185: Slumber Party Massacre (2021)

SPEAKER_03 0:04

Resthorn has haunted Holly Springs for 28 years, now evil dies tonight. Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hackerslash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. No matter what, we stick together. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Totally killer. Fun intended.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've all gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

My toxic masculinity is forcing me into it.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

The gore lover Alexis, he's an anker, and the cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya, I didn't come with a quote. This week, we're taking a look at a recently released film that reimagines an 80s slasher that we previously covered in episode 82. Before we get down to business, though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yes, so you know that we recently reviewed Halloween kills, and hopefully you were on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what we thought of it. Our audience, however, has an interesting take on it. I think it's specific to our audience that cares about horror movies because I haven't found this to be consistent with people I've talked to in life. So our audience had a 62% slash and 38% hack for this movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

That's surprising. A lot of people online are trashing Halloween kills, and it's the highest level of disrespect.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, and I just feel like it's coming from those people that are going real hard for OG Halloween, you know? I can totally see that.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

Yeah, or somehow they inexplicably think Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 is better than Halloween Kills.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Well, speaking of Rob Zombie, I have a comment from EC on Twitter who said it definitely felt different from the other movies, except for Rob Zombie's ones with the amount of kills, but I enjoyed the ride of it more than the last few of the original series. I did finish the novelization of the movie that definitely helped me appreciate the film more. They called it a slash.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

I love the novelization so much. I've been evangelizing it. I was tweeting all about it, got my family turned on to it, got my friends turned on to it. If you out there have ever tried Audible and you find yourself in possession of such a subscription, or the paperback is available to you in your local store, go buy it. It adds so much depth and it makes things make so much more sense. And also, there is like a great 200% reduction of the amount of time Evil Dies Tonight is said, and even the fact that Michael Myers has haunted the town for 40 years.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Also, let me just say when the memes hit online about evil dies tonight and 40 years, it really just validated me as a human and I could not have been happier about it.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

I did see someone tweet, I'm so embarrassed, but I forgot when Evil Dies. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

I love that so much. Yes, it's so great. We also have a comment from Sheldon on Instagram who said, This was a fantastic ride. Love the callback to the original, loved how Michael had some insecurities and identity issues, great touches of modern events and real housewife stars. Took a lot for me not to listen to the episode before watching, but I know Chris was gonna love every minute of this film and didn't want to taint my brain with her enthusiasm. Classic slash.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

I know, I know the enthusiasm and the influence is real, but I know for a fact that our patrons kind of tore this movie apart. A lot of them weren't really excited for it, but interestingly enough, there's a lot of turnout there for folks who expected more from the movie, including our friends Matt, Brittany, and so on.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Yes. Well, just in general, our family on Patreon had so much to say about this movie, it kind of blew me away. I don't know, I feel like we've been doing some real controversial movies lately as far as how you feel about them, and this didn't move away from that at all. Everybody on Patreon is like worst movie I've ever seen in my life, or I love it dearly. We love an extreme reaction. Yes, but I don't have one of the extreme reactions. I'm actually gonna read the comment from Tristan, which says, Halloween Kills, in my opinion, was a great ride, and I found your team's reviews to be well balanced. In contrast to 2018, I do think the cinematography took a step back, particularly compared to the previous films, Continuous Shot near the beginning, and the motion light scene where Oscar encounters Myers. The script of Halloween Kills was also nothing to write home about. However, I will say that this film left me feeling more entertained, albeit with a depreciated sense of suspense or dread, compared to the previous installments. There are aspects of this film that I thought were mostly wasted, such as having Lindsay Wallace get assaulted by Michael and then never following up with her, as well as Anthony Michael Hall's portrayal of Tommy ridden with toxic masculinity. All in all I'd give Halloween kills a solid slash and will definitely be adding it to my yearly Halloween rotation. We do, however, have a hack comment from Daniel who said, Saw it last night, I've never been so frustrated in a theater before. The characters that came back I was supposed to care for but didn't. I found the dialogue cheesy, I found some sequences overdrawn, and was just bored when I shouldn't have been. The flashback was amazing. The kills were good, and Kyle Richards was the best part. Overall, I gotta hack this one. Maybe if I see it again, I'll have a different opinion. But for now, I look at it as an unnecessary follow-up. To which I would just like to say, Daniel, did you see it in Dolby? Because that would've mean you loved it.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

I do want to add and say that the flashback call-out is is so good. Like honestly, it was probably the best part of that whole film. Just thinking back to it now, like I wanted the flashback scene set for an entire movie. I just wanted that whole thing. So I I I love that Daniel called that out.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

Wasn't a fan, but I'm not the only one that wasn't a fan. I have mixed feelings about this movie.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Well, fortunately, two people who don't have mixed feelings about us are Gage and Allison, because they're our new patrons, and we're so excited to hear what they have to say. Hopefully they'll argue with us on Patreon as well. And that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Well, Halloween Kills was preceded by the 2018 Halloween, which breathed new life into a 40-year-old franchise that started out with a film featuring a mass killer preying on unsuspecting teenagers. That film popularized the slasher genre, and in 1982, audiences were introduced to a horror comedy that would eventually become a cult classic. The 77-minute film focused on a crazed drill wielding killer attacking a group of teenagers at a sleepover. This film was originally conceptualized as a parody to the misogyny of slashers, and itself spawned the first horror movie franchise in history to have all of its film written and directed by women. When we all reviewed that movie in episode 82, it was a universal slash and we had the same team back again tonight, almost a little over a hundred episodes later. Now, in 2021, this franchise has had its own breath of new life, as Shout Studios and Sci-Fi have teamed together to show the world a reimagining of that 1982 parody. This week we're talking about Slumber Party Massacre. What were you all expecting going into this?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Well, I of course was just expecting more hot dogs and uh dick jokes really relating to a drill somehow, which is uh not an easy feat, I'd like to say.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Yeah, I had never heard of this, so with the idea that it was a reimagined or a remake of the original, I thought it was gonna be more up-to-date. There wasn't gonna be a whole bunch of girls in their underwear, and very similar vibes to the Black Christmas remake.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Kind of similar for me. I was expecting just a modernization of the original movie, like better effects and more interesting kills.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Ooh, I was also really hoping that the girl that we have on the cover of what I saw online when I was searching for this movie, I was hoping that she would be one of our final girls, or at least like one of the people that carries us through the story.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

