Guilty Pleasures: “The Last Slumber Party” (1988)

Three glamorous high school girls end up being stalked by a psychotic mental patient during an all night slumber party.

This is a very underrated film. The film has two storylines that intersect at perfect times. We begin by seeing the killer menacing a girl at her home before being scared away when she screams for help. After that terrifying sequence we are taken to the school where we meet the students in the gifted class. As they are learning about anatomy, they are also looking forward to the end of school. Three girls in the class, Linda, Tracy, and Chris decide to have a slumber party at Linda’s house. They also have the three jocks who want to crash the party for their own brand of “fun”.

The second storyline involves Linda’s father who has a very violent patient who once tried to make out with him in the hospital room before they were separated. The patient obviously doesn’t take too well to rejection and heads out to the doctor’s home to murder him and his family. This seems to work out perfectly for him as he has a house full of victims at the slumber party.

The slumber party itself doesn’t turn out to be much fun. How can it be when Linda’s mother is home? She pops up occasionally in case we as the audience forget that she is there. The jocks show up from time to time to scare the girls but the party really gets going when the mental patient shows up. And if that isn’t good enough we also have another killer show up the same night to kill the teens as well. How many movies can say that??

The terror mounts higher and higher until the climactic battle with the final girl and the killer. And our final girl is extremely clever as she investigates the house for her missing friends and even ignores two dying victims just to save her own ass. Hey, this is survival of the fittest! She does what she has to do! She also knows that the worst thing you can do when a killer is the house is to run outside. You must stay indoors and walk around.

I won’t spoil the ending except to say that some of the so called plot holes could be easily explained when you take the ending into consideration. Overall, a marvelous piece of cinema that deserves a wider audience!

Okay, so this review is obviously being done tongue planted firmly in cheek. But this seriously is a really fun movie that should be seen. It is hilarious! Much love from me!

—-Nathan Johnson

This review is courtesy of the Slasher Studios Horror Film Club.

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