Slumber Party Massacre III (1990) User Reviews

The Driller Killer Returns!

[ginnymason · 5/10 · 8 September 2019]

The Slumber Party Massacre series will never be known as one of the most life changing horror franchises of all time. They're mindless fun at best and Slumber Party Massacre III attempts to do something slightly different by keeping the gratuitous boob shots and gore, but taking away a lot of the fun.

The basic set up is typical slasher stuff with a group of girls hanging out on a beach and getting ready for a big sleepover at one of their parents' houses that night. They're semi-stalked by a creepy guy and, on the way back to the house, one of the friends is murdered. Obviously, once the party kicks off, a few boys show up to crash the party and check out the girls dancing in their underwear (and less) and the killer decides to crash it, too.

Unlike the first two films in the series, there's an element of whodunit mystery here. Could the killer be the aforementioned creepy beach guy with the ponytail? Perhaps the nosy neighbor across the street who spies on the girls with a telescope and seems really interested in checking out the house to see if he wants to buy it? Or maybe it's one of the goofy guys who have showed up to crash the party? This element does help it stick out from the other two films and keeps things pretty fun at first.

It's only once the killer is revealed that things take a slightly darker turn and it begins to feel more home invasion than slasher. If you're into that sort of thing, maybe you'll enjoy it, but I found it left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.

Dance for me, baby.

[capkronos · 4/10 · 14 February 2002]

I love the first SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE partially for nostalgia value but mostly because it's a genuinely fun movie, so I figured I'd give a go at this one, ignoring warnings such as the 4 Star Joe Bob review on the front of the video box. I watched it with several friends, and I'll tell you what, we never had such a good time making fun of a brain-dead exploitation movie before. This one really does reach new depths of stupidity, and for that reason alone I adore it!

The plot is basically summed up in the title - Jackie (Keely Christian, whoever she is) throws one last sleepover party for her giggly high-school friends (who look no younger than 25), some dumb guys sneak over and try to scare them and a psycho killer shows up with his portable electric drill and starts laying into these idiots. Apparently the ladies in the house don't know how to open a door or window to escape, which becomes almost a running gag after awhile. They also hilariously fail to subdue the killer despite being given half a dozen chances to do some serious damage. The list of possible suspects is pretty ridiculous, especially the peeping tom next-door-neighbor, who spies on the girls dancing topless with his telescope, and "The Weirdo," a mute voyeuristic albino who earlier in the day was caught staring at the girls during their beach volleyball game.

There's one moment of sheer hilarity when the psycho surprises a guy at the door with his large, high-powered drill, sending a half-dozen lingerie-clad babes shuffling back and forth in front of the camera in a panic. Another highlight is Maria Ford's gratuitous bare-ass shot as she tries to escape up through the basement window but keeps falling. And we've all seen the standard electrocuted-in-bathtub death scene countless times before, scene, though instead of the usual hair dryer or radio being tossed in the tub, this time it's caused by a vibrator that one character plugs in and leaves sitting on the sink while she's taking a bath. A guy who gets his feet cut off with a chainsaw manages to crawl all the way back across town to the house in a matter of minutes. The acting (aside from the guy who plays the killer, who's awful) really isn't too bad for this type of film, some of the songs on the soundtrack are pretty good and if you like your movies trashy, bloody and silly, you'll find a lot to enjoy here. For sheer entertainment it gets a 7 out of 10 but playing by the rules of movie reviewing (i.e. quality), it's about a 3. I'll go ahead and give it a 4.

Cheesy conclusion to the cheesy trilogy!

[markovd111 · 6/10 · 12 May 2019]

If you made it this far, I'm sure I don't have to explain it too much. Mindless, poorly acted and thought out and of course; cheaply made. But it has it's charm! It's corny to the maximum and you should watch it without thinking too much and enjoy it for what it is. Mindless fun! Naturally, that doesn't mean it's a masterpiece. It's basically like the other two, just retold with a new cast and a few tweaks. You can notice the pattern easily. With all that in mind, I give it 6.5/10 because of the cheese. Enjoy! :D ;)

Nothing memorable and absolutely no tension n suspense.