I've seen on the Slumber Party Massacre movies, but I absolutely loved the original. Now, I didn't know a remake was happening until it was extremely close to being released, and I was filled with a ton of excitement, but I didn't read into it at all. Tried not to look at images of it at all, judging just based on the images that I saw when seeing like the posters online, for example. I expected this to be a straight up remake of the original, but set in modern day. So I expected it to be campy and a total parody of slashers. But funnily enough, this was a really easy, fun watch for me. There was a lot of things that hearkened back to the original, and a lot of things that were unexpected and a little bit fresh, not necessarily for horror as a as a broader stroke, but directions that I wasn't expecting this specific movie to take.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

My feelings while watching this were pretty simple. I just kept thinking to myself, what the hell's happening? This is ridiculous. Not in necessarily a bad way, but kind of, you know, you're along, you're along for the ride.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Yeah, and I felt like this really was a ride. You know, I had this like really peculiar feeling towards the beginning of this movie, and I hit a point where I said, What the heck is going on? It's it's at a weird point, and then I paused it and I was like, oh wow, this still has a good like 45 minutes left. So, you know, I had a mixed bag of emotions during this. You know, it was suspenseful in some parts, it was comedic. So it definitely had me on for this awesome ride.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah, I think the beginning of this movie has a vibe. I'm gonna be honest with you. It's not a good vibe if you're me. Yeah, it's a it's a very why am I watching this? It's an interesting feeling. I just wanna put it out here. If you happen to be listening to this and you're considering watching it, just get past the first part because it changes. And and then you go on a different ride that's much better, way better vibes. The vibe check passed in the second half. First half, no bueno. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

So it is specifically for you the first half that the vibes were all wrong and not just the first section leading up to the title card. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

There's a whole bit that I'm just like, ugh, okay. I mean, there's much more to say, of course, but generally speaking, there's this specific moment where things come out and things change. I watched this movie twice, actually.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

So I watched it once several days ago just to get it over with, but I followed it up again today, and it's interesting how this movie hits differently and how consistent the dialogue is when you re-watch it knowing what you then know after experiencing it in its entirety for the first time. I was really hoping that this wouldn't be a straight-up remake, even though that's what I expected, because I didn't think anyone could do as well what was done in the 1982 version, right? That was like the perfect blend of horror and comedy that even Ryan managed to like. I thought that would be like a really daunting task, but I was really struck by the directions this takes, not only with modernizing it, but how it picks up on some things that other horror remakes have done lately in the last few years to tell a different version of this story.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

And there's something that happens in that story that surprised me, and that was surprising. There's something I didn't see coming. Like there's always an option to do certain things, but there was a pretty major plot point that I was not expecting. And that was surprising. Because normally you watch it and you think you know what's gonna happen. That's how I feel. Every time I'm like, I know what's gonna happen in this movie, that's fine, it's still entertaining. But they threw something at me, and like Alexa says, like, there's like a good 30, 40 minutes left in the film when a major thing happens that I was not expecting to happen.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Not Mac saying that the surprise of the movie was really surprising.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

I don't know if it's the surprise, right? I don't know if it's like it's not the Cheyenne Alan twist. It doesn't really have that going on, but it's just a big plot point, and I was just like, oh, I didn't think they would do that.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Ooh, okay. So can't wait to unpack exactly what that is because I find it to be surprising that you would be surprised by anything. We paused at that same point, Alexis, because I I saw the time and I went out to go get a snack. I'm like, this is way too early for this to be happening. Is this like, is sci-fi making an incredibly short movie out here? Is that they really hitting that 77-minute runtime of the original? It was wild. But one of the things that's interesting to me is how they managed to stay so close with bringing things out from the original film, not only from the first slumber party massacre, but from the second slumber party massacre as well, and still do so many things differently that ultimately still borrow from other horror movies.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

I totally get that, Chris. That's why I messaged you and was wondering if you were watching the 1982 version beforehand. So I'm glad I did because it's so far removed from my brain because we've watched so many movies since then. A hundred, probably, to be exact.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

103. It's wild to me that 103 episodes have gone by since we last covered this franchise. Plus rewinds, plus old versus new.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

We're like 120 in. True, true. So I know I needed a refresh, and I'm glad I did because I did pick up on a lot of that stuff. But the surprise did surprise me, Max. So I'm on your side. I think the intentions of characters I was thrown back at, and that was like the first thing I had written in my notes that I was surprised by. That that caught me off guard because I feel like with movies nowadays, the surprise comes at a certain point in the movie, usually it's three-quarters of the way in, and it's typically the same thing. And I'm getting bored with that. So this was unique and fresh to me.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah, so what we're getting at is like this movie takes a unique plot line compared to what we're used to seeing, especially in what would be this type of movie. But this movie is making fun of this type of movie, so it makes sense. I I don't know that anything necessarily surprised me here because things were already taking left turns when you would have normally expected them to take a right. So I don't know. I I think I was surprised by how much I didn't have fun in a lot of this movie. And I think it has to do with how and when you watch this. I think there needs to be like a beer involved and you need to be chilling, having a great time. Maybe you've already had a couple beers, and this will take you on a ride. But if you're not trying to get on the ride, it's like kind of pushing you somewhere that you maybe don't want to go.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

I think you also have to consider which version you're watching because if you watch the version that aired on sci-fi, there is still gore in it, but it is reportedly trimmed, and there's going to be more gore and extended elements of those kills in like what's coming on Blu-ray and available for streaming later on.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Oh, that's no fun.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

Yeah, and I was surprised because reading that afterwards, knowing that that some things in here were like kind of intense and gross, I'm wondering where else is that gore? Because this seems so cleanly cut, not clean in terms of how much gore is shown, but everything seemed so tight that I didn't feel like I was missing anything.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yeah. I will say, I think I probably would have had a better experience having re-watched the original Sumber Party Massacre because it was so long ago, and I have so little of that in my brain that this didn't feel like something that was referencing something I've seen before. As you know, I am a very forgetful person. So I I want to put that on me, but at the same time, this movie isn't really meant to scare me, and it didn't scare me. And I I would be surprised if anyone here felt any sort of fear about men with giant drills.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

I mean, that's pretty terrifying, but probably only in actuality, not through a movie. Although this movie wasn't frightful, it definitely held the suspense for me and had me on the edge of my seat, but I wouldn't say it was scary.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

I did not feel much of a thrill, especially when it comes to fear. No fear.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

Are you sure you didn't feel a thrill?

