The Party (1988 Video) User Reviews

Bizarre straight-to-video "movie"

[wecantbestopped · 1/10 · 30 January 2009]

First things first: this movie has perhaps the most misleading/bizarre video packaging ever. The tagline is "There's no escaping... The Party," making it out to be some sort of slasher thriller thing, which it is most certainly is not. And the back cover is even stranger, showing a number of photo stills from the movie which have absolutely nothing to do with the story, and are accompanied by strange, nonsensical blurbs. So when I saw this tape on sale for a buck, sheer curiosity led me to pick it up. What a mistake.

Here's the "story," although I use that term very lightly: Richard Wells (Mark Derwin) billionaire captain of industry and Texan, has finally selected a wife, after years of running around with princesses and movie stars. The woman he picked? Cathy Loring (Kati Chesney, in her only role,) a commoner whose only bond with Richard is her shared Texas roots. In celebration of their impending nuptials, Richard calls up a party-throwing company to organize a bachelorette party for the bride to be. That's the setup.

We now cut to Valerie Rosenberg (Pamela Forrest,) a reporter for an Inside Edition-style TV gossip show, arriving at the house of the bride to be with her camerawoman, hoping to get a scoop on the woman who finally bagged Richard Wells. After talking her way in to the party, that's when the male strippers show up for some banana hammock hijinks. After these men do some of the least erotic male stripping I've ever witnessed, all the gals get into a HUGE limo and drive away. Let me just say that all of the male dancers looked like they were extras from the coked-out part of "Boogie Nights," silly mustaches and all. Long story short, the limo gets pulled over by a motorcycle cop who turns out to be the groom, and everyone lives happily ever after.

This dreck is about as close to unwatchable as they come, and is justifiably very obscure as a result. If you get a chance to check this out, don't.

So bizarre, its existence needs explaining

[geneticblizzard · 2/10 · 18 March 2018]

I'm not sure where to even begin with this movie. It's one the the most odd films I've ever seen in my life. I suppose you'd call it a slice of life flick, but that's being generous. I have no idea what the angle was here, what was trying to be accomplished. The whole movie is like a fever dream of banality.

Movie starts with Richard Wells, fictional billionaire playboy, choosing a wife, and throwing her a bachelorette party. And that's what this movie is. A bachelorette party. As you approach the halfway mark of the movie, you start to ask yourself "...is this... is this it...?" - and the answer is yes, yes it is.

The story, or whatever semblance of one their is, is that the bachelorette must go through these awkward, short, and unnecessary little "games" to reveal prizes, like a creepy blow up doll, a dildo, and the like.

Eventually, a small group of male strippers have gathered, and they proceed with this bizarre suddenly pink and blue lit dancing montage that goes on for almost 10 minutes, before the girls pile into a limo.

After they get in the limo, one of them pops in a VHS tape into a player, and the weirdest 4 minutes of this movie begins. The tape is basically this surreal scene of this pixelated blue covered guy against a pink background, posing for 4 minutes. No explanation as to what this is is given, and it ends very abruptly.

So the limo takes off, and the girls do typical limo things, like drink champagne, while poking their heads through the sun roofs and screaming.

Eventually, the limo gets pulled over by a "cop", who turns out to be Richard Wells himself (the whole time the limo is pulled over, there is a man in the background on his front lawn looking at the scene like he thinks it's real. It's pretty funny.) and he takes them all to his boat to drink more champagne.

Then cut to later, Richard and his now-wife who I forgot the name of are now married and watching the tape back together. The end.

Honestly, one of the strangest movies I've ever seen