220,000.
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