[Fella_shibby · 3/10 · 19 June 2021]

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

This is the third and final installment in the series. It is better than part 2.

This one has dumb fellas who wanna close a glass window of the basement so that a killer doesn't enter. Why cudnt they jus close the door of the basement which connects the house.

It has a lil bit gore n nudity but absolutely no tension or suspense.

There is lousy scene where one girl keeps the killer busy, two other girls rather than taking advantage, stays in one corner just to scream later. They cud have run away or attack the killer.

So the conclusion is that part 1 is way much better than part 2 n 3.

Funny

[kita117 · 31 July 2003]

This movie was so hilarious. The guy who wore all black was really weird. I never thought that I would be surprised at who the killer really turned out to be. The title of this movie does have a significance to it, that this is a movie made not only for slumber parties (very much so it is), but also for people who love slasher flicks (like myself). On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this movie an 8 (good enough to view).

This is the kind of movie you would expect it to be, just from watching the tittle and seeing the poster...

[StinnerMatjest · 3/10 · 2 February 2022]

Its back to basics for Slumber Party Massacre III - More girls are in need of some drilling!

Whereas the 2nd movie was kinda bad in an interesting way, this one is just plain bad in a not so interesting way.

From a technical standpoint this movie is not very good. It has very few locations that they don't really use very well and it is generally not very well shot either.

The direction is just really not good (the director only did this one movie) and it can especially be felt in the action scenes that are very lousy and awkward (that 1v1 between Ken and...that other guy, was hilarious for all the wrong reasons).

The kills are gore can get quite gruesome which is a good thing for a movie like this and it gets a sort of 'sadistic' vibe towards the end which fits what the movie is going for, but overall, a lot of the violence are done off screen and is not very well handled either.

I do like the contained feeling of having a bunch of people run around the house, trying to survive again, like the first one, though it should be said that they could pretty much just have walked out at any point and been okay (like when the first girl died and they are like 10 people who could just walk out in one big group).

Ken was definitely a step-up from the Rock'n'Roll killer from the last one, but it was kinda spoiled too early when he just randomly asked the other guy "hey, wanna go into this random closed off building, alone with me, while there is a killer on the loose?".

The characters are a lot more stupid in this one and the whole thing seems lousy and dumb in most scenes.

Not good I'm afraid.

• 3.5/10.

Slumber Party Massacre Part III

[Scarecrow-88 · 4/10 · 6 July 2009]

Teenage girls decide to have a slumber party which is interrupted(..to put it mildly)by a deranged madman whose mania derives from his sexual abuse as a child at the hands of his uncle.

Third film in the series shows how tired the formula has become. Nothing at all fresh or original, even the killer's weapon of choice(..the cordless power drill)has become passé. The girls(..including bombshell Maria Ford)are all eye candy in their sleepover clothes, even if the actresses portraying them are unable to transcend their one-note characters. Basically, the film shows some of the girls having a beach hangout with their male friends from school. Juliette(Lulu Wilson)is enamored with a handsome blond, Kenny(Brittain Frye, in a dreadful performance)inviting him to the slumber party later that night..major catastrophic decision. The film presents two red herrings, a strange next door neighbor(Michael Harris) to Diane(Brandi Burkett), the one holding the slumber party, and an oddball staring at them at the beach(Yan Birch). I think no one will be fooled because it's just too obvious.

