Killer Party (1986) User Reviews

Substandard slasher film that manages to go in a few unexpected directions...

[AlsExGal · 4/10 · 29 September 2017]

...although it never rises above the camp level of entertainment. A trio of college girls who don't look a day under 30 are pledging a sorority, which leads to the usual hazing humiliations. The sorority decides to throw its annual April Fool's dance in a condemned former Greek house that's been closed for 20 years, ever since a pledge was accidentally killed in a guillotine prank, two words that should never go together. Eventually the bodies start piling up at the costume party (I guess it's normal for there to be costumes at such an event; I've never actually heard of an April Fool's party before), leading to a "shocking" conclusion.

This has the pluses and minuses of many early to mid 80's slasher flicks. On the plus side, you have terrible yet fascinating fashions, a bit of gratuitous nudity, and some truly awful bargain basement music to enjoy. On the minus side, you have to wait for the movie to be 3/4 over before anything really happens, and most of the dialogue and characters are rote and dull. I will give the film some credit though: SPOILER: This does features a rare double fake-out beginning and has a song you will just not be able to get out of your head.

Martin Hewitt of Endless Love "fame" gets top billing, although he isn't in it much. The main stars are Elaine Wilkes, Sherry Willis-Burch, and "Introducing" Joanna Johnson, who apparently went on the next year to start a nearly 30 year off-and-on run on TV's The Bold & the Beautiful. Paul Bartel also shows up for a few minutes as a professor.

Recommended only if you are in the specific mood for such fare, and occasionally most people are. It takes you back to the days when college students could unwind like this, often with fatal results, when they were unburdened with six digits of student loan debt.

Killer parties almost killed me

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 15 October 2019]

William Fruet made his directorial debut with Wedding in White, which was based on a play that he had written. The film won Best Picture at the Canadian Film Awards in 1973 and starred Carol Kane and Donald Pleasence. He followed that up with an intriguing string of Canuxploitation films, obviously taking full advantage of those wonderful tax shelter laws that produced so many statistic favorites.

There's proto-slasher Death Weekend (released in the U.S. as The House By the Lake), Cries In the Night (known better here as Funeral Home), redneck rampage film Trapped (AKA Baker County U.S.A.), Spasms, Bedroom Eyes and the kinda-sorta Alien by way of animal experimentation oddity Blue Monkey, as well as episodes of Goosebumps, Friday's Curse (perhaps better known as Friday the 13th: The Series) and Poltergeist: The Legacy.

That brings us to Killer Party, a movie once named April Fool before the similarly named April Fool's Day went into production.

College students Vivia (Sherry Willis-Burch, who is also in Final Exam), Jennifer (Joanna Johnson, who was on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful off and on from 1987 to 2014) and Phoebe (Elaine Wilkes, Sixteen Candles, My Chauffeur) are sorority pledges at Briggs College who are in the middle of Hell Week.

They're warned by their housemother Mrs. Henshaw to avoid the Pratt House, then travels there herself to the grave of a man named Allan, who she asks to leave the kids alone before she's murdered.

On the day of the initiation - this is a similar slasher trope, just witness Sorority Girls In the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, One Dark Night and The Initiation just to name a few - the girls prepare to break in and steal some clothes. We also meet Blake (Martin Hewitt, the doomed obsessive lover of Brooke Shields in Endless Love) and Martin (Ralph Seymour, Surf II, Just Before Dawn), who with interested in Jennifer.

During the hazing, the girls are forced to hold raw eggs in their mouths. Soon, all hell breaks loose and the lights begin to flicker and glasses rise off the table. Vivia goes to see where the noises are coming from, which leads to the group finding her get beheaded in a guillotine. Somehow, this was all a ruse and part of a prank that she decided to play. This part kind of confuses me, as I have no idea how a pledge - or why, to be honest - could set up such an elaborate trick.

That said, that prank becomes the reason why Vivia makes it into the sorority. She's asked to recreate it at the April Fool's Day masquerade that they're throwing at - DUH DUH DUH - the Pratt House. That's when we learn - via Professor Zito's (Paul Bartel!) exposition - that Allan died in such a hazing ritual involving a guillotine 22 years ago. That said, Allan may have been way into the occult and conjured an evil force that was behind his death.

