Review by
Sue Finn
Directed by: Brandon Bassham
Starring: Lloyd Kaufman, Addie Weyrich, Jean Louise O'Sullivan, Rasheda Crockett, Billy Bob Thompson
A group of young party-goers gather at a residence for a housewarming, but
before they can get going, they are told the tale of what happened five
years prior, at the exact location where they are about to party. The
story tells of a group of girls who had come together to have a party -
they invited boys over, and there was drinking and drugs. According to the
legend, their neighbours couldn’t stand the sound, came over and killed
everybody including some pizza delivery guys.
Apparently there were two survivors - Lucy and Margot, but Lucy killed
Margot and now resides in an institution.
With this, the new party begins. There’s a love scene with the
participants making really REALLY sure they have consent, dick-docking and
completely unsatisfying gay sex in the basement, and humorous lines (“I’ve
been to Paris, you can’t fool me”) before the slaughter begins again.
All of this occurs before the title card.
Meanwhile, future final-girl Madison (Addie Weyrich) is hiding in
the bath. She can’t move on after hearing the news of another mass murder
at the slashening house and she’s advised to join a support group.
The group she joins is led by Pat (Patrick Foy), who survived the
first movie after a scalded face, eye enucleation and having his penis
ripped off and put into his mouth – “But I’m alive dammit!”
I particularly enjoyed that at the group the only decoration in the
meeting room is a kitten poster with the legend ‘I wuv u, don’t kill
yourself’.
An exceptionally long time is spent meeting the members of the group and
it’s during these introductions that we learn Maddison’s connection to the
slashening - her dad was the pizza shop owner who sent all the pizza
delivery staff to the house five years previously where they all ended up
murdered. After many failed suicide attempts he finally died indulging in
auto erotic asphyxiation.
We are treated to a performance by group member Scott’s band The Rusty
Joes, whose hipster bluegrass song just consists of the word “Hey”
accompanied by ukuleles and bottle blowing – genuinely hilarious.
There’s a haphazard scene with a stoner being dispatched via
bong-stabbing, and then we hit the feminist art show section.
This is where the film pretty much lost me as an audience member as it
goes off on a random tangent and then has a woman strip down to her G
string and dance around as the camera spins for an inordinately long time;
the scene comes out of nowhere, contributes nothing, and is actually
really boring and badly acted.
After this there’s a grossout sex scene and several deaths, before the
finale which has a nice twist I didn’t see coming.
Written and directed by Brandon Bassham, this is a mixed bag of a
movie, and much of your enjoyment relies on how you feel about Troma
films. Usually their films make me laugh when they have a clear target and
know their subject inside out, but this feels very unfocused and has the
feel of a film trying to have its cake and eat it too. Bassham wrote and
directed the Troma film Feartown USA, which I actually loved and so I’m surprised I didn’t embrace this film
anywhere near as much.
I liked the bar scene where a group of oblivious mean girls (two of them
from the support group Maddison attends) force the minimum wage bar worker
to stay past her shift because they want to finish their wine and they
threaten her with a bad online critique if she doesn’t. The surviving mean
girl calling daddy for help and him throwing money at her to solve her
problem as the killer stalks her to finish his business, was particularly
amusing; but these scenes become fewer and farther apart. Troma can be
funny and irreverent while staying topical and sharp but this is only seen
in glimpses here.
Unfortunately, this isn’t clever, has little to say and aside from a few
easy potshots isn't funny enough to sustain itself in the places where
it's lacking. There seems to be an absent sense of drive to the storyline
as it meanders all over the place; and the kills are disappointingly
pedestrian and often shot badly.
I like the killer reveal and it's in this scene that we get an inkling of
its working class affections. It’s a shame it’s never clearer than right
before it ends.
A UK/ROI release has yet to be announced.