But, the problem I have with this film(..despite the frustratingly questionable acts by the girls when up against the psychopath who locks them inside the house)is that the menace isn't the least bit convincing thanks in part to the performance of Frye. And, this guy is hit over the head by two lamps and a glass dish, is stabbed through the leg with a fireplace poker, with his eyes doused with floor cleaner, yet the girls still can not subdue him! There's one sequence which infuriated me..three girls, after the killer's eyes have been blinded, watch one of their own get her shirt ripped off and drilled to death without even attempting to help her! And, even when they do subdue him, the girls allow him to get free! You just want to pick up a heavy stone and clunk them over the heads! Anyway, the girls' boys are unable to stop him either, which makes this film hard to swallow because the killer isn't very imposing, except for his drill. The strength in numbers, even after they discover he's the wacko, fail to join forces to surround and cease him. They just disperse in all directions, with chaos as a result, the killer allowed to hunt each down, the drill doing some serious damage. Besides the drill boring through victims, there's little else that potent in the ultra-violence department. The murders are sadistic(..one victim's Achilles heel is sawed into with a chainsaw, another is stabbed in the chest by a "For Sale" sign post), but die-hard slasher fans have seen much worse. Maria Ford and Lulu Wilson shows us some flesh, so that's nice(..although Ford's mistreatment at the hands of the killer is pretty harsh). The motive for the killer to randomly kill women(..and the men who get in his way)is rather limp.

Kind of what you might have pictured the first looking like (before it surprised in being decent)

[Quinoa1984 · 4/10 · 11 August 2017]

Slumber Party Massacre III's gravest sin is that it lacks what made the first two special. It doesn't even attempt at subverting the conventions of what it is (the first one started as a satire and got trashier in production but stuck to enough of its original intent to be unique) or be really out-there in its badness (the second one, which may be one of the most entertaining rockabilly slasher neo- surrealist movies of 1987). All this is is exactly what you might expect, and yet it only puts in the minimal amount of effort possible in its run- time (ironically the longest of these movies).

Corman sold out with this one - not surprising he would do this of course, but at least this series, all helmed by women, had some teeth and, you know, *ideas* - and either didn't allow the filmmakers to get more creative or never hired anyone good in the first place. Its just a dumb, tired slasher with a final 20 minutes filled with such dumb and *mean* stuff (why do the girls stand by while that one kill happens that could have been stopped in the five real time minute lead up?)

It's only for genre completists, or those who might dig watching what is in effect everything that made Scream necessary, from its "twist" third act reveal (think you know who the killer is? F*** off, like I should care) to the inane conversations the characters have are meant to make them sound like real people and not types; its not really fun enough to be a guilty pleasure or something to put on at a party (like, again, the second one was), and its 350 grand budget feels as cheap as that sounds. Its also not a total crime or offensive (hey, it could be worse - imagine Eli Roth putting his taint all over this), but you could be doing better things with your time.

I can see why it turned out like this

[sahnazc · 5/10 · 11 October 2021]

This is a great example of why you should always try to hire fans. Watching behind the scenes interviews, it's clear that the director didn't really want to be apart of this, leading to a bland and uninspiring film.

While the parents are away, the kids will play. And the killer will slay.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 26 February 2017]

Screenwriter Catherine Cyran isn't about to muck with the formula established in previous slasher flicks. So what we get is a pretty standard issue entry for the genre, but one that is still pretty enjoyable, because it gives the fans what they want. A bunch of incredibly hot young babes all come to party in their friend Jackies' (Keely Christian) house. Before the viewer has to wait too long, a sadistic psycho party crasher will come along and make mincemeat out of the gals and their male counterparts.

"Slumber Party Massacre III" does go on about ten minutes longer than the previous two flicks, with a tiny bit more story than usual. There might not be enough bare flesh to suit some people in the audience, but SPMIII makes up for that with its wonderfully tacky gore and reasonably high body count. Fortunately, it does also have decent enough characters. Sometimes, though, you can't help but want to yell at the screen for these girls to just HELP whoever's currently being threatened. Functioning as a whodunit, the movie does reveal its killer about a half hour before finishing. At that point, it pulls out all the stops.

The performances are certainly adequate for this kind of material. Christian is a personable heroine. Hope Marie Carlton and Maria Ford are among the hotties flaunting their bodies, getting annoyed with their guys, and being terrorized by our villain. Experienced horror fans will note the presence of people like Wayne Grace ("Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter"), as a desk sergeant, Yan Birch ("The People Under the Stairs"), as an obvious red herring, and Marta Kober ("Friday the 13th Part 2"), as a pizza delivery girl.

