POOL PARTY MASSACRE
Starring Alexis Adams, Sally Burnswello, Nick Byer
Written and directed by Drew Marvick
Floating Eye Films
If you’ve ever loved the over-the-top bad acting, buckets of blood, and inventive kills, then POOL PARTY MASSACRE is the film for you. Forget a synopsis, all you really need to know is the main character, Blaire Withorpe – a spoiled, rich bitch, young socialite – is left to watch the family home (and the prized family dog Darla) while her parents are out of town. Of course, Blaire invites her bikini clad, big boobed, bitchy friends over for a pool party and things quickly go from fun in the sun to dead by dawn when a killer stalks and murders them one by one using tools from the garage workshop.
The film is a goregasm love letter to the golden age of 80’s slasher films, and for the most part achieves the marks it is trying to hit in a fun and engaging way. POOL PARTY MASSACRE is chalk full of bad acting, gross out humour, teenagers being killed while in compromising situations, boozing by the pool and blood splattered kills. Killer’s POV abounds throughout, making this a throwback to a decade of slashers that kicked off with Carpenter’s Halloween.
Viewers will also enjoy some of the more hilarious dialogue pulled from another time, such as from the obnoxious Clay (Nick Byer) who has a great back and forth with the girls about his theories regarding Ferris Bueller and Fight Club.
Practical effects abound in the kills which are full of blood and sometimes come off as more hilarious than shocking. My favourite kill? When neighbor Mrs. Stevens (Leeanna Vamp, arguably the most seasoned of the actors in this film), has her throat cut with a gardening tool.
The one thing that holds POOL PARTY MASSACRE back is the pacing. At 79 minutes runtime, this flick could have benefited from some cuts in the editing room, notably a few scenes of unnecessary and drawn out dialogue midway through. There’s a limit to how much of these bikini wearing bimbos that one can take and I actually caught myself counting down the minutes till the next kill.
The Blu-ray extras are pretty extensive and include a “Making Of” featurette, location tour, gag reel, cast commentary and director’s commentary, the latter which revealed the conditions of which the film was shot and the restraints in which the director had to work. Star Drew Marvick guides you through the location tour extra in which he gives you scene locations and trivia and knowledge to why (and where) scenes were shot the way they were. Gag reels are always fun to take a peek at because you get a chance to see the actors and actresses on the films having fun with their flubs and really showing the audience how much fun it was to be in the film.
Overall, POOL PARTY MASSACRE does what it sets out to do, which is to give us some exciting kills. This film is a complete homage to the 80’s slasher films (shot in a very Troma-eque style of filming), even incorporating some technology from the time, such as music mix tapes and a boom box. If the film had gone a more serious route and played up the tension, forgoing some of the comedy it would have been a solid offering; as it is, this does make a great film to throw on during a get together and maybe even your own pool party.
Out now on Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital download, sink or swim, Pool Party Massacre entertains.
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