Bartel is the best part of this movie. I've said that sentence so many times, but it's incredibly true here. Sadly, he doesn't last much longer as when he decides to inspect the house, someone in the basement electrifies him. Also, his Zito character is named after Joseph Zito, who directed Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and The Prowler. That's because the former of those films was written by this film's writer, Barney Cohen.

During the prank at the part, Jennifer is possessed by a spirit and stops the trick. As the party falls apart, the killing picks up, with Veronica being killed with a hammer, Pam stabbed with a trident, Martin's head ends up in the fridge while Albert also loses his noggin and then Blake is drowned in a bathtub. Vivia and Phoebe run from all this carnage right into Jennifer, who discloses that she's possessed by the ghost of Allan.

They try and escape through a window, but Vivia is thrown to the unforgiving earth, breaking both her legs. Phoebe ends up killing her possessed friend by impaling her with a board, but she's overtaken by Allan, just as the police put both women into an ambulance. The movie closes on Vivia screaming that she can't be left alone with Phoebe.

The reason for the quick burst of murder in this film is because it had to be re-edited following numerous MPAA cuts. That's why the film seems to have no gore and is edited so that the murders have little room in between. In the original cut, there was more time between each kill, as well as plenty more gore, like Pam getting completely impaled by the trident.

If you're watching this and wondering, "Have I seen Briggs College before?" you have. It's the same school as 1998's Urban Legend.

Killer Party was a latecomer to the slasher era, but it's a quick-moving burst of fun. It's not perfect, but how many of these movies are?

Less and more than you'd expect

[jellopuke · 6/10 · 14 November 2020]

So much of this movie is just cringe bad attempts at college humour, but then it goes all exorcist with possession and murder galore. I kept expecting a twist ala the opening twists, but nope, it plays it straight and ends up being ok.

These are the best times of our life, indeed....

[BillyBC · 25 May 2003]

(** out of *****)

It's another sorority pledge/killer-in-the-house flick, with three pretty sorority babes and all their friends getting butchered at an April Fool's Day costume party by the vengeful spirit of a reincarnated fraternity pledge. Only, none of this really gets going until the last half hour -- for most of the movie, we're treated with long, dumb scenes of typical fraternity/sorority hijinks, pranks and shenanigans (I wish my college experience had been half as fun as this movie makes it look.) Also, I docked this movie half a star for the obnoxious and totally unnecessary double-fake-out beginning (a movie inside of a stupid, "Thriller"-like music video inside of a movie). Finally, we get to the haunted house, where the resurrected killer walks around in a deep-sea diver suit and uses such diverse tools of the slasher trade as a hammer, a trident, and a guillotine. In the climax, one of the girls gets possessed and starts snarling and slobbering and crawling around on chandeliers and ceilings (not an altogether unimpressive performance, actually.) There's minimal nudity and all of the violence is off-screen. Paul Bartel makes one of his typical B-movie cameos as an uptight college professor, and the three main girls are played by Elaine Wilkes, Sherry Willis-Burch, and Joanna Johnson. Also with Martin Hewitt, Alicia Fleer and Ralph Seymour (from "Fletch"). The theme song played over the opening and closing credits (the chorus goes, `These are the best times of our life, these are the best times. ... ') sounds like a generic ‘80s song, but hearing it after most of the cast gets wiped out was amusing in a (most likely unintentional) ironic sort of way.

HIGHLIGHT: Johnson's performance as the drooling, wall-climbing, possessed college cutie, Jennifer, is the film's highlight. She's no Linda Blair, but, for this kind of derivative, low-budget trash, she's not half bad.

low grade horror

[SnoopyStyle · 3/10 · 27 November 2016]

Vivia, Jennifer, and Phoebe are best friends who decide to join a sorority. The sorority is near a boarded-up former frat house where a killer roams. Guys release a jar of bees to drive naked sorority girls out of the hot tub and film them running around naked. The pledges are required to say "I myself prefer a big fat cucumber" which gets them kicked out of Professor Zito's class. Weirdo Martin starts hanging out with the girls. During initiation, Vivia plays a prank on everybody. All three are accepted into the sorority mainly so that Vivia can set up the coming April Fool's party in the old frat house.