If you're looking for pretty straightforward slasher film style thrills, you could do a lot worse than this.

Seven out of 10.

Boring and tedious and how many hits does it take?

[chanvat · 3/10 · 18 September 2004]

Warning, some potential spoilers await.

Really, how many hits does it take to knock someone silly or knock them out?

The inane female characters in this film hit the main villain not one, not two, not three, but four separate times (that I could count) in the head, then would leave the area to have him recover and go on his killing spree again within a matter of seconds.

I recognize that horror films are thin on plot, but this one is so thin on plot there is absolutely no motive as to why the killer does what he does besides his uncle who was a cop and died? Is that reason enough to go on a rampage killing a bevy of teenage kids? Obviously the writers and director thought so. Oh yeah watch out for the sly stereotypes as well, like the stupid policeman that is Irish, OH THE HILARITY!

Great Slashfest.

[pizowell · 10/10 · 5 July 2001]

This flick is loaded with those great ingredients that make a great slash flick. But this flick actually has moments of intensity with a truly insane psycho driller killer with some hilarious dialogue. This flick also has the dumbest slash victims in slash history. These girls are trapped in their own home. They have about 100 chances to escape and yet they stick around and run upstairs to hide. Awesome! I want extra cheese on my slash flicks. This flick has a big body count, a truly crazy killer, and a dozen red herrings- oh yeah and these girls are in their underwear for most of the flick. You got to love these type of flicks.

Campy and sometimes surprisingly grim

[drownsoda90 · 6/10 · 19 February 2020]

"Slumber Party Massacre III" is the third installment in the "Slumber Party Massacre" series, and, well, you guessed it--it follows a bunch of nubile young women being slaughtered at a slumber party.

Where "Slumber Party Massacre II" went the outright bonkers route with the guitar/drill weapon brandished by a rockabilly killer, this third sequel is more akin to the original film, though it has a strong late '80s flavor to it. At times, it seemed to recall a "Friday the 13th" sequel, with the group of young people anchored to a house where they are picked off systematically.

There are absolutely ridiculous things about this film--probably more than there are not, including an electrocution death by sex toy-- but where "Slumber Party Massacre III" surprises is the subtext regarding the motives of its killer, which, though wholly underdeveloped, are disturbing in implication. The acting here is largely bad, but the characters are likable despite it, and the film ramps up to a manic final act that, though over-the-top, has surprising moments of realism.

Though it's not high art, I personally found this to be an admirable entry into this series, and a bit darker than it's given credit for. The camp factor is very much present, make no bones about it, but it's considerably less tongue-in-cheek than the second film, which errs on the side of pure absurdity. "Slumber Party Massacre III," though ultimately frivolous, is peppered with grisly violence and unexpectedly dark subtext. 6/10.

Ugh

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 20 October 2021]

Directed by Sally Mattison and written by Catherine Cyran - all of the Slumber Party Massacre movies have been directed by women - this movie is probably the worst of the three films and a remake.

It does have a character named The Beach Weirdo that somehow has a power drill that he carries around and uses to do what killers in the slumber party movies do, which is drill women.

After filming was completed, the set was used for another Roger Corman-produced sequel that was also unrelated to the movie that before: Sorority House Massacre II. Speaking of Corman, this movie needed his special touch, because even though the actresses in the film were hired because they would get nude, several refused and Mattison agreed to let them keep their clothes on.

The sinister foreign buyers demanded to see some flesh and Maria Ford was the one to get her clothes ripped off and assaulted, no matter what Mattison wanted to have happened. Man, how has Corman never been part of the Me Too takedown? Hopefully, he's treated his talent better than what I've read.

Girls, Drills, Thrills, spills and FUN!

[Musical_Phreak81 · 16 September 2001]

This one is a lot better than the first one....it may not be up there with the greats, but it's worth seeing if ya wanna see girls running around in their bras and getting drilled to death! There should've been a special award given to this movie: Best Usage of a Drill! I haven't seen the 2nd one in the series...I plan to sometime...