SPEAKER_00 15:30

There was no thrill involved whatsoever.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Okay. You did feel surprised.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

There was some surprise. Absolutely some surprise. Not a thrilling surprise, but there was some surprise.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

I think the the comedy in this movie takes away anything that would normally scare me, like a person coming to attack me.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Yeah, this feels like a very safe movie. This is absolutely something that you can watch with someone who is new to horror or is experimenting with horror or has traditionally been scared by other things because it does so well to poke fun at itself and poke fun at the idea of a slasher without also being totally disrespectful to it in a way. What I think is really interesting is looking at this guy who plays the killer, so much of his behavior is similar to the original killer in the first film, but it feels so different in a way. The lines are the same, his creepy eye contact is the same for sure. The voice. The voice is so good, and I'm a I'm a stickler for voice recreation. We talked about Halloween kills. There is a I won't spoil it, but there's a particular voice of a particular cameo from a 78 character that drove me up the wall because it wasn't right. This guy nailed it. Absolutely. But even as creepy as he is, this movie isn't scary or un unnerving. But I will say that I'm happy this movie exists, and I'm really, really happy that it wasn't just a straight remake of the original. I would have detested that, I think, in practice, because it does plenty of things different, sure. And it made this iteration of Slumber Party Massacre a fun time. For example, like it it takes a lot of the tropes in horror that feature women and completely turn them on their heads and feature men, and I love that. But ultimately, this doesn't do a whole lot different than what the 2018 Halloween or the 2019 reimagination of Black Christmas did. It's not exactly the same, don't get me wrong, but it's not entirely original, and for me that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Yeah, there was a lot of Black Christmas energy for sure, and I would say this movie didn't didn't do anything original for me. It took comedy from places I've seen it, it took reimagination from places I've seen it. It's just like a conglomerate of things I've seen before.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

If I'm comparing it to its predecessor, to me, it's original. But yes, when I'm thinking of all the things that are coming out now, it has those vibes. It has Fear Street vibes. As soon as I started watching it, I thought of Fear Street. And definitely I've mentioned it before Black Christmas, so I'm teetering on the line whether I think it's original or not. But I do appreciate that it wasn't a line-for-line psycho, you know, remake, but it was something completely different. They take the characters out of a different element than they were in the 1982 version, and I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Yeah, remake of the original would have been miserable. Because what's the point?

SPEAKER_00 18:25

I like to imagine when you're when you're thinking about doing like a reboot or a remake or something like that, that the original is just like a good like setting for you, but it's not really, you know, the you shouldn't look at the script and think, how do we shoot this in 2021 or anything like that? Because that would, again, just be like super boring. But I feel like some of the elements in the movie, like you've all mentioned, are just callbacks to other movies, but I also kind of think that's the point. There's like another plot point, not the one that surprised me, but a different plot point that felt like another horror franchise, like just straight up served on a dish. Here you go, you've seen this in this other movie. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I think a lot of this is referencing the rest of the slasher territory on purpose, and that's that's effective. Um, the thing that seemed very original to me though was the way that movie ends. So the way that this movie ends, it's like pretty new nonsense. They could have just put up a title card that said the movie has ended, uh, but they went like just one step further than that. They kind of draw it out for a little bit, and at the very end, it's like boom, credits. It's done. Get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

That's true. Yeah, it did seem a little bit abrupt, but I do like the whole final act. I like where your certain characters are coming from. I like the end action. I mean, I like what happens at the end. And like it's mentioned before by everyone, it's a nice movie, it's a good movie to watch, and I feel like the ending serves that as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yeah, the ending here for me is is pretty meh, because I didn't care maybe as much as I should have. So then when they like kept going and kept doing stuff, I was just thinking, can't we just leave this town? Why are we still here? And unfortunately we stayed there. There were some parts that I that I didn't dislike, but the very, very like last detail that they kind of give us and the last scenery, and it it just didn't it didn't work for me.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

I think realistically, this movie, considering how much it echoed past slashers, it could have done some wild shit with that ending, but what they did do, I appreciated. What they did do, I enjoyed. It was a little bit drawn out for sure, but I wasn't mad with the end result. And I think this is the thing though. The only movies I've seen on sci-fi are sci-fi originals like the Chupacabra. I have a very low bar for sci-fi movies. So when this movie started out the way it did and it took the roller coaster, sci-fi just distributed this movie, but I think it so far surpassed my expectations of what a sci-fi movie would be that the ending just felt like, okay, alright. This is okay, not bad, not bad.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

I just feel like for the rest of this movie, the ending took a strangely like realistic perspective, whereas everything else is we're just kind of out here running around doing stuff. In the end, they were like, Well, no, let's go for like a realistic plot line here, like, okay, sure.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

Which I didn't mind. But I'll get to why I didn't mind as we get into the rating here. Now, let's go ahead and start making our way to those scores. But before we do, Alexis, how many people died in this film?