The movie starts with two fake-outs and the low grade horror begins. It does some T&A. The horror is horribly slow. Sometimes, I wonder if this is meant to be camp especially with Paul Bartel in the movie. It's definitely not funny with its jokes. It takes awhile but it finally becomes a-killer-in-the-house movie. Even then, it's badly done. None of it is good.

College horror / slasher starts out fun but ultimately fails to deliver in the end.

[capkronos · 4/10 · 16 November 2014]

A bitter woman attending her mother's funeral gets pulled into a casket by her dearly departed and is accidentally incinerated, which turns out to be a movie playing at a drive-in where a girl goes to a snack bar, encounters dancing zombies and then a rock band, which turns out to be a music music video being watched by one of our heroines. This bizarre film-within-a-film-within- a-film opening is probably the most appropriate way to start out a film originally called "The April Fools" and set among a group of joke- playing college students in the midst of Hell Week. Shy Jennifer (Joanna Johnson), vivacious Phoebe (Elaine Wilkes) and geeky Vivia (Sherry Willis-Burch) are the three newest pledges of the prestigious sorority Sigma Alpha Phi ("the wet dream of this college!") where they must endure such rush week indignities as paddling, having raw eggs cracked into their mouths, being fed goat eyeballs (!) and being forced to say "I myself prefer a big, fat cucumber" in the middle of class.

Thankfully, all that's about to come to an end as the girls approach the end of their hazing period, only they're about to trade the feelings of embarrassment and humiliation for the feelings of death and bodily possession instead. Bitchy sorority head Veronica (Alicia Fleer) unwisely decides to hold the sorority's annual April Fool's masquerade ball - held in conjunction with a male house known as the Beta Tau - in a long-abandoned frat house haunted by the vengeful spirit of a guy named Alan who was accidentally killed there twenty years earlier. As the party is underway, someone decked out in a diver's costume decides to kill everyone off in a variety of ways that include a trident, knife, hammer, guillotine, drowning and that old standby, a harpoon shot up an ass. By the end, the guilty party (whose identity is poorly telegraphed in advance) is sporting white contacts, an EXORCIST tongue and a husky voice and literally climbing the walls.

This actually begins surprisingly well. The production values and photography are both good, there are some fun songs, the performances are competent from most of the cast, the actors and actresses are likable and the dialogue isn't half bad either (the script was from Friday THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER writer Barney Cohen). We get a good look at college life to start things out, but the movie wastes way too much time on that and the various pranks going on on campus, including bees unleashed upon a bunch of topless girls in a hot tub. For the first hour plus the film is almost completely bereft of horror so by the time it does reach the finale it has no other choice but to rush through it in a haphazard fashion completely devoid of either suspense or gory payoff.

Hampering the film even further is that ALL of the kills take place off- screen. You simply get to see an already-killed victim or the killer approaching behind someone with a weapon before it abruptly cuts to something else. Apparently the MPAA forced them to eliminate every bit of blood and there doesn't appear to have been a lot to begin with. The only real gore moment they allowed to pass through was a decapitation and that's only because it turns out to be a prank!

Martin Hewitt receives top billing for his supporting role because he was in the hit ENDLESS LOVE (1981) a few years earlier. (Terrible movie but it got him some attention at the time). Cult legend Paul Bartel has a small role as an uptight professor and other small parts are played by Ralph Seymour (JUST BEFORE DAWN), Terri Hawkes (PROM NIGHT II) and Woody Brown (ALLIGATOR II). By the way, the current "trivia" on here about this movie starting production in 1978 and being mostly filmed then is complete bs. This was actually filmed in 1984.

Does anybody know what they're doing??! Anybody???!!!

[Nightman85 · 1/10 · 7 August 2006]

College students throw a party in an old frat house, only to have someone start killing off everybody and raising demons (?!)