Slumber Party Massacre III

[ryan-10075 · 4/10 · 19 November 2019]

While I do believe the third installment in the SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE series is an improvement over the second part I still do not believe this to be a good horror flick and really nothing new is brought to the audience.

A group of young ladies (including beauties Hope Marie Carlton and Maria Ford) have decided to have a slumber party. They do, the boys come over and bodies start piling up. One interesting note is that the movie goes back to some of the original slashers in that we do not know who is committing the murders. For a while anyways. They give it all away far too soon, but that aspect could have worked well.

There is an audience out there for this film though. If you like women running around in their underwear, T&A and a power drill as the villain's weapon of choice have at her. Others beware.

Enjoyable gorefest delivers

[duce122 · 5/10 · 21 July 2004]

Slumber Party Massacre III (1990) C-87 min. D: Sally Mattison. Yan Birch, Brandi Burkett, Hope Marie Carlton, Keely Christian, Maria Claire, Alexander Falk, Maria Ford, Brittain Frye, Ron Smith, David Lawrence. Enjoyable gorefest delivers exactly what is expected of it: big-breasted bimbos get stalked by a maniacal killer with an electric drill. Lots of blood, breasts, gore…for slasher fans only (especially fans of the direct-to-video grade-Z slasher shlock). Surprisingly, not a lot of terrible acting either, which certainly is a change of pace (and also doesn't follow the clichéd `last girl vs. killer' formula of just about every slasher film imaginable. Rates a 5 only because it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. RATING: 5 out of 10.

You know the drill.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 6 September 2008]

With part 2 of the series being such an off-the-wall experience (the psycho is a rock 'n' roll singer with a deadly guitar), it's a real shame to discover that the third chapter in the Slumber Party Massacre series is little more than a predictable formulaic slasher.

Once again, a bunch of hot girls spend the evening together playing truth or dare, swilling champagne, dancing, and canoodling with their boyfriends (who naturally drop by to join in the fun), only to have their partying interrupted by a demented maniac brandishing a large power tool (a massive cordless drill - one of my favourite slasher weapons).

Those familiar with the sub-genre should know exactly what to expect from this effort: gratuitous nudity from the big-haired babes, some lame pranks perpetrated by the boys, plenty of blood (but not really much in the way of decent effects), dumb policemen who won't lift a finger to help, a boring sex scene, a bath scene, and a red herring or two. What did surprise me, however, was that the identity of the killer was revealed halfway through the film rather than being left as a surprise for the end.

Still, there are plenty worse examples of the genre out there (this one has a high 'cheese' factor which makes it quite bearable), and at least it sees fit to include a death by vibrator - not something you see very often in a horror film (don't get too excited, though - it's thrown in the bath and electrocutes the victim).

Well for what it's worthy, it's better than the previous movie.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 4/10 · 5 February 2008]

This is still a pretty bad and silly simplistic typical slasher but when being compared to the previous sequel "Slumber Party Massacre II" this movie is a step up from that one.

What is mostly silly in the Slumber Party Massacre movies is that it features always a different driller-killer but things just never get explained why and how. Yes, this movie does provide a bit of an explanation but its not a particular good or credible one. It's the foremost reason why the Slumber Party Massacre movies are pretty simplistic in their form and concept. The only thing the movies are somewhat original in is that it features girls in the main roles and the movie is somewhat of an horror-chick-flick.

The first killing occurs pretty fast into the movie, just as was the case with the original, which keeps things going pretty fast from the start on and doesn't make the movie drag as much and be such a total bore as "Slumber Party Massacre II". As a matter of fact this movie is just very similar to the first movie. Very similar indeed. It perhaps seems more like a remake, or update with more nudity, than an actual sequel. So don't expect this movie to be a terribly original one.

The gore compensates a lot however. The previous Slumber Party Massacre movies weren't that really gory but this movie knows to throw in a couple of good gory sequences. Nothing the genre fan couldn't handle but it's all good enough.

The story gets basically thrown overboard when the killer makes his entrance to the party. It makes it a pretty dumb movie to watch but it of course is all mostly consistent with other genre examples. The story just isn't the foremost important thing in a teenage-slasher flick.

