Film Review: Psycho Sleepover (2008)

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SYNOPSIS:

A slumber party turns deadly, when a group of psychopaths escape from an asylum.

REVIEW:

Debbie is having a sh*tty week – her boyfriend of several months desperately wants a mouth hug, but she isn’t willing to go past the ever-popular Eskimo nose kissing. Most guys, even in high school, would just move onto the next chick, right? Debbie’s boyfriend gets down with his nerd self and dons a clown costume and tries to kill her, just like he has all other girlfriends who wouldn’t put out for him. After she takes care of him, her dad dies and she finds out HE was a serial killer too. A year and a sh*t ton of therapy later, Debbie is invited to a sleepover by the most popular girls in school. Cool, right? Sure, if only her horny therapist hadn’t let slip the address of the party right before accidentally letting all the crazed killers escape the asylum in his haste to get laid. Grab the beer and put on some Doobie Brothers, it’s gonna be a looooong night…

RAMBLINGS:

If you haven’t guessed by now yep, this is a horror parody that is not only set in the 80s, but pokes fun at 80s horror, most specifically the SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE series. Ah, there were some good times. Glad I just reminded myself to snag those DVDs next payday…score!!

Anyway, when I think of horror parodies, I think of goofiness with a story too. I’m the farthest thing you’re gonna find from a prude, but maybe I like to laugh and possibly even think with mine. Like my childhood when there were such things as LOVE AT FIRST BITE, SATURDAY THE 14TH, THE PRIVATE EYES, and even ONCE BITTEN. Yep, even the first two SCARY MOVIE movies rocked my world. But tis a very, very rocky road to try and navigate when you go into straight-on parody land. Few get it dead on the whole way through, and most run right off the side of the cliff. Yeah, I’m STILL talking to you, STAN HELSING. Grrrrr.

So where does PSYCHO SLEEPOVER fall on my like or dislike scale? Somewhere in the middle, actually. There’s a huge gray area with me (usually, charcoal) where I love the indie guys and cut way more slack there (and rumor has it this feature was shot on a mere $2000) but I also expect more from them than Hollywood because I’ve seen first hand what can be done with little to no money when all the right talent falls into place. And I’ve gotta say that while I feel that in no way the filmmakers knocked this outta the park, they most certainly show potential.

I love love love Rachel Castillo & Ariel Teal Toombs, let’s just say that right up front. These girls have what it takes to make me laugh and if they choose, to be future Scream Queens without a doubt. I also love how this movie didn’t play by conventional horror movie rules (or even most parody rules, for that matter) and basically made things up as they went from no matter what was going on inside or out and despite all of Debbie’s warnings, there was always time to stop and smoke weed, to one girl getting stabbed on top of her skull and showing little visible signs of pain or damage. Ah, the power of sports drinks!

LAST WORDS:

The storyline was basically nonexistent, the rules were turned on their ear then kicked in the balls repeatedly, the blowjob jokes were more rapid fire than I’ve seen since the days of PORKY’S, and the Mime and Copycat Killer were both hilarious and genius scenes in their own rights. But there were also too many jokes that fell flat for me and while true, this was set in the 80s, the filmmakers need to remember that the 80s method of “let’s throw it all against the wall and see what schticks” philosophy really hasn’t worked properly since the 2nd NAKED GUN movie. And if you’re going to do a parody of 80s horror movies set in the 80s, I strongly recommend you do more than dress the girls in Cyndi Lauper video outfits and have them say “Totally!” over and over. Do I recommend it? Yeah, as long as you know what you’re in for going in. Did it really impress me? Meh, off and on. But this is definitely a flick that I’ll have friends over now and then to do massive amounts of Fireball shots during the viewing of, so that’s gotta mean something right there!

Psycho Sleepover (2008)