Party Night (I) (2017) User Reviews

What a lame party.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 14 October 2018]

Party Night attempts to emulate the body-count slashers of the '80s, wherein a group of carefree teens are gorily sliced and diced by a masked maniac, the grisly special effects being the real stars of the movie. A strong plot isn't a necessity just so long as the blood flows (the more creative the death, the better), and at least one of the actresses gets nekkid to take a shower and/or have sex.

Writer/director Troy Escamilla follows this simple template with a generic plot about three high school couples driving to a remote lake house to hold their own private post-prom party only to be attacked one-by-one by a murderous masked maniac wielding a machete. However, he fails to deliver when it comes to the kills and the nudity: while bloody, the slayings are dull and repetitive, and all we get in the way of T&A is one actress in her underwear and a coy sex scene in which the girl keeps her bra on. Worse still, when the killer isn't at work, his intended victims spend most of their time bickering or playing cards, which isn't exactly fun.

With no scares, zero atmosphere, and an ending that leaves the viewer none the wiser about the identity of the killer or their motive, Party Night is a weak addition to the slasher genre.

Cheap and ridiculous

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 14 September 2018]

PARTY NIGHT is another cheap and ridiculous slasher film made on an indie budget. This one features six young friends - all of them equally bland - who head off into the sticks for a secluded house party, only to be bumped off one by one by a masked killer. This film is so predictable it's unreal, with no insight, no freshness, nothing at all to make it worthwhile. Just cheap gore and cheaper filmmaking.

Pointless...

[tattoopig · 3/10 · 13 September 2018]

Yet another film that wants to imitate the slasher of the 80's. Why do this?? Why not just get a slasher from the 80's?!! It is so rare that these "Neo Retro" films actually work, but hipster directors still churn them out. So we have a bunch of kids who skip the prom after-party and go to a secluded cabin instead, where they all end up being slaughtered (even the kills are totally unimaginative!) The film sounds as if it was recorded in someone's bathroom. You are never told who the killer is or why he is killing. Most of the film is just terrible acting and drinking beer. The critics praised the acting of the "final girl", but I've seen sheep act more convincingly! The only thing at all decent about this movie is the great retro poster art.

Solid if unimportant low-budget indie slasher

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 5/10 · 26 September 2018]

Heading to a special after-party, a group of friends arrive at a secluded cabin in the woods for a special after-prom party only to find the area being stalked by a ravenous killer who begins to kill them off one-by-one and must find a way to stop him and get away from the house alive.

This one wasn't all that bad of a low-budget slasher. One of the main positives here is the rather solid homage to the old-school slasher setups that are usually featured here. The general setup of the group heading out into the middle of the woods for a secluded party no one knows about and coming across the killer hunting in the area serves as the usually fun setup that emerges here as the to-the-point storyline and shorter running time keeps this quite heavily in line with that style. That, in turn, leads into the other big aspect to like here with the slashing scenes which typically take on the quick and brutal style. From the opening spree murders that set the film up, to the deaths around the cabin that spring up and feature them finding the killer taking them out which forces them to engage in several confrontations with him around the cabin which has some fun encounters. Preparing the way for the final girl chase around the cabin finding all the dead bodies left around for the final confrontation, these here are all that really hold this one up. Among the first problem here is the utter ridiculous storyline that offers up no real sense at all. The idea of the group of kids going to a cabin in the woods that a friend owns the night after prom lets out is such a goofy premise for these kinds of genre efforts and really stretches the kind of incredulity already when it covers their lack of a party that concerns ridiculously petty teenage problems since this weak idea doesn't really work well enough to last for a feature-length idea. Lastly, the film is so cheaply made that it's nearly impossible to take this seriously in the slightest. The sound is so hard to hear that it's at times impossible to pick out what's being said, the general look and feel of the cabin speaks highly to the idea of just having used public property without permission and the special effects in total are just cringeworthy. The blood is about the consistency of colored water, trickles out like water and resembles food-coloring while the less said about the decapitation the better. These are what really hold this one back the most.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, a mild sex scene, and underage drinking.

Part Night? What Party?