As you would expect, the acting also really isn't much special and the characters all remain terribly flat but it sort of all adds to the camp and status of the entire movie.

Oh well, it's all watchable enough for the true fans of the genre and for the people who gave up watching Slumber Party Massacre movies-series after the previous sequel, give this movie a change, you might up liking this movie. For people who just want to see a good slasher-flick, just skip this one.

4/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Trashy fun

[acidburn-10 · 5/10 · 23 March 2015]

Well where do I begin with this, at first I was expecting a run of the mill retread of the first 2 films and just another basic slasher that came out during this time, and while it was both of those things, but on the whole this was still a lot of fun. The first "Slumber Party Massacre" was a hell of a lot of fun and one of my fave slashers from the 1980's. The second one went in another direction with the Freddy like dream killer, which was kinda stupid, but still cheesy and fun, but not as strong as the first movie.

Now we have part III which took me a while to get around to seeing given its obscure status, and when I saw it, I found it rather likable. It's far from a cinematic masterpiece and has all the usual low budget trappings such as bad acting, poor effects and rushed production with obvious mistakes shown throughout. What I liked is that it went back to basics without all the dream stuff from part 2 which was hit and miss at the best of times and instead opted to add an whodunit element to the proceedings as well as adding the obvious red herrings to it, but proved pointless as the red herrings were more of an pointless distraction and are more or less abandoned midway through. The plot as well is just a rehash a group of girls decide to have one last slumber party before one of them moves away and of course some boys crash it and all hell breaks loose.

The back-story on the killer which was quite interesting and does add more depth to this movie and the creepy disguise he wears during the first load of killings was quite creepy and suspenseful and the cast while not very strong but were likable, Keely Christian who plays the main girl Jackie was actually quite good and very stunning, Maria Ford gives another standout performance despite her distracting bad wig, especially during her rape scene with the killer which was unsettling and nerve racking. Also David Lawrence who plays Frank was quite good as the standout of the boys.

So all in all for this concluding part in the trilogy, I still don't think the director knows what actually goes on at these slumber parties, but what goes on in this one only adds to the fun and mayhem, while not quite a classic gem in the slasher genre, but overall still a good watch and a fun waste of time.

I wish it was better...

[thetheonly · 6/10 · 8 October 2019]

This is the third and final film in the slumber party massacre series and by far the weakest. I don't know what the thought was trying to mix the first and second but whatever it was doesn't mix well. For a brief synopsis, actually forget that there's a major lck of plot without revealing spoilers and I'm going to keep this review spoiler free so instead I'm going to go over what this film succeeds at and fails at. First this film has the most even and best flow out of all of the films in the series, though at times it feels like other slashers. Next the film still does succeed in undertones of feminism like the rest without it feeling too overpowering and the gender flips are still unique. The film also has some really good gore like the rest, but in this one it's a bit cheesy. The film does fail at a lot though. First the characters are the weakest in this one and fall into the most tropes. The actors are also somewhat subpar. Did i mention tropes this film came out in 1990 and follows every slasher trope you can think of. This film also fails a bit at being a slasher focusing more on a who dunnit and mystery aspect in the first half which felt weird. This film also tried to mimic the second one throwing in comedy but most of it falls flat. One of my biggest gripes is that in every version I've seen of it even my favorite version it still has very grainy footage that seems to have never been cleaned up. If you do want to view this movie its the hardest to find of the series with the least amount of versions but my favorite is the 3 film collection with the other 2 included the only problem is it's out of print and on amazon will cost you 70 dollars and ebay at least 35 dollars, I would still recommend the collection since its the best it has ever looked and has some cool extra features that other releases don't include. Overall recommend it if you like the first 2 and are a completionist

almost 1h 50m of film for this??!!

[Fernando-Rodrigues · 4/10 · 24 February 2021]

Pick stupid characters you won't care about, weak actors, a cliché full of scripts.. ops! I mean, a script full of clichés and a not really charismatic killer, mix it all up, bake it for 1h 48m, and BOOM: Slumber Party Massacre III. Follow me for more critic/realist review recipes. XOXO

Suspenseful, gory and exciting.

