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 The original "Slumber Party
Massacre", whilst not as huge a success as the other slasher films it
sought to imitate, had still proven exceptionally profitable for Roger Corman's
New World Pictures studios, and had garnered something of a cult following.
Though the popularity of slasher
movies was generally on the wane during the late 80s (with the exception of the
Elm Street movies), the home video boom was still in full swing. So it
was with this in mind, and wanting to turn a fast buck for his current company,
New Concorde, that he decided to produce a sequel.
Hiring newcomer Deborah Brock to
write and direct, the film picks up several years after the original, in which
young Courtney Bates (Crystal Bernard), who is the younger sister of one of the
survivors of the original massacre, is going away to a friends house with her
band mates, for a weekend of partying and band practice.
However, she keeps getting these
strange dreams about some old rocker, dressed in 1950s leathers, attacking
people with a giant guitar, which has a rotating drill bit built into the neck.
Unfortunately it seems these are more than just dreams, as this demonic rocker
from hell later shows up at the house and starts to carve people up with his
guitars drill attachment, to the tune of 1950s Rock-N-Roll tracks.
Once again there's plenty of power
tool murders and plenty of female flesh on show. Though the plot is kind of a
bit all-over-the-place, as its never really explained who this 50s rocker is,
how he appeared there, or why he targeted these girls. There's a twist in the
ending that will probably confuse the viewers as to what actually happened, and
I also couldn't help but notice similarities between this and the "Nightmare
on Elm Street" films (IE, killer from a dream turning up in reality) and
cult 80s movie "Trick or Treat" (about a dead rocker returning from the
dead to raise hell).
The film is also less gory than its
predecessor, relying more heavily on the comic aspects of the plot (which was
obviously lost on the UK censors, who subsequently banned it). But putting these
criticisms aside, this is still a fairly entertaining sequel and one that I
certainly enjoyed, on a pure entertainment level at least anyway. So if you
enjoyed the original or your a fan of campy horror comedies, then you should
also enjoy this.
Overall Marks : 6/10.
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Terrifying Trivia.
Alternate tag lines
"A New Kind of Rocky Horror", "Thrills, Chills and Guitar Drills".
The original script
title was "Don't Let Go : Slumber Party Massacre 2", but producer
Roger Corman insisted on dropping the first part of the title for
its release.
Roger Corman did
originally offer the directing job to Amy Holden Jones, but she
declined, so he hired newcomer Deborah Brock in her place, as she
was looking for a directing job.
The songs played by
the band were actually performed by girl band "Wednesday Week", who
have gone on to have something of a cult following because of their
involvement in the film.
Atanas Ilitch was
actually the first person who auditioned for the role of The Driller
Killer. Director Deborah Brock wanted to hire him straight away, but
felt obliged to audition the other actors first. But she still
decided he was the best choice
The film was banned
on video in the UK back in 1988 after the BBFC insisted on heavy
cuts to the film, which the distributor refused to make. When Roger Corman
asked what the problem was, they sent a very stern letter saying how
the combination of rock music, sex and violence went too far.
Juliette Cummins
(Sheila) also played played Robin in "Friday the 13th Pt 5 : A
New Beginning". Heidi Kozak (Sally) also starred in "Friday
the 13th Pt 7 : The New Blood".
The film was shot
under the title "Don't Let Go" as they needed several houses to film
at and figured it would be easier to get permission from the home
owners if the film had a more innocuous title.
The main house in
the film was actually a set built in the back yard of Roger Corman's
studios. The swimming pool out
back, was actually filmed at a country club several miles away.
Though not mentioned
on screen, the 2 police officers in the film were named Voorhees and
Kruger, after Jason and Freddy.
A representative
from the Screen Actors Guild visited the studios for the scene where
the girls are dancing around and having a pillow fight to make sure
they weren't being exploited, but had to be thrown off the set after
he wanted to hang around, just so he could see the nude scenes.
There were 3 'drill
guitars' produced for the film. A fully functional model for the
close ups, which had a battery powered Makita drill hidden in the
frame. A static prop, which was identical but didn't have a working
drill piece, which they used for the majority of scenes.
Plus a lightweight plastic replica, which they used for the scenes
where the guitar/drill was going to get knocked about a lot, and it
was this version that was destroyed at the end of the film. The
static prop went missing after the film, but the director held onto
the fully functional version as a keep sake and later sold it on Ebay to a fan of the series for an undisclosed sum.
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Extra Info.
Cast
& Crew.
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