SPEAKER_02 21:26

We have a whopping 13 deaths in this movie, and I am very happy about that.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

And what about our animal report? Somehow a weekend in the woods ended up with a clean animal report. I don't know how, but I'm not complaining. Russ Thorne has boundaries.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

Let's go ahead and get into our ratings in Slumber Party Massacre from 2021. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_00 21:46

I'll say it. I think the movie was ridiculous. I just think it was a bit too much of a joke for me to be something that I truly enjoyed watching. It was, like you mentioned, an easy watch. Um, I think a lot of people are gonna have fun, you know, watching this, but it was. Just it was just kind of a hack for me because it's just not not my cup of tea. I just wasn't that bought into it. I appreciated aspects of it, but I don't feel like I it really added too much to my day, so it's a hack.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Interesting, very nice and quick and easy. Just like this movie was. You know, it was a good watch, but disclaimer, I do like sci-fi movies, I do like sci-fi originals, I do like sci-fi TV shows. I liked it. I thought the plot to me had a twist and or surprise, whichever you want to call it best, that was suitable. I didn't see it, I don't see it in many movies, and I paused the movie because I was like, what is going on? It kind of had me on my toes, which I was pleasantly surprised about that. And honestly, Chris, you're right. Maybe I just had really low expectations and they just really exceeded them. But I love the cast in here. I think they're witty, I think they fit their character. Although they may be silly, that's where I thought they were coming from. And I love the nods to the original a lot, and I think that came from me watching that right before I had watched this. So I'm glad I had done that. But all in all, I think this is a great watch. I think it's worth people's time to enjoy with some friends, and it's an easy watch. So I'm gonna give this a slash.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Well, I wasn't expecting Max hack, but I was definitely expecting Alexis's slash. You can probably already tell, but I'm a little bit more on Max side than Alexis's here. I don't want to start this out by saying this is like a horrible movie and something that no one should watch or anything like that. But for me, it is too much going on that I didn't like. There was plenty that I did like. I think flipping tropes and putting men in women's shoes in what they would normally be doing in horror movies, amazing, hilarious. I enjoyed the cast of this movie. I enjoyed some things that are particularly done to be unique and make a point. But I didn't like the characters. We didn't get a lesbian kiss that we were definitely supposed to get, and I don't understand why it didn't happen. There's just a bunch of random things. I didn't care about the people in the beginning. I didn't care about the people in the middle either, to be completely honest. I did enjoy the jokes. I once we got to the point of moving into the part that I enjoyed, I I did like it and it was fun, but it wasn't fun enough, and I was really just because I had to watch it is the only reason I enjoyed any of it, because it would have been turned off after about 20 minutes if I had a choice. It's not horrible. I think a lot of people will have fun with this, just like Alexa said. But it wouldn't be right as a cowardly creeper if I told you guys this is a slash, because you you trust me, maybe. And if you're a person who doesn't trust me and you know that you think the opposite, then definitely go watch this. But for me, it's a hack.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

Well, Ryan, I'm so glad you were so concerned with that lesbian kiss that we didn't get in Shennoy Gotten. I think we should have gotten into, but I love that it actually builds off the tensions between Trish and Valerie from the first film. But we can talk about that in the second half. I'm really happy this movie exists. Period. I loved the original Slumber Party Massacre because it was hilarious, poignant, and unapologetically feminist. And as excited as I was for this movie, I was also a little nervous that it wouldn't be able to live up to that. And this movie doesn't at all. But that's okay. Because it's paving its own path with reverence to the original and even its Rockabilly sequ sequel, which is just weird. It moves in an entirely different direction, and instead of being a depiction of like the virginal fears of sex, this movie is an entirely different take on a group of women who are just squaring off against an attacker. And this movie does something really d specific, which I really appreciate, and I think this is why it hit me in the warm and fuzzies so much more. It shows that a scary person climbing into your window isn't all that women are afraid of or are harmed by, right? It shows that i it's really a truly deeply rooted cultural toxicity that blames victims for the transgressions of their attackers, and that's why this movie is a slash for me. I think if it didn't have that spin and it was just like a hollow remake or slight reimagination of the original, it'd be different. It would be lackluster. But this movie hitting the comedic beat it does, doing the different things it does with its story, and having that heavy hitting element for me puts it into slash territory. And with that, Slumber Party Massacre from 2021, streaming on sci-fi, has earned two hacks and two slashes. We've been split down the middle here for the Slumber Party Massacre, and we're gonna have to know what you think, obviously. So go check it out on Sci-Fi, then join us in the second half so you can join the debate. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

This is Bruce J. Dickman with the Motion Picture Association of America. This film has been rated NS17, not suitable for cis straight men. This motion picture contains prolonged male nudity, short shorts, and conspiracy to overthrow the patriarchy. Viewers triggered by extensive images of man-butt, references to castration, and half-naked pillow fighting should not view this film. Intel viewers under or over 17 years of age are not permitted. Only male nipples are displayed in this film.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Welcome back, folks. You are now entering the spoiler zone for Slumber Party Massacre, which was split down the middle with two hacks and two slashes. We have a lot to get to here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, we have the matter of gore to attend to.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

So my favorite kill has to be Sean, which I'm sure I took everyone's. But I just love that homage to Summer Party Massacre 2, which with the guitar and the guitar strings. Because let me tell you, if you ever played guitar, which I did for a few years, don't ask me to play it right now. I have no clue what I'm doing. But those are hard and they hurt your fingers. And you see the aftermath of his face, it is like ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

It was ooey gooey, to be sure. I really enjoyed that kill. Absolutely. Sean had it coming because of the whole bros before hoes hoodie. But my favorite kill was one that I think was the the turning point of the story, which was Ashley. It was Ashley in the car getting trapped, and that's the moment where sure by that point we already had a lot of different kills, but at this point it's definitively not Russ Thorne anymore. So this is like a whole new and fresh inventive uh feeling of killing that we haven't seen in the past movies.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

I feel pretty confident that you knew that was gonna be my favorite kill when you chose it. I'm sorry. Yeah, are you though? I don't know if you are. I have a few things that I want to say in relation to kills. One, for the Sean kill, Alexis, I feel like they didn't use the strings enough. I feel like those strings were like the craziest part, and to basically just use the drill still, like, dude, turn that thing sideways, get a little helicopter action, cut his head off with the strings while they're spinning. Like, there were so many cool things you could have done with those strings, and we just continue to use the drill as always, because the guy can't stop thinking about his dick.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Speaking of helicopters, gross.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Exactly. Also, I feel like we just got so many kills again that were just like a drill to the head, a drill to the eyes. And all of those were kind of meant to me. That's why, of course, Ashley stood out to me. That one was so different. I also I guess as an honorable mention, we'll throw out I enjoyed Russ's kill because it was it didn't feel like it was gonna happen, and then it did, which was very satisfying. And it's just a simple little throat slit.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

See, that's the thing I wasn't expecting. That was the surprise to me, is that they killed Russ so early in the film. Like, I'm thinking maybe the final act, but also I'm thinking maybe they'll, you know, have some room to have a sequel if they want to and they'll keep him alive or something. But no, they like killed him off so early, and then they made sure we knew that this dude was dead, like lots of machete chops to the back or front. I don't know where which direction he was laying on, but like that was definitive. This dude is dead, and you still have another like 40 minutes left. What?

