Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) I’ve seen references to Slumber Party Massacre II as a comedy and that stretches the definition of the genre quite a bit—it’s incontestably a rather gory slasher, made more obnoxious by an over-the-top killer saying what passes off as humorous banter. Various levels of reality and illusions (echoing the slightly earlier Nightmare on Elm Street) either make it better or worse. I’ll give it one thing: Its rockabilly-style guitar-drill wielding antagonist has more personality than a dozen average 1980s slashers smashed together, and I suppose that the supernatural-or-not nature of the film automatically makes it more interesting than any blunt psycho-with-a-knife film of the period. If I actually liked the genre, I would probably rate this surprisingly high—but even as it is, I’m feeling slightly warmer to the result than I usually am for slashers. Just writer-director Deborah Brock adding a random a rock musical number with the killer addressing the audience is enough to make it better. Alas, I’m not a fan of slashers at all, so while Slumber Party Massacre II is much better than the average film of the genre, it’s not quite enough to get me to like it by itself. But, hey, if you like that stuff… there are much worse choices out there.