MURDER PARTY is a supposed spoof of slasher movies, thrillers where people are held hostage as well as a vehicle for poking fun at art generally.
The plot sees Chris, a somewhat lonely guy who lives alone with a cat, finding an invitation to a murder party. He makes a very ridiculous Sir Lancelot costume from cardboard boxes and goes to the party, which is held at a warehouse. There is no party and Chris finds himself trapped by a group of deranged drug addicts who plan to kill him and film the act.
The first few minutes of the movie were quite good and suitably misleading for what is to follow. There was nothing funny but Chris was an interesting character to start with. He would have been great in a different movie.
By the time he gets to the party, things go downhill quickly. This would have been better if made as a serious horror/thriller since its attempts to be funny come off as downright ridiculous or plain bizarre.
Chris Sharp plays the lead role very well. His reactions were well captured. In a more serious production, I would have been rooting for his character. But with this being a parody, I knew he was never in serious danger of harm.
The remaining actors are all terrible, either underacting or overacting in various degrees.
Most of this movie takes place in a single setting - a warehouse. There is nothing wrong with this - if the story and script play out well. Unfortunately they do not. The deranged drug addicts just talk a lot of endless nonsense about art and film whilst Chris is gagged and tied to a chair. Some scenes carry on like this for 10 minutes or more, making the modest running time drag out somewhat.
The direction is very much along the lines of parodies such as SCARY MOVIE. The gags are telegraphed in advance, the attempts at humour are massively overplayed, there is comic music in the background when Chris tries to escape and there are some incredibly silly special effects.
I am a fan of "so-bad-it's-good" movies such as CAMP BLOOD, THE NAIL GUN MASSACRE, TROLL 2, DON'T GO IN THE WOODS and CHOPPING MALL just to name a few. Comparing these laugh riots to MURDER PARTY proves that humour deriving from a serious subject only works when it is UNINTENTIONAL.
Overall, MURDER PARTY is a seriously unfunny movie that has one interesting thing about it - the main character. It is hard to recommend this to anyone, except for perhaps fans of SCARY MOVIE or other intentional spoofs. For everyone else, I advise keeping to established serious horror or go with "so-bad-it's-good" classics.
The plot sees Chris, a somewhat lonely guy who lives alone with a cat, finding an invitation to a murder party. He makes a very ridiculous Sir Lancelot costume from cardboard boxes and goes to the party, which is held at a warehouse. There is no party and Chris finds himself trapped by a group of deranged drug addicts who plan to kill him and film the act.
The first few minutes of the movie were quite good and suitably misleading for what is to follow. There was nothing funny but Chris was an interesting character to start with. He would have been great in a different movie.
By the time he gets to the party, things go downhill quickly. This would have been better if made as a serious horror/thriller since its attempts to be funny come off as downright ridiculous or plain bizarre.
Chris Sharp plays the lead role very well. His reactions were well captured. In a more serious production, I would have been rooting for his character. But with this being a parody, I knew he was never in serious danger of harm.
The remaining actors are all terrible, either underacting or overacting in various degrees.
Most of this movie takes place in a single setting - a warehouse. There is nothing wrong with this - if the story and script play out well. Unfortunately they do not. The deranged drug addicts just talk a lot of endless nonsense about art and film whilst Chris is gagged and tied to a chair. Some scenes carry on like this for 10 minutes or more, making the modest running time drag out somewhat.
The direction is very much along the lines of parodies such as SCARY MOVIE. The gags are telegraphed in advance, the attempts at humour are massively overplayed, there is comic music in the background when Chris tries to escape and there are some incredibly silly special effects.
I am a fan of "so-bad-it's-good" movies such as CAMP BLOOD, THE NAIL GUN MASSACRE, TROLL 2, DON'T GO IN THE WOODS and CHOPPING MALL just to name a few. Comparing these laugh riots to MURDER PARTY proves that humour deriving from a serious subject only works when it is UNINTENTIONAL.
Overall, MURDER PARTY is a seriously unfunny movie that has one interesting thing about it - the main character. It is hard to recommend this to anyone, except for perhaps fans of SCARY MOVIE or other intentional spoofs. For everyone else, I advise keeping to established serious horror or go with "so-bad-it's-good" classics.