Canadian 'horror' drivel is one mess of a movie. The movie opens with a weird prologue that has nothing to do with the rest of the film and even when we reach our 'feature' story it's a bit of a train wreck. Killer Party is a movie that suffers from a real lack of seriousness. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy campy horror movies, but in this case it's all a bit too ridiculous. Even as the movie tries desperately for a terrifying climax, it comes off as completely laughable. The movies theme song 'Best Times of our Lives' is memorable though.

Those who enjoy silly 80's schlock might have a good time with this one, but all in all Killer Party is totally inept as a horror film.

BOMB out of ****

"Are You A Goat?"

[PredragReviews · 7/10 · 25 December 2016]

"Killer Party" opens like no other horror/slasher movie ever. It's a good 9 minutes before the actual movie begins. The opening 9 minutes pull the rug out from under the viewer not once, but twice! These two opening segments did a fun job of jumping on the clichés of the time. Gotcha scares, drive-ins, and hair rock music videos routinely seen on MTV. It is an absolute blast. The actual movie tells the tale of three young women pledging to a sorority on campus. They have to go through the usual pledge/hazing shenanigans. Unfortunately, a party is to be held in an abandoned frat house, where a pledge was accidentally killed years before. It appears this pledge does not rest in peace, and the party-goers are about to find out the hard way.

"Killer Party" is a horror movie with a sense of humor. Not only the humor that is in the movie in itself, but the fact that the film knows what kind of movie it is, and has fun with it. The movie just has a sense of fun all around it. Great locations, 80s nostalgia in your face, and just enough eerie atmosphere here and there. It does slow down in some spots, but it isn't a concern. However, for a slasher/horror movie, the death scenes are relatively tame, and not all of them do we see for long or, in some cases, at all. No matter. The movie was written as a fun horror movie, and that's what we get. A horror movie with humor, standard slasher conventions, a taste of the supernatural, a dash of college hazing hi-jinks, and it's own music video! "Killer Party" really does seem to be the "Everything and the kitchen sink" horror movie.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Could Have Been A Classic

[robertkennedy-11798 · 5/10 · 11 April 2022]

"Killer Party" could have been right there with the best 80s horrors made during that wonderful decade.

Sadly it ends up being as mediocre as a horror/slasher can be, thanks to the MPAA making the filmmakers cut and slash the film to pieces. All of the deaths are instantly cut away from, and come too quickly after the previous one. The tempo and story suffer greatly because of this.

The actors and atmosphere are fine, but the movie starts out kind of slow, and then because of all the cuts, once things get going, the movie ends quite quickly. Sad, because "Killer Party" could have been special in the horror genre.

The absolute epitome of the cheesy slasher

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 19 March 2017]

Attempting to pledge a sorority, a group of friends decides to join the other sorority members in transforming a nearby deserted house into an April Fools gag house, and when a mysterious killer shows up the dwindling survivors fight back against the deadly intruder.

This here was one of the best examples of the cheesy slasher. What makes this one so much fun is the fact that this one absolutely revels in that atmosphere as there's a real abundance of it that just permeates the whole film. This one does it from the very beginning, hardly making its intentions subtle with the film-within-the-film opening and the ensuing dance number over the opening credits, although the fraternity members are also responsible for some more of this, as they continue to prank out the sorority throughout the beginning to some really funny moments. The sequence at the staff meeting starts out hilarious and soon becomes even more so, and from the boys' opening prank to their hazing ritual and then onto the house pranks themselves all the way to the general atmosphere and tone this is barely a dent in the film's cheesiness. When it's not being funny, there are some good slasher moments as well including the early stalking in the sorority, the professor's shocking encounter in the basement and the way that just about all the deaths occur during the party allows it to just be over-the-top fun. There's just a ton of action in that scene, as the killer gets going and seems to kill someone every five minutes and that just makes it seem all the more fast-paced as just about the entire cast is knocked off in rapid fashion and the great stalking and supernatural destruction throughout make it really exciting. The killer's costume itself is quite imposing, with the whole body hidden behind an ancient diving suit that is big and bulky, giving it the perfect creepy appearance. The best plus, though, is it's undeniably cheesy charm since there are a few problems with this one that comes up. The most glaring flaw here is the aforementioned cheesiness. While this is one of the film's best virtue, the fact that so much of it is quite silly does present it with some problems. The first is that the film jumps around in tone quite often and becomes a little disorienting at times. Another thing is that it stops the film cold to include these inserts and disrupt the flow of the film even more so. Though it produces one of the funniest gags, the staff meeting didn't need to be there, nor did the fraternity's adventures with the sorority. These just stop the film to include them and don't really contribute anything beyond some laughs, and could easily have been snipped. As well, the film features practically zero blood or gore and all of the kills are just bland and bloodless or carried out off-screen only to stumble upon them later which does take a lot of the sting out of the situation. The other big problem is that the ending is a little confusing. There's way too much happening and it becomes a little disorienting when it switches over to something else quite rapidly. Those are the film's real problems.

