WARNING: This Review May Contain Spoilers
When I first discussed Slumber Party Massacre in my ‘Death at the Party’ article, I honestly didn’t think I would be discussing it again. Low and behold, in 2022 it was decided that for some reason a remake was required – but at the moment what 70s or 80s film hasn’t been at least hinted at having a remake made? Sorry, they’re called ‘re-imaginings’ now.
Dead is Dead
In a weird way, the body counts in both of these films are exactly the same. In both films, at least 11 characters die but that would depend on if you include the death of the villain. For the sake of this article let’s say we do include them, which would mean that the remake beats the original by one as it actually has two villains. Strangely, I always think the original feels like more die but this is because at least 3 deaths are of ancillary characters that we aren’t properly introduced to – the phone technician at the beginning, the pizza boy and an additional student. In the remake however, we are introduced to all the characters that die.
Homages to the Original
This is going to sound very odd but the biggest one of these is actually the opening scene. Because the remake doesn’t follow the same plot line as the original – hence reimagining I guess instead of remake – the scene set in the 1993 is a homage to the deaths of Kim, Diane and Jackie in the original film, which made me think we were going to have a new Sydney Prescott on our hands in Trish.
Along with this, but it may just be the way I’m viewing it, the way Alex comes running out of the house when they have already killed Russ Taylor – reminded me of the way Trish runs out during the fight between Russ and Valerie in the original film. I don’t want to say that giving Russ the same lines in both films is a homage because they are the only lines he speaks in either film so it makes sense for them to be the same.
Girl Power Reimagining
Now don’t get me wrong, the original film is definitely a shout-out for strong females, given that the 3 of them take down Russ Thorn but they clearly wanted to make the remake a much stronger representation of the strong female character. However, in my opinion they go about it in such a cheesy way that it slightly falls flat. Especially as, for me, belittling men doesn’t exactly make you a strong woman. For example, when Russ is unable to get the drill started in front of Dana, she makes comments about impotence.
Modern Sexism
Here I want to specifically talk about the remake and I think it is maybe a symptom of the above. Don’t get me wrong, I think the concept of the remake is a great ‘reimagining’ of the story but I actually find it a little sexist towards men. I think they’re trying to flip the usual tropes on their head – like the girl tripping over while escaping or the typical nudity from 80s films (like the shower scene or the opening clips of Trish in the original film) – by making them male-led. However, I find it really awkward and completely unnecessary – especially as I feel like 4 women having a topless pillow fight would be considered as sexist in today’s society and there would be huge complaints following the film’s release…so why does it being all men suddenly make it OK?
In Conclusion
Now, I’m going to say that the remake/reimagining is bad because I really did buy into the concept of the updated storyline. However, you would naturally expect the original – having been made in the 1980s – to be the cheesy one and for me that isn’t the case and it really detracts from the film.
