The Slumber Party Massacre is a 1982 horror movie distributed by New World Pictures. The stars include Michele Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella, Debra Deliso, Andree Honore, and Gina Smika.  Rita Mae Brown is the writer.  The director is Amy Holden Jones.

The story opens with a teenage girl named Trish’s parents leaving town for a few days.  She decides to have a slumber party with her friends Jackie, Kimberly, and Diane.  She invites the new girl Valerie, but she decides to stay at home with her little sister Courtney.  Valerie and Courtney live close to Trish.  Little do they know that a serial killer, Russ Thorn, has recently broken out of jail and has begun to stalk them.

One fascinating feature of this film is the lack of Russ Thorn’s background.  Questions such as: what is his motive? or why does he prefer to use tools as weapons against his victims? are never addressed in the film.  We also never discover why he targets these particular girls.  It may be safe to assume that the writer intended this to make him appear as the stereotypical boogeyman.  He is a man without a past.  All we know about him is his name and that he likes to use tools to kill people.  This fact, in a way, makes the story more suspenseful and scary to its audience.

The music in The Slumber Party Massacre seems to be a little corny at the beginning but, later on, fits better with the scenes.  The music is mostly performed by organ.  Using an organ adds to the terror.  These days, however, it has mostly gone out of style in these kinds of films.  The composers today appear to want to use common nonorgan instruments to make the events seem more suspenseful.  Because of this fact, the music must now be more dependent on its own content rather than the gothic sounds of its instruments.

To wrap, The Slumber Party Massacre is a classic boogeyman slasher flick.  For all of you out there who are fans of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, or the like, you will enjoy this film immensely!