Rated R: Language, Violence, Nudity and drug use.

Sorority Girls just want to have fun

[Coventry · 3/10 · 5 April 2006]

"Killer Party" is a pretty dumb and righteously forgotten mid-80's horror-comedy that only gets funny when it's meant to look serious and vice versa. That's quite painful already, and it gets gradually worse with bad acting and total lack of gore or inventive gimmicks. After not one, but TWO (not even counting the super cheesy music video) misleading opening sequences, we're introduced to three cheerful girl friends that desperately want to be part of a prominent campus sorority of which the name has already slipped my mind. They're accepted, but only because one of them – Vivia – is a master in pulling April fool's pranks. The girls are referred to as "goats" (quite appropriately) and they're assigned to freak out the boys of a frat club during a party held at a haunted frat house. What follows next is a series of lame red herrings disguised as fraternity pranks and a handful of bloodless killings, supposedly committed by a student who died in the house 20 years ago. Is it all a set-up? Will the girls ever bath naked in the hot tub again? Do we honestly even care?? With the exception of lead actress Elaine Wilkes' portrayal of Phoebe, all the characters are completely insufferable and their deaths nearly weren't painful enough in my opinion. "Killer Party" is boring up until the last fifteen minutes, then it gets over-the-top campy and totally implausible. Not even the spirited guest appearance of Paul Bartel ("Eating Raoul", "Death Race 2000") as the grumpy teacher can save this movie from being an utter mess. Check out "April Fool's Day", instead.

This is a five (5) C = Canadian, Campy, Creepy, Cult, Classic!

[Ed-Shullivan · 8/10 · 27 January 2018]

I thoroughly enjoyed this 1986 creepy camp classic that in my humble view is a Canadian Cult classic. No, it is not a horror film in the real sense of the horror genre, nor is it a comedy. What I will say is that this fraternity is one that people figuratively and literally "die for!"

If I were to compare it to the 1978 comedy fraternity phenom of Animal House, I actually enjoyed Killer Party much more because it does not rely solely on gross humor to satisfy its college and younger audience. Killer Party provides an abundance of camp, comedy, a little bit of horror, a little bit of suspense and a lot of mystery as to who is actually killing off the school faculty members and the frat boys and girls?

Since this film was released more than 30 years ago and I just watched it, I must say that it holds up very well and should be considered a five (5) C which stands for Canadian, Campy, Creepy, Cult, Classic!

I give Killer Party an entertaining 8 out of 10 rating!

'Killer Party' is Not Killer But It Isn't Bad Either

[BenTramerLives78 · 6/10 · 24 October 2020]

"Killer Party" is another one of those eighties sorority horror films, but it isn't completely like the others. It doesn't rely much on female nudity or gore, but more on cheap laughs. The opening sequence is one of the best of any eighties horror; first, we have a bizarre scene of a woman getting stuck in a coffin with her mother and then getting cremated with her. It turns out that it's just a movie being watched at a drive in by a teenage couple. The boy wants to take the next step, of course, so the girl says she wants popcorn and heads to the concession stand. We soon find out that this is just a music video by the band White Sister.

