The days of big-breasted, scantily clad scream queens are over. This being 2021, bimbos are no longer acceptable, but himbos are apparently still fair game: the only nudity in Slumber Party Massacre '21 is from a load of buff guys (this includes a shirtless pillow fight and, yes, a shower scene!), while the clever, tough and resourceful characters are all female. It's not so much gender equality as it is total gender reversal. Thankfully, it's all knowingly daft and obviously tongue-in-cheek, director Danishka Esterhazy having fun tipping the scales in favour of the fairer sex (two of the male characters are so disposable they are called Guy 1 and Guy 2).
The film sees pals Dana (Hannah Gonera), Maeve (Frances Sholto-Douglas), Breanie (Alex McGregor) and Ashley (Reze-Tiana Wessels) celebrating graduation by hiring a cabin for a weekend of partying; crashing the fun is Alix (Mila Rayne), younger sister of one of the girls (can't recall which one). However, while driving to the retreat, the girls experience car trouble and have to spend the night at an old lakeside house, not far from where four girls were murdered back in '93 by drill-wielding psycho Russ Thorn (Rob van Vuuren). No sooner have the girls slipped into their PJs than up pops Russ, oversized phallic drill in hand; what he doesn't realise is that the girls have come prepared...
Esterhazy piles on the gore, with a quite a few graphic kills, but never takes things seriously enough to make it truly horrifying. The result is relatively entertaining inconsequential nonsense that requires little thought from the viewer and, as such, should appeal to most fans of the original movie (except the ones hoping for boobs); it certainly entertained me more than the big slasher movie of the year, Halloween Kills, which failed on so many levels.