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Yes, and I had that too, but then I also was like, you know what? He fucking resurrects in this movie, and I'm done. Like this is in every other movie, but I was really surprised at that point.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Yeah, but the the girls were prepared because they knew that like you have to kill him at least twice, right? Just to make sure that he's dead. Also, pro tip if you need to make sure someone's down, kick them in the balls, and uh you'll know pretty quickly whether or not they're down. You have to kick him as hard as you physically can. But um, my favorite kill though, it's Matt. And it's not because of the shower scene, didn't need all that. There was a lot of man, but I needed that. You needed that.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Of course you didn't.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

I didn't, I didn't need it, didn't want it. And like literally the like the frame just sitting there, just focusing on the butt, that was a that was too much for me. But what I liked about it though is it was a ridiculous kill. He's in the shower, so it's like flipping the table. Gotta love that. And then to get stabbed right through the heart and having the tattoo on his heart was also kind of hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

I just want you to know that as much as I talk about boobs in movies, every time there are boobs on screen, it is the exact same amount of time as was spent on this man's butt. And that's what you deserve, okay? You deserve to look at that butt for as long as we're forced to look at boobs. And you know, some people enjoy it, some people don't. That's fine. You know, it's not about your comfort level, it's about equality. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

You're saying you're forced to look at boobs? Because I'm pretty sure you did that by choice as well.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

So but in general. Ryan specifically does, yes, but I don't just opt into it really. Stop!

SPEAKER_02 32:18

It is an awkward moment in movies, and this is no different by any means at all.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Here's the thing it's like the reason I talk about the way boobs are put into horror movies is because it's so ridiculous and overt that you have to do something to make it less disgusting the way boobs are put into movies, okay? And so for this movie to do it with man butt, and I mean, you know, Lisa's a nice man butt. I don't I don't really like to look at man butt, but we all deserve to suffer through it the same way we all have to suffer through boobs all the time, which to be fair, arguably significantly better to look at. But anyway.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

But can you tell me the type of saw that was used to stab him? Like it it's like a saw that like moves forward and backwards, and I couldn't figure out what that was because I don't know saws.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Isn't that a draw drywall thing?

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it is kind of what it kind of looks like. I mean, like, I don't know power tools whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

But also the knife you used to cut your turkey on Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

That's exactly what I was thinking. I was like, that looks like a turkey breast cutter.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

That that particular saw I definitely used when I was doing the sealing in my dining room. We had to like trim off the drywall.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Well, wait, where the hell did you plug it in? There's no way there was the battery-powered one, was it?

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Everything was battery powered. As if listen, if you've ever used any battery-powered power tools, you know that there's no way that drill would kill anyone running on battery power. But it's okay, we just go along with it.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

I'm surprised no one mentioned Dave's kill, which is very interesting because I love the after effect, although it was off-screen. Those eyes that are gouged out and then dripping down on Alex's face. It it was it was a great scene for sure.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

You gotta leave the eyes alone. I don't like it when you touch the eyes. Leave them alone. We need them.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah, I like it, especially you know that it was a drill. So I also love that death. Not my favorite, but I do appreciate it was because it's actually referencing the pizza guy's death from the 1982 version, which I thought was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Yeah, I'm cool with it, but again, it was just one that was one of the someone got a drill to the head deaths. So it just is like eh, it doesn't do it for me as much.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Where is the Paris Hilton like through the mouth through the throat death? Because I feel like when you're holding a drill as like a symbol for a penis, that should probably be the majority of the deaths, is like the normal penetrative actions.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

Absolutely not, because this remember is a feminist film.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

That's true. That's true. But I feel like if you're if you're commenting on like the whole male psyche and everything, you would think that's where he would be aiming.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

I mean, the Jackie kill is like almost there. Almost, yeah. It's the neck. It's close, it's about as close as they'll get. But yeah, I agree. I just want like some interesting things. And honestly, with the amount of like jokes that are made in this movie, I feel like more jokes could be made with the kills. But maybe I'm asking for a different movie. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

I mean, they could be funny. I I think in the first half of the movie it's really comedic, and I think they get more serious after the death in the car. Yeah, I mean it's like comedic, but they suck. To each their own. I didn't think they sucked. And I I mean I do like the references that they do make to the original, and we have one more. So Russ Thorne in this movie is following a trail of blood to find his wounded victim, and he definitely does that in also the 1982 version, which can't blame this movie for doing such a great job with all the little nods to the original and the uh number two.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

Yeah, I love that. Thanks for giving us those facts because you know I didn't rewatch it.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

I I really suggest someone do that because it it really helped me remember the movie. Because although I really did appreciate it, I still can't remember that many movies ago.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

I loved that moment in the original because it was a young woman doing something that made sense, hiding, being quiet, being very careful, trying to sop up her blood trail. Unfortunately, some of it had just gotten underneath the door, and that's when Russ found her in the original. But that was such a great moment in this because the tables have turned and it was just all at one big trick. Can I point out the dumbest death though? For sure. It's not even the dumbest death because I think the effect of it was cool. I think it certainly does enough to create its own category along with Halloween kills of things being stuck into a left eye of a person, but it's Brini. Because god damn it, Brini, you shouldn't have gone about back up by the window. Why would you do that? Get away from the window. Let me go look closer at the window. Nail comes into the glass. Incredibly close call. Amazing that she ducked. And then she just stands up. Briny, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Agreed. And two things to go along with that. One, you can definitely live through something hitting you in the eye. Okay, unless it hits your brain, which is further than you would think. And two, I'm on Max Team. Please leave the eyeballs alone. That is like one of the only things that gives me the hebie jeebies when it comes to like gore. Eyeballs. Eyeballs are creepy. We need them, they're very important, and they're like just a gooseack in your face. It's really weird.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