We are then introduced to three college students named Phoebe, Jennifer and Vivia. They are trying to join the sorority and just participate in the usual unusual activities that come with joining a sorority. Weird things start happening in the sorority house.

This film is clever but still lacks something that makes it stand out among the countless other sorority horror films of it's day. The three lead actresses: Elaine Wilkes, Joanna Johnson and Sherry Willis Burch are good, and so is Ralph Seymour as a nerd named Martin. The audience may also remember actor Martin Hewitt from the 1981 classic "Endless Love". I enjoyed this movie. Sure it's mindless entertainment, but it's entertainment nonetheless.

Killer Mess

[Vomitron_G · 3/10 · 27 November 2005]

Boy, oh boy, this movie is a total mess. It tries to be a lot of things but almost misses every single mark. But what do you want if you mix-up parody/comedy, slasher/horror & a bit of demonic possession. Don't expect over the top situations like SCARY MOVIE, 'cause KILLER PARTY prefers to quietly rip-off certain movies instead of parody them openly.

Story-line: On a university campus the Sigma Alpha Pi sisters decide to throw an April Fool's Day-party in an abandoned sorority building. Apparently, someone got killed twenty years ago in that same building...

On a positive note, the filmmakers were sort of original by shooting three different opening scenes (We have a funeral-scene, which is part of a movie in a drive-in theatre, which is part of a music-video one of the main characters is watching in her livingroom). Now, it is when you witness the music-video (a Michael Jackson's THRILLER rip-off) that you realize you've just entered a really bad 80's movie and you will have a few good laughs while at it. Just look at the band ('White Sister'!?!?) featured in the videoclip. They've got spandex, bad hairdo's and they play bad 80's glammy hard-rock with lyrics like "April, why do you play the fool...?". I almost fell on the floor laughing.

Then, this movie suddenly turns into a bad PORKY'S clone (yes, folks, there's nudity). We get some practical jokes amongst students, an initiation ritual in order to get our three lead female characters (Phoebe, Vivia & Jennifer) admitted to the Sigma Alpha Pi's, preparations for the party,... All this nonsense lasts for almost an hour and we only get two occasional bloodless killings (an old hag and a teacher).

It is when the party finally starts that the filmmakers suddenly seem to realize that they were making a horror movie, so in comes the mysterious slasher/killer dressed in a ridiculous antique diving suit. He starts killing off people left and right, all off-screen (big let down!). We do get to see some dead bodies and body parts afterwards, but nothing special.

In the end, our three leading girls are the only ones left standing. And it is at that point this movie suddenly becomes highly amusing. Jennifer becomes possessed (complete with Linda Blair contact lenses and a tongue that would make Gene Simmons jealous) and starts drooling, speaking with a distorted voice, climbing up walls and bursting through ceilings while chasing Vivia & Phoebe. Now, we do get some hints during the party scenes that something's wrong with Jennifer, but still the final climax comes as a surprise because it totally changes the mood of the film, reminding us a bit of NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, same atmosphere. So I had to give this movie an extra point for that.

All in all this is a bad movie (especially the acting and the musical score) and normally I wouldn't recommend it. But if you're a fan of cheesy 80's slasher-movies, you might want to give it a try. Because, believe me, I've seen worse. Gorehounds, however, should stay away from this movie because of the lack of blood & gore. It's worth seeing for the climax in the end because of the entertaining performance of possessed cutie Joanna Johnson and some nice camera-work and fun effects (I loved it when the camera pulls up to Jennifer while doors are closing simultaneously in the background and she growls: "I've been waiting twenty years for this...").

If you like practical jokes in horror movies, you can also check out the more suspenseful slasher-movie APRIL FOOL'S DAY. Or if you'd like to see the ultimate in 80's campus horror, check out NIGHT OF THE CREEPS. Both movies are (though not really comparable) better than KILLER PARTY.

Cult Classic: you'll love or hate

[musicalfreakgurl · 15 October 2019]

This is a movie people will either love or hate. I have an infinity for 80's and some 90's horror. I think they are the building blocks of what people consider horror today.

Which there hasn't been in good horror flicks in a long time, if you don't count Insidious or The Conjuring. Even then those did not make the hair on my body raise.

