Killer Party (1986)

 I have had the Blu Ray (bought blind; I've never seen before, not even when I was frequenting rental stores during my VHS youth) since January 22nd, but I sat on it because of the holiday. I didn't really know whether or not to start with this or "April Fool's Day" (1986), but I did know I was ending with "Slaughter High" (1986). I'm glad I kicked off my April Fool's marathon with this.

I guess I best felt like different producers/directors/writers worked on the film, as there is that Porky's/Revenge of the Nerds fraternity/sorority hi-jinks part of it, there is this meta hair metal music video at a drive-in (well, the frizzied-punk hair gal and her handy boyfriend were watching a crazy funeral scene from a movie, so this is a movie within a rock video) with zombies rising from damaged cars as the cute neon punk gal tries to get away fro them, an abandoned house with a history as the April Fool's party hangout, and a batshit crazy possession finale, although I can't figure out how the vengeful spirit of a pledge who died due to a prank would act like a demon from hell. The slasher side of the film sort of explodes in a quick succession of off-screen kills that appear to be cut scenes I guess are lost in a vault somewhere never to be found. I feel quite positive an arm was chopped off and victims skewered with a trident, used by a killer in an old diving suit.

I will give it to Joanna Johnson: while I was not really connecting with her character in the beginning of the film -- she just didn't seem committed or interested in being in the film -- when she's possessed, her Jennifer Beatty is whole hog demonic, with the eyes, tongue sticking out, and crawling about really dialed up wonderfully to eleven. While the film's personality changes over and over, I have to admit I had fun with it.

Actually I think the worst part of the film is the slasher portion because the bite has been taken out leaving nothing but cutaways that are tame, neutering the film of one of its main reasons for existing. First and foremost this is put out there as a slasher film, not a possession movie.

Still, I think the music video is a hoot and the possession finale where the demon causes the stairs to collapse while Johnson shows us how Jennifer can't break free from what has a hold on her, with the "oh, shit, Vivia is fucked!" final moment at the end as best gal pal, Phoebe (Elaine Wilkes), has become possessed, really lifted my disappointment.

The relationships don't get much time to go anywhere. Couples sort of hookup, I guess. Familiar faces I know from other slashers include Ralph Seymour (from "Just Before Dawn") and Sherry Willis-Burke. I was certainly pleasantly surprised Willis-Burke got as much screen time she did...her character in "Final Exam" is cute but not particularly significant.

I will never figure out why students tolerate hazing and initiations. But they make up a lot of slashers. One of my favorite slashers is "The Initiation" from two years prior, and even as we get into the 90s there were still slashers featuring pledge and hell nights gone horribly wrong. And a good bit of this film is about our trio of gals dealing with Fleer's shit. Then...in about fifteen minutes they all die.