Audience Member
The final weekend of the past week's 10th Annual Boston International Film Festival begins today as the final groups of films from around the world, and from local filmmakers, vie for wider audiences, distribution, financing; and of course, word of mouth publicity.
Beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 21st through the final feature offering on Sunday evening, April 22 at 6 p.m., the festival has a full slate of films, both full length and short features designed to appeal to every film buff.
However, for this film fan and critic; one of the more unusual guilty pleasures for me during the festival was watching the screening of fun, gore-filled, cheesy horror flick titled, "Slumber Party Slaughter", written and directed by Rebekah Chaney. If that last name sounds even vaguely familiar to true horror films fans, it should. The beautiful lead actress, writer and director of this film, Rebekah Chaney is the grand niece of legendary fright and suspense film actor Lon Chaney.
This younger generation Chaney is working to follow in her famous Hollywood uncle's blood-drenched shoes on the big screen.
"Growing up with the Lon Chaney horror legacy, The Man of a Thousand Faces, I think I was destined to write horror", said Chaney. "It's in my blood. It definitely helps having a cast that gets the fun and humor of the genre. Hopefully, I've been able to bring a few new things to the screen that will make the audience squirm and then laugh at the fun of it all."
Chaney's film, "Slumber Party Slaughter" is definitely designed to have fun with the horror genre, with ample of touches of intentionally cheesy frights, plenty of bloody gore and some laughs as well. The film has the flavor of a 70's style low-budget horror flick that audiences might have delighted in watching at a drive-in back in the day. The film also marks Chaney's debut as a director.
The plot line revolves around a secret excursion by a partying Hollywood actor, Tom Kingsford ( played convincingly enough in many ways, by Tom Sizemore ) who visits a seedy strip club and ends up picking up several of the girls for a late night jaunt in his limo.
Things take a turn for the worst for all when they arrive at a nearby cemetery. Lets just say, people get killed, blood gets splattered, folks get buried. However, that's just the beginning as the deeds of that night come back to haunt the surviving parties one year later, as they fall victim to the sadistic manipulations and grisly murders set up at a slumber party arranged by the club's owner, William O'Toole. ( played by Ryan O'Neal )
Did I mention there's a malevolent looking Robert Carradine lurking in the midst of all this craziness? The former "Revenge of the Nerds" star is definitely not channeling his inner geek in this outing.
To say the gore and ways in which some of the victims are dispatched is "over the top" would be an understatement. However, that's the intent with the equal aim of evoking gasps while also choking down some laughs. One stripper in the film is dispatched in a literally shocking fashion; with results that are equal parts ingeniously unique and laughably gross. Let's just say breast implants and other surgical enhancements should have electric insulation from now on after seeing this film.
Rebekah Chaney has a wickedly funny sense of horror humor.
Tom Sizemore does a great job with his character in the film; parodying and perhaps channeling in large part his own famously publicized, real life wild partying days in Hollywood.
Who better to draw upon "method acting" as a boozy, hedonistically wild Hollywood party maniac for his own character than Tom Sizemore? "Slumber Party Slaughter" tpromises to be a blood splattered, horror hoot of a film that delights in not taking itself too seriously... and just taking the audience in for a seemingly retro grindhouse-style gross-fest where the cringing, gasping and laughs should abound to supremely cheesy effect.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
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