But Killer Party did back when I was a kid. Not so much the atmosphere did but it was the character of Jennifer that did. What she did was give me nightmares at eight years old.

The three friends are easily the best characters and actors in the movie if you don't count Martin, who is the comic relief.

If anything watch for Jennifer and Martin.

It's a story you've probably heard somewhere else but what makes it different is how the story is set up. I just wish that there had been more background info on the evil itself.

I liked how the movie ended but there is no second party because the movie flopped. So there's no resolution. It's an open ended ending.

I did find out that there was suppose to more gore and scenes but had to re-edited and filmed due to the MPAA rating.

Give it a try if you like campy fun with a little hair raising.

Party Pooper...

[mettemax · 4/10 · 2 September 2018]

I remember seeing the tape of this movie in my lokal videostore, back in the early nineties. I never got myself to rent it, somehow the cover didn't appeal to me. Yesterday, more than 30 years after it's innitial release I decided to give it a go, concidering the fact there was nothing on tv. Boy, was I glad I never spent a buck on this thing. The biggest problem with this film is the fact it's neither funny nor scary. he first hour is especially boring,and looked like one of those very unfunny 80's comedies. There were maybe one or two jokes I found mildly amusing, but otherwise it was a borefest. Then (after a wait of more(!) than one hour), the killing finally starts. Not that this made the film better, because most of the cast gets killed in about one minute and at such an amazing pace that you don't even have time to blink. It was like the director thought "Oh I forgot, we're shooting a horror comedy let's kill some people." The kill scenes for that matter are bad. All happen offscreen and there is virtually no gore. Technically the film is not bad, and some of the actors are doing a decent job, considering a plot so thin you can see through it. Hardcore 80s horror fans (like me) will not like this too much, but I guess completists will have it anyway.

Might as well.

[jtbenson-56329 · 5/10 · 10 April 2022]

Not sure how things worked in the 80's, but I was in a fraternity in the 90's. If we had a bad relationship with a sorority, we'd give them an opportunity to get their philanthropy hours in and do all the heavy lifting - we'd follow it up with a cook out and beer. The bee / voyeurism scene would've gotten people kicked off campus. It's kind of an unintentional theme throughout this movie; attempts at portraying normal frat rat shenanigans come off as creepy and uncomfortable - we had a Martin type at our school and he didn't make it the full four years.

All that being said, the three female leads (only one of whom has an IMDB pic) are actually pretty good actors. I don't need that to enjoy a slasher movie, but it holds this one together for the most part. I totally bought their portrayal of goofy, ambitious college girls.

The kills are pretty average, but it's not offensively boring like Popcorn or Killer Workout. If you're going down the rabbit hole, might as well add this one to the list.

A slash above, but still pretty forgettable

[Groverdox · 5/10 · 29 September 2020]

"Killer Party" is a cut - or should that be a slash - above the average slasher movie. It is surprisingly well shot, and seems to have a pretty decent budget that was able to handle multiple locations, and convincingly represent college life.

The actors are also better than you'd expect, particularly the guy who plays the shy, nerdy college student - Martin - who for once isn't just a stereotype but feels like a believable person, and the Shakespearean professor.

However, I realised early on that I had already seen "Killer Party", and forgotten about it. What jogged my memory was the scene where one of the sorority pledges has to say "I prefer a nice fat juicy cucumber" in response to a question asked her in class, and the scene where the professor dismisses his class early and only Martin stays.

So unfortunately the movie isn't very memorable, in spite of its distinguished production. I'd say the screenplay needed some work.

More unique than most 80's slashers

[acidburn-10 · 7/10 · 27 April 2022]

'Killer Party' is a unique entry in the 80's slasher genre, which is evident in the opening 10 minutes, which in itself is rather cleaver and fun way to open a movie and starts everything off on the right foot and the fun continues the likable characters and tone that plays like a teen comedy part of the time, before the slasher/supernatural elements really kicks in.

The slasher genre was starting to die down by this point, but this was like a breath of fresh air. You can tell the writer Barney Cohen was going for a more horror/comedy hybrid with this flick and although the movie does have some genuine funny moments, the horror elements are taken seriously which is much appreciated.

