September 28, 2021
Andries Smit Scores SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE Remake
SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE is a 2021 American-South African slasher film directed by Danishka Esterhazy and written by Suzanne Keilly. It is a remake of 1982’s THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, which revolved around a girls’ slumber party that becomes the setup when an escaped mental patient arrives with a power drill to turn it into a bloodbath.
According to an article/review posted today in Bloody Disgusting, the original film, directed by Amy Holden Jones, was a bit of a rarity in the ’80s slasher boom in that it was written by a feminist writer (Rita Mae Brown) and told from a female perspective (Jones’). “If there ever was a time to give the cult classic an update, now is it,” writes Trace Thurman. “That’s just what writer Suzanne Keilly (LEPRECHAUN RETURNS) and director Danishka Esterhazy (LEVEL 16, THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE) have done with the slightly shorter-titled SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE.”
Thurman goes on to note that the “new film adapts and modernizes the feminist aspects of the 1982 film for a 2021 audience… Often, SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE feels like the film that 2019’s BLACK CHRISTMAS remake wanted to be, but whereas that film stumbled in its heavy-handed messaging, SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE dips into parody so often that it makes its sporadic heavy-handed moments forgivable. The film tackles the male and female gazes, the true crime podcast phenomenon, and even anti-feminists head-on (‘you’re just part of some feminist plot to get rid of all the men,’ one unlucky guy exclaims). It doesn’t all work, but when it does it really does. Plus, when a film is this much fun it’s difficult to hold a grudge.”
The film has been scored by Andries Smit, a composer based in Cape Town, South Africa known for scoring such horror films as TRIGGERED, LEPRECHAUN RETURNS, LAKE PLACID: LEGACY, and HOUSE ON WILLOW STREET.
The remake made its world premiere at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on September 27, 2021. The film will debut on Syfy Channel in October 2021.