I also gotta give a shout out to the first guy who got got in the woods when we had that amazing shot between the legs of the drill, just like we got in the original film. Yeah, that was a good one.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

Yeah, the visuals in this are amazing, and I just can't help but also remember the eye. I don't know how I even forgot that, but it's very interesting because you get so many different frames in this movie, and I feel like once it switches to the eyeball, you get something like an up-close shot. To me, that's a very different vibe than the first half of the movie. So I like how there's this tear that's going on, and you have the camera also ensuing on this as well. My favorite visual though is when Alex comes in from the house when she's all bloody after having her interaction with Dave, and how the camera follows her from inside to the time she closes the door, and it's on her, she's got the blood, and then she has all of her friends looking at her, and then the camera like honestly does like a comedic spin on that, and then you see all the girls like asking her what happened, and I think that whole scene after that when they're grabbing the knives out of the pillows, that just follows the chaos kind of that's following behind the scene.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

Yeah, that was a scene I was gonna talk about in just a few minutes, but looking at that particular visual of that camera movement following her into the house, Alexis. I'm sorry, did this look like any on anyone else's TV? Like cranberry juice or grape juice or wine on her skin instead of blood? It looked very purple on any screen that I watched it on.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

She was like she had almost more of like a dirty look. But I don't know. I honestly think that overall the coloring of this movie was unique, and maybe that's why.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

It's just so weird because later on there are moments in this movie where the blood looks very red. It looks very much like blood. But for some reason, the blood on her skin specifically, it looked purple. It didn't look like real blood.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

Maybe she's somewhat blue and it kind of blended together.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Maybe, maybe, but my favorite visual was long before that, and it's one of the things that actually got me pretty damn hype for the movie, and that is the title card and the opening credits, because I can ignore the cheesiness of his body floating in the lake. It's very Jason Voorhees, but it was the music cueing in, sending me straight back to 1982, and the red text that looks like it's 3D, it just felt like I was being dropped back into the 80s.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

I saw that and knew that you would love it, and it was pretty good. It wasn't like I don't I I think it's good in a sense of being a callback to other horror films. It was definitely trying to be something. It was it was good though. I have a couple of favorite visual elements. One of them is the overall, like I mentioned, color grading of this movie. I think it does a really good job of making it have a nostalgic feeling while still being set in current times. And it's a bit of a subtle thing in certain parts, but I just think the way these characters were styled and the way this movie looks is really fun to watch and interesting. My other favorite visual element is Dana, because she's beautiful all the way through this movie. A lovely experience on screen overall. And I guess because Paris is in here, I have to be the one to talk about people and how attractive they are. But like Dana, especially when she's like stressed and running around, it's very hard to be attractive when you're stressed and running around. And she she does it well.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

I will agree. She has something quite nice to look at. But my favorite thing to look at was actually like the scenery, the setting of the movie. And I think it especially hit me because it's not the typical California Woods thing that we get in every slasher ever, because you know, they decide we're gonna make a movie, let's go film it in the back lot or something. But no, like this is a destination that we don't typically see. And especially it's like it's set in the US with American accents and and some American actors, um, but it's not shot in the US, and that makes it really fun. It gives it this kind of eerie look because it's not something we're used to seeing. Like the woods don't exactly look like your everyday American woods, and I I definitely respect that.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Okay, but also wasn't there a moment when Alex is looking across at the other cabin and she looks across a river, but then they're clearly not across a river from each other because they're like next door to each other. Stuff like that in a movie drives me insane. Yeah, they're around the lake from each other. I mean, around the lake is not very close to be like knocking on doors and like, I'm gonna run over and take their car. Like, they're pretty far apart.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

I was bummed that they didn't use more of the lake though, because obviously we get it for that like amazing title card scene. But aside from that, there's not a lot of water stuff happening, and I feel like there could have been, it could have made things really interesting.

SPEAKER_03 42:11

Okay, look, Russ Thorne falling into a lake, getting knocked off of the pier, and also his mom avenging his fucking death. There's enough Jason Voorhees we could have done without the lake. Very true, actually. Especially now that you mentioned the mom part.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Yeah, I didn't pick up on that at all, but I can see it's right on the nose.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

That's the biggest thing that Jason is, you know. The first the the killer in the first movie is his mom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

The opening is so Jason Voorhees. I was just like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:39

They what they really needed, you know, was a shot of the mom holding the machete. That would have really sealed the deal.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

And a mask.

SPEAKER_00 42:45

Yeah, maybe a mask would have been too far.

SPEAKER_03 42:47

Well, even the way that the mom is filmed, because they're very specific to film her from certain angles as she's the killer, so you can't tell what gender the person is.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Although it was pretty clear to me. I don't know if it was a stature thing or just like when they're trying to show that she could be anybody, it just made it seem like they're gonna obviously have to make this someone. Exactly. Because you expect it to be one of the guys, you expect it to be like the one guy that's surviving, right? Like obviously, because his friend gets killed in the shower, and you're like, well, that would be kind of homoerotic if he was the one penetrating this dude's chest. But no, when they when they keep showing the fact that you can't see who it is, I was like, Oh, this has to be either one of the women or somebody else.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Well, also the pneumatic min nail gun was no longer phallic, so it had to be something different, you know?