The direction by William Fruet is solid he creates a full on 80's aesthetic with vibrant colours which leaps out at you with every frame and it's glorious, the soundtrack is really cool also with some nice catchy tunes. But what stops this from being a true classic is the severely edited gore, which wasn't the filmmakers fault by any means, but having almost all of the violence removed does lessen the final act which could have been even more epic than it was.

Overall 'Killer Party' is still a fun ride and a lot more unique than most 80's slashers with a great cast and an interesting concept.

80's Cheese

[Opacus_Music · 4/10 · 12 June 2021]

This is a typical 80's cheese horror slasher. Bad acting (but really unintentionally funny at times), unbearably horrible 80's custom made pop type music, some nudity (but really a bare minimum in this case) but unfortunately in this case, no gore and this one would've vastly benefited from it. Over-all, its not good but it did manage to get a few laughs out of me (the main character in the last third of the movie gives a performance that would make anyone laugh even dough that wasn't the intention). So if you're looking for legit horror, you should give this one a pass but if you're in the mood for an unintentionally funny cheesy typical 80's B horror. This could do it.

A moderately successful attempt at a horror-splatter-T'n'A comedy

[jamesrupert2014 · 6/10 · 16 June 2022]

Sorority hazing gets interrupted by pranks, horny boys, a serial killer, and assorted gruesome shenanigans. The movie delivers on what it obviously is offering but nothing more, so aficionados of splatter-fests or fans of clever camp may be disappointed. At least it didn't take itself too seriously - it is what it is and it knows it. Thoughtfully, the obligatory skin-scene is early-on, sparing single-minded viewers the need for fast-forwarding.

Could have been redeemed if they restored the gore....

[Sandoz · 3/10 · 27 May 2015]

What a piece of fluff. The rating may say R, but this is barely a PG-13 film. In fact, if the meager glimpses of boobies were cut out from the opening hot tub scene, there'd be no doubt this wasn't actually an R-rated film. It's really kind of a cheat, too, to set up the plot like there's a real-world psycho killer on the loose, and then conveniently decide right at the climax to make it a supernatural entity, even more especially a silly Exorcist-type ripoff demon, too.

As it is, this is a film that only 14-year-old girls could really enjoy, and be scared by.

But if you happen to be one of those deluded souls who like crappy 80s music, there's plenty of that on the soundtrack here.

Fun Horror Hybrid

[annablair-19191 · 9/10 · 9 April 2019]

Killer Party seems a bit confused. Is it a frat boy/sorority girl comedy a la Revenge of the Nerds? A demonic possession film? A zombie film? A slasher movie? A ghost movie? A White Sister music video? Turns out, it's all of those things.

Some will tell you that a a movie which mixes so many genres and subgenres can only lead to trouble and confusion, but in Killer Party's case, it only leads to fun. Sure, the tone is a tad wonky, but the performances aren't too bad and the pace is pretty tight and fun.

If Killer Party had anything going against it, it's that all the death scenes appear to have been brutally edited for TV (in fact, I first saw this one TV years ago and they barely had to cut anything out). At the same time, this gives the film a safe, comfortable quality that makes rewatches a treat. It's one of those movies you can watch multiple times.

Not Sure What I Watched

[barrynewblood · 7/10 · 23 April 2022]

Killer Party goes from zombie movie to music video to slasher to ghost story to possession film to frat comedy so many times during its runtime that you might want to wear one of those airplane pillows to prevent whiplash, but it balances all these genres and subgenres better than any film should be able to and it's never dull. It keeps things moving fast enough so you don't have a lot of time to think about how a lot of it doesn't make much sense.

Awful movie not scary at all.

[T-Crum · 1/10 · 17 August 1999]

This movie was extremely bad I don't mean in a good cheesy way either. All of the killing scenes are cut so that you don't get to see any blood or gore. I assume because they were on a limited budget. The acting and story are horrible and there's some stupid 80's band video at the beginning. Skip this movie and rent Happy Birthday to Me, thats a scary B movie!