[slasherfan · 8/10 · 3 October 2000]

After a hard day of partying on the beach a group of girls head to Jackies house for a slumber party. Little do they know a weirdo has followed them home. As the party begins, the girls drink beer, a weird neighbour spys on them and the freak from the beach hangs around outside spying on them. The guys turn up to scare the girls and get invited to the party. One of the girls invites a guy named Ken that she meet on the beach to the party. Before long a dead body is found in the closet and the girls panic. It's not long before they are all being chased by a psycho wielding a drill.

WOW, I truly loved Slumber Party Massacre III, it was a great movie, but I had to look past a few things, most of the girls and guys could not act, the character were very stupid, they kept knocking out the killer then running off, leaving him to get up and resume killing. If you look past the stupidity of this movie you begin to see how much fun it is. The twist with this one is that the killer is one of the teenagers, or one of the weirdos, we don't find out until halfway through, the killer also has more of a character, he isn't just an escaped mental person, or someone that just decided to show up for no reason. The is alot of gore in this movie (and I saw the cut version) the deaths aren't all drills, there is a chainsaw and even a for sale sign comes into play. Over all this is the best of the three, many might disagree with me, but it's my opinion and I love this trilogy and I think the third is the best.

The Worst of the Series

[meghancoker · 6/10 · 12 September 2019]

Slumber Party Massacre III doesn't have the jokey, satirical edge of the first film nor the absolutely bats#@t insanity of the second film. It feels mostly like a typical late 80's/early 90's straight to video slasher flick with very little imagination.

In spite of this, there's still fun to be had.

Average by-the-numbers teen slasher.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 27 August 2006]

Slumber Party Massacre III starts on a beach where Jackie Cassidy (Keely Christian) tells her friends that her parents are away & that they should come over to her place & have a slumber party. Sarah (Devon Jenkin) is given the task of getting in the food but as she gets in her car she is brutally murdered... That night all the girls meet up, drink, laugh & strip in front of each other as three guys turn up. However someone else much more unwelcome decides to gatecrash the party, a brutal killer is at large & intends to slaughter them all before the night is over...

Directed by Sally Mattison (at least we now know a woman can make a horror film just as badly as any bloke) I thought Slumber Party Massacre III (although the version I watched had the title A Stab in the Dark) was a dull, predictable, unoriginal teen slasher that does nothing to try & distinguish itself in an already over populated & limited sub-genre. The script by Catherine Cyran is drawn out, it has the usual cardboard character's that could have come straight out of any other slasher film, it has no reasonable explanation behind the killers motives, it gives the killer identity away far too early & then it's just a boring precession until the end & to add insult to injury it has a fairly low body count. There is nothing in Slumber Party Massacre III that any horror fan wouldn't have already seen a 100 time before in just about any other slasher. The film takes itself far too seriously, it's incredibly dull & very slow at times.

Director Mattison doesn't do a thing to try & liven things up, it's very flatly shot, it's utterly forgettable & throughly dull. There's no atmosphere & I just kept thinking to myself simply leave the house, run away, go to a neighbour's, call someone but just do SOMETHING instead of just standing there waiting to be killed. There's a decent kill at the start where someone has a drill shoved through their body but apart from that there's not much gore here, there's a few more drill murders, someone is impaled on a 'For Sale' house sign & in the films best kill someone is taking a bath & the killer drops a vibrating dildo in the water to electrocute her, death by dildo! There's a bit of nudity & sex as well but it doesn't really help that much.

Slumber Party Massacre III is fairly well made, special effects are OK & it's quite well lit but it's all rather bland. The acting was poor throughout, don't give up your day jobs girls...

Slumber Party Massacre III is nothing to get excited about, frankly I was pretty bored & felt liked I'd seen it all before. Much worse than either the original The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) or it's sequel the rather impressive & fun Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) so watch one of those instead.