My plan for the month of May is to watch at least one female directed movie a day, and (if I feel compelled) to write about it. I'm starting the Drive-in Divas category with a personal review of
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), which was an exploitation movie both directed and written by women: director Amy Holden Jones and screenwriter Rita Mae Brown. I was a little skeptic at first, but as the movie progressed, I began enjoying the intelligent humor behind it.
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| Above screencap from here. |
The movie opens in Trish's bedroom (the girl who throws the slumber party), where we see a lot of pink and fluffy stuff. It's obvious that Trish is portrayed as very girly. Fair enough, it's the 80s and supposedly she's in high school (but looks 25).
There is a lot of gratuitous nudity at the start of the movie (and no, not in an artistic way). This left me a little confused. I was wondering, since the movie is written/directed by women, what reason did they had to objectify the female body? Well, this is actually an important part of the theme. The killer's weapon of choice is a 12-inch drill, which he sometimes holds in suggestive places (like his CROTCH, as portrayed in the movie poster too). Also, later on in the movie, while the girls are at the slumber party and changing into their pajamas, there are two guys standing outside of the window and looking in. I realized that the gratuitous nudity was not so much for the gratuity, but to directly point out how these four girls are the targets of a voyeuristic threat (in this movie, the killer) and are purposely being objectified.
This is emphasizes by the contrast with Valerie and her little sister Courtney (probably the most interesting female character in the whole movie) who are actually the ones doing the objectifying. Courtney pulls out an issue of
Playgirl from her under sister's bed, and later on both girls casually look at pictures of naked men.
Also, about the lead girls: there doesn't appear to be just one heroine, which I'm usually used to seeing in slashers. There appear to be two lead characters (Trish, the girl throwing the slumber party, and Valerie, the girl who lives next door and saves the day). The movie begins through Trish's point of view, although it seems to shift to Valerie's when shit at the house starts getting real.
The movie is full of subtle humor and irony. My favorite is probably Valerie relaxing at home, watching a slasher exploitation while she's a character in one herself (and that stuff on TV is happening next door). Although the body in the fridge scene cracked me up the most.
It's an exploitation movie, but still, I was quite impressed. The movie was funny, witty, had interesting characters, and did not lack in exploitation-worthy gore. I look forward to seeing the two sequels to the movie, which were both directed/written by women (although it's not Amy Holden Jones, so I'm not expecting anything yet).
Also, the movie inspired me to make a playlist of some indie ladies that I've been digging a lot lately. Mainly indie rock and two random exceptions. I named it after a character in a screenplay I've been working on this past week.
I'll be watching some more lady directors this coming month, and although I'm not promising I'll make it through all of them, I will write about the ones that I enjoy the most.