SPEAKER_03 43:33

It did it did have to be something different, Ryan. And when it came time for her to be the killer, the kills were cool, right? Ashley, obviously, my favorite death in the movie, as sad as that was. When I think about the moo the moments that made it the most fun for me, it was actually jumping into the very beginning, that cold open with Trish and her friends. And you realize you had the characters, everybody except for Chad, all the character names from the original film. Film. And the way that we're just dropped into that moment, the way that Russ Thorne just comes in there and quickly dispatches everyone in that cabin. I was thinking, wait, I know I'm streaming this on sci-fi.com. Am I actually three-quarters away into this movie? Looking at how all that transpired before we even get to the title card, it felt very much like Friday the 13th, 2009, where we have like that intense mini-movie before the movie starts. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I loved seeing all the connections to the original film, even in that moment. I loved that Russ was wearing the exact same clothes as the original killer in the 1982 film. It was just such a fun way to start the movie. Oh, Chris, I love ya.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

But that was actually a part that I really, really, really didn't like. For me, my favorite scene is where that changes. And it for me feels like when they pull the knives out in the cabin and are like, no, we're like, we got a plan. Like, we're ready. That's the moment where this whole entire movie changes from the beginning part to the rest of it for me. And that's my favorite scene because that's where I'm like, all right, we're doing something besides just being like cheesy, silly for no reason, campy. I feel like I can't believe we haven't said that word yet tonight.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

I mean, I thought that was cheesy when they pulled like knives out of secret spots.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

Nah, that shit was great. That was an awesome moment. It was great. I'm not saying the rest of the movie wasn't cheesy, but it was significantly less cheesy. Like the opposite of what you want in mac and cheese, like where you want more cheese, this was less cheese. That's all I needed. A little bit is okay. But the beginning was just like, why am I here watching this? Because this is corny and like doing something that I'm just not on board with. And that's just because of me. I understand that. But then when they pull the knives out, I'm like, all right, y'all gonna do something for me. I'm ready. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

I like this treatment in in some modern retellings, um, where the antagonist is like uh an urban legend or a myth or a well-known figure. So we get that intro scene just to like grounded, you know, I feel like, but the characters that are in modern times are fully aware of the killer. And I think that's great. I mean, I think we get that a little bit in the in the current Halloween as well. Like it's not this unknown person that we're learning about along the way, like they already exist. And I think that's a really great choice because in reality, we we all know that that character exists, and so trying to surprise us with that is kind is kind of silly, you know. I think if they made another like Friday the 13th, having Jason being this unknown thing would be ridiculous. It would have to be somebody that's known. Like, I love that where they ground them in something happened in the past and everyone knows about it.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

Now evil dies tonight.

SPEAKER_00 46:44

If only they had said that when they took their knives out.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

So my favorite scene is of the comedic value, and I love it. It's so on the nose, but it's when Matt is opening the freezer fridge. But then you have the body of his dead friend in there, and he opens it and then closes it, and then hey, if you didn't know the body was there, I'm gonna open it again, which I thought was still funny. And then the friend's hand was holding the beer, and he just takes it out of his hand, and I just thought that was like just on the nose, perfect, didn't need to be delivered too much, it wasn't under delivered, it was just perfect.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

I think that it's on that like threshold where it's almost, you know, like Leslie Nielsen airplane kind of stuff, to where to take it to the next level, he would need to put like the beer back into his friend's hand and then use like a bottle opener on it, right? Like where it's like deliberately, yes, I know this is ridiculous, but they don't cross that, they just keep it right on the edge.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

I think the miss here for me, because I I liked the attempt to harken back to the original the body stuff stuffed in the refrigerator, but the miss for me was I thought Matt was a terrible fucking actor and I couldn't stand him. And it just his lack of ability to have any kind of situational awareness didn't come across I think the way it's intended to, right? Where it's like, oh yeah, just casually I'm just opening this up, not bothering to look. And for me, it just felt very stiff. No pun intended with the body in the freezer.

SPEAKER_01 48:06

But also, if this was really men in a cabin and he was drinking a beer and something smelled bad, what really would have happened is he would have said, Hey man, come over here and smell this. I can't figure out what's going on. You gotta smell the smell.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Yeah, and then the friend would go, I don't want to do that, but would still do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:22

I think if this were really men in the cabin, they wouldn't have noticed the smell.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 48:27

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

These were these were bougie men.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

I have a favorite scene that is also comedic in value, and it's the whole who's on first thing. You know, the whole guy one, guy two, that banter was hilarious for most of it. When they kind of overdid it a little bit too much and then it lost its value. But that initial thing of like, no, there's you know, there's five guys, but they're you know, there's there's five of us, but there's only there's two guys, right? Like that whole shtick, I I actually found kind of funny.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

That is a good moment. I don't disagree with you. The first time we hear it, they're in the house doing something, and they say, guy one. And I go, Oh, are we just calling them guy because they're just gonna die and we are not actually gonna care what their name is? Because that's hilarious. Because a lot of times that is how it's like it's like girl one, girl two, they're all dead. Nobody knows what their name ever was. So I thought that was hilarious. And then for them to bring it back and be like, no, it's there's one guy and two guys, they went a little too hard, but before they went a little too hard, it was hilarious. I totally agree.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

That was a good moment, and actually that whole exchange happens in a couple runner-ups that I have for favorite scene. The girls joining them in their cabin and shit going crazy, and Sean with his toxic masculinity really just trying to like set the plan, even though the women outnumber them, even though the women have plans and actually have weapons. I thought that was hilarious. And even going to the point where the guys walk out and she's like, Yeah, well, they're gonna die. She gives up this great hype speech. She talks about there are consequences, and we are those consequences, and everybody's feeling it. They step out. No matter what, we stick together, one drill sound, and everybody scatters. For some reason, the hammy dying with laughter.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

She also gave like the most realistic actual like hype man speech I've ever heard in a movie because again, I don't relate to a lot of things that happen in movies with slumber parties and girls sitting around talking about men being cute in magazines or whatever, but she's like talking, and I'm like, uh, if I was with some people and we were actually trying to go kill somebody, and somebody needed to give a pep talk, this is what it would sound like. Like, this is legitimate, and she was in it.

SPEAKER_03 50:42

It was so good, and they did scatter, and girls do be scattering, even when there's a plant, it was so good, and even when he has like a little failure to launch with his drill, and she says performance issues. Great. But my backup to the backup favorite scene was when Russ was being killed, and at the end we have Alex coming out, crazy stabbing the killer, just like we had in the original, and that was such a great moment because we had a lot of little nods here and there. Like, okay, you're really picking up on some of the lovable moments of the movie, but the dramatic stabbing at the end of the first movie was always a little bit weird to me. And for this movie to do it again, I feel like it just really pointed out this was a weird time. Let's just have a good laugh at it.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

Yeah, I'm on board with that because I felt weird about it this time too. So did the characters. The two times that it happened in this movie, actually. With all that being said, I think I've kind of already expressed that these characters didn't really mean much to me. To be fair, I don't know if this is a movie where they like need to, but I don't know. I I mostly got really turned off at the beginning. I didn't care about the guys, except for for them being like a complete object of silliness and dumb behaviors. The girls are cool, I like them. I don't know. I think in the original, you also aren't intended to like I mean, right, like these aren't people that I need to be like uber attached to, I guess. So I'm okay with not caring. I don't know. This is a weird one for me. It's really hard because of how silly and comedic it's supposed to be. A lot of times that stuff turns me off from enjoying characters.

SPEAKER_03 52:25

See, I actually loved how dimensional these characters felt. Not the guys at all, really, but the women in particular, for them to have this really elaborate scheme, they get pulled out in the middle of it, and then you see that they've defied every stereotype of what you would expect a woman to be in a horror movie. Absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

Dana was, I would say, the only one that felt like a a strong character for me. The others felt like people put around her.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

Ooh. See, that's interesting because Dana was the only one who ever annoyed me.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

Really?

SPEAKER_03 52:59

How? To be clear, I don't dislike Dana. She's also beautiful. She's also really strong. I I dig it, but there are some times where she went too hard and it was a little bit much.

SPEAKER_02 53:11

I can agree with that. And I think these characters stand on their own. Ryan, I think you're right. They serve their purpose. They might not mean to be the deepest characters or go through this arc per se. But my favorite is Russ. I think he does a great job. Something is just so eerily creepy about just everything he does with his neck, with his hands, with his eyes. That is so much like the 1982 version.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

Yeah, it's his creepy, shiny face and his voice that says he has no balls. It's really that it that's yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

But it's just like the way he turns his neck up or the way he the eyes. To me, it's the eyes, and there's something in there. So I think the casting that they did for him was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 54:01

What I love about Russ though is that we didn't get to know Russ. We didn't have to hear the childhood story, we didn't have to hear what trauma he experienced. We didn't have to hear why he has these, you know, crazy desires or anything like that. Like, yeah, we got a little bit going on with the mom, but that's it.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

Yeah, that's my beef though. We did have to hear his mom blaming the victims for tempting him. So, like, eh.

SPEAKER_00 54:26

But that was kind of on purpose though, because she had to die.

SPEAKER_03 54:29

Yeah, she had to die, but also she's a reflection of so many people, and even within the legal system, who try to hold men accountable for things and then still blame the women as if it's all their fault. Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_00 54:41

And I feel like you know, most of the characters we get are I found to be pretty similar. And I know you know Dana made some weird choices where I I wanted to root for Dana a lot, but there was just some decisions where I was just like questioning like how well did you actually prepare for this? You know, this is like going into a heist and forgetting the bags to put the money in. But my favorite character was was Alex. I think Alex was the most relatable one, especially because she's not filled in on what's going on, and when you know, it just seems like this is like pillow fighting like summer party, and she's just like sitting there, like, uh what is happening right now? And then of course they reveal to her what's what the plan is all along. But I don't know, I just feel like she was the most human feeling of them all.

SPEAKER_03 55:22

The oh my god, you assholes, you came here on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 55:25

Exactly. Like, how on earth would this seem like a good idea? And then of course they all realize that this has to happen or whatever, but she's just like, Why would you want to put yourself in harm's way? That's stupid. We should be back at home.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

She does have one of my favorite lines of the movie, which is when she goes, I get it, she is good after the pep talk. Because I was like, Yep, I feel the same way, girl. That was a great line, but not the best part of the movie. My best part since I have to give one here, is when you think Russ is chasing them in the house, they're about to get their butts whooped, everything's about to be a wrap, and then he opens the door and it's all a trap, and they're flipping it on him. That's my best part that I didn't see coming. The other stuff I was the other like surprises and things, I was just kind of like, yeah, okay, like sure, Russ is dead, but someone else is gonna keep killing. Kind of predictable. That little flip though, right there, where it was like, oh no, their plan sucks. What are they doing? They're terrible people. They didn't plan this out at all, and then he opens the door and they're like, Ah, got you.

SPEAKER_03 56:29

Oh yeah, it's fine when they do it, not fine when Karen Strode does it in Halloween. I didn't have any beef with that either.

SPEAKER_01 56:35

I just didn't like her as a person.

SPEAKER_03 56:37

No, I I I feel that. You know, it's so great to see generations of women trap a serial killer who just hates women, but I gotta give a worst part to counteract that best part because this movie is not all rainbows and sunshine. And there's some rainbows in there a little bit, but it is the amount of times that Dana said I'm not afraid of you, it really did have evil dies tonight energy. Nowhere near as many times being said as in Halloween Kills, I get that, but her saying I'm not afraid of you, the excessive amount of time she does, it really just set me back to Jennifer Love Hewitt and I know what you did last summer. What are you waiting for? And it was like that scene that was actually directed by a kid drove me nuts. And and I think that's what it is for me, Ryan. She got on my nerves the more she said that because she's also taking someone else's trauma and making it about herself, which being able to empathize and see yourself and other people and wanting to solve these things, etc. But she even had that self-proclaimed moment where she realizes her mom was over it and she had moved on in in a sense. I don't know. I think she was not as great of a character as I'd hoped she'd been, but she was flawed and she was human, she's totally fine. I think if she hadn't screamed, I'm not afraid of you, fifty times, I would have had no issue with her.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

Do you know how many times I would scream, I'm not afraid of you? Somebody was trying to kill me? How many times? And I was trying to convince myself that I wasn't afraid of them? How many times? A lot of times. So many times. I didn't pay attention, I didn't even notice that she said that in this movie at any point, so I'm not a good judge here.

SPEAKER_02 58:13

You are the cowardly creeper, so I feel like you'd say it a lot of times.

SPEAKER_01 58:16

Everyone would. If you're trying to convince yourself, you know.

SPEAKER_00 58:20

It did make her seem more like a teenager, which was a good thing, because her mother, even portrayed as a teenager, seemed like an adult.

SPEAKER_01 58:28

Her mother seemed like a beautiful woman, and they said mom, and I was like, What?

SPEAKER_00 58:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:34

They're like, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_02 58:35

So I wrote down as my worst part was seeing Matt's naked butt and