[marklehew · 1/10 · 13 September 2018]

"Party Night" is a new 2018 slasher film from Troy Escamilla. The story is very simple...a small group of teens hang out at a secluded cabin after their prom even though there is a series of missing girls in the area! The cinematography here is poor and unimaginative and needed some sort of filter. There were lots of shaky cams when i don't think it was intended. The pedestrian score didn't help as the film had zero atmosphere. No scenes at the prom? Really? Bad acting and juvenile dialogue are abundant here as well as poor sound mixing...people walking and clothes/sheets rustling just as loud as the dialogue. In parts the voices were tinny. As far as the kills....they were unimaginative and straightforward with a pretty laughable decapitation at the end. Honestly, when someone says, "The Nun" or "Slenderman " is the worst film of the year, they most definitely haven't seen this. Gets 1 point for being a finished movie and another half point for cool artwork that doesn't match the quality of the film. The tagline is "Try and make it till morning", but it should be "Try and make it through this entire movie!" 1.5/10

worst acting I've seen in a while.

[jcroak-18174 · 3/10 · 29 May 2020]

The acting was the worst, very forced. There is no chemistry between the couples. A pet peeve for me is when people don't use curtains like the girls in this movie, they got undressed in front of window. One of them sees a guy outside, but no one believes her or wants to leave. It was only an hour and ten minutes, but that was too long for this movie. The killer takes down 3 guys that could be football players, without a problem, but gets ended by a a petite girl in a prom dress. Also, the blood looked like pizza sauce and sauce they used was way too watery coming out of there necks. Truly a bad movie all around. Don't watch this movie.

Rubbish

[jessicaframpton-54592 · 12 September 2018]

How this got a 6.4 rating i have no clue very predictable looks like a rubbish uni production

Terrific waste

[solomonvarghese-26330 · 1/10 · 14 September 2018]

Don't ever waste your valuable time. It seems like a porn movie without any story or plot.A masked man butchers from beginning till the end.

DONT WATCH

[curlysue-95875 · 1/10 · 30 December 2020]

This is the absolute worst horror movie I have ever seen. You could have at least made it look more real when killing people. Totally not worth my time watching this movie. My 5 year old nephew could have done a better job filming this movie blindfolded. So disappointed. Never will I watch again. Totally sucked even the blood didnt look real and the cute you could see the bandage you put on their necks.

Prom night killer

[TheFUC_Larry · 4/10 · 9 February 2021]

Wasn't the greatest movie but had a good storyline. The killer was cool just wish I knew more about the character and who he was. The acting was pretty bad but overall still watchable. Pretty good practical effects.

Give Me Blood!

[markailes2008 · 8/10 · 12 September 2018]

A small cast doesn't mean it will be a terrible movie. In fact, I enjoyed the movie. It's an honest movie that doesn't rely on CG and Hollywood major stars. I love movies such as this one because it's real and it's honest. We see exactly what is on the director's mind. In this movie you get to know the characters before the chaos begins. I think we should thank directors like this one who care about their movies and the details to keep us entertained.

Fun For What It Is

[amberberne · 7/10 · 14 September 2018]

I actually thought this film was fun for what it is. Sure, it's cheap, some of the cinematography is poor, and the sound in a few parts is bad, but overall, it felt very much like a slasher flick from the 80's. Those were all about getting a group of dumb teens together in an isolated location and killing them off. That's what this is. If you're not a fan of that type of film, then definitely stay away from this. The gore and acting was better than what I've seen in many indie horror films.

Reading some of the reviews already posted, I see people giving this a 1 because it's predictable or whatever. From what I can tell, it's pretty obvious this film has been presented as an 80's style slasher. Look at the poster and plot description. I don't think they were trying to do anything new. They seemed to want to make a straightforward slasher and that's what they did. It looks like many IMDBers love to give indie films 1's because they are used to production values and stuff that you see in The Nun or whatever else makes it to theaters. Of course a film with a $10,000 isn't going to look like one of those high budget films. Giving all these little indie films 1's is asinine.

Anyway, if you are a fan of slasher films, I'd say check this out. There are some issues, but I really thought it was fun, gory ride.

I absolutely loved this flick

[sickflickproductionsllc · 10/10 · 16 September 2018]

I had a blast from start to finish. What a fun slasher flick. All the actors were great! And the writing was fun. The only thing is a few scenes seemed rocky at times but I chocked that up to the guerilla style of filmmaking.

A Good Slasher Film

[daniel-mannouch · 6/10 · 19 October 2019]

Shot in sixteen days and funded through Kickstarter, Party Night is a love letter to low budget slasher flicks of the 80's and already I feel at risk of swallowing my own tongue. I usually hate this kind of pandering because often it's just a painful reminder cynical and cannibalistic nature of contemporary pop culture or it's simply the product a couple of horror fanboys unable to even spell the word accessible.

Party Night has these homage elements, but they are so minute, they are barely worth of note. I don't know whether inexperience or keen instinct was at play, but writer/director Troy Escimalla did the right thing and made a fully authentic, contemporary version of the film's that inspired him.

Party Night is short and sweet and cheap. It relies on two things, it's cast, who have great chemistry together and who all deliver unexpectedly organic performances, and it's brutal kills which cover up the frugality with an ostensibly cruel tone. There are no latex explosions here, but then again, this film never feels like an unintentional parody. A firm grasp is kept on mood and pace and honestly, that is the kind of directorial wariness that separates the men from the boys.

In conclusion, I'm glad to say that Party Night has one hell of a misleading one sheet and is not an insufferable fan film that overstays its welcome with the tagline. There's form, there's tact, there's surprisingly good acting. The time flew passed as i watched this and yes that does have something to do with the running time being seventy minutes, but I can clearly imagine myself sitting through another twenty as the characters were just that likable and the suspense was that tangible. I would definitely recommend this one.

Gives More Than You Would Expect

[toelessfiend · 8/10 · 17 September 2018]

Working as a bit of tribute to the slashers of the 1980s, writer/director Troy Escamilla's Party Night gives much more. His use of character developing dialogue makes for well rounded characters that the audience can care about. His actors are all very talented and their chemistry with each other can't be denied. Of course, this film does deliver the goods that we all want from this type of film. The death scenes are well executed with enough of the red stuff to satisfy slasher film fans.

A Good Old Fashioned Blood Bath!

[clintnarramore · 7/10 · 12 September 2018]

I thought this movie was well done! It has a small cast, so you can get to know each character, there are more than a couple tribute references to some amazing classics and this movie gave you gore without doing too much CG. It felt very '80s Slasher to me and that is a compliment. Overall this is a fun movie to watch if you are a fan of the old school slashers! I give this movie a solid B to B+

Talented!

[crackerjackshow247 · 10/10 · 12 September 2018]

A movie with a talented cast and crew, you couldnt expect anything less than this tribute to the 80's slasher genre. If you dont like this movie then there is definitely something wrong with you. I feel like this movie brungs out my inner love to watch the Friday The 13th and Nightmare On Elm Street film sagas all over again. This movie feeds your inner urges for pure gore and slasher moments. I am sure this will be the film that sparks your views on the slasher genre. Great job to the cast and crew of this film. The writing is on point in every aspect.

Fun Indi teen slasher

[mikey-53259 · 7/10 · 4 May 2019]

I checked this film out on Amazon Prime and it was a fun short 1 hour 10 minute ride. The acting is decent and while this isn't "horrifying" it's a fun throwback slasher flick that does what it sets out to do which is entertain. I'm interested to see what else the director has to offer with his other films.

Pretty Fun Slasher

[chriswesleymoore · 7/10 · 16 September 2018]

Party Night isn't a lofty think piece or character drama (and I don't think the filmmakers went into it with that mentality), but it's quick and to the point and doesn't overstay its welcome. Besides that, there are some terrific special effects and the cast isn't full of the usual indie horror movie mouth breathers who appeared to have been hired from a local strip club instead of a traditional casting call.

For a first time film, it certainly has flaws which one could nitpick if they wanted, but the film has a pretty infectious sense of fun that I've personally missed from the genre. Treat it as if it were just a random slasher movie you'd rent in the 90's because the cover art looked cool and you won't be disappointed. It's simple, to the point, and entertaining enough to deem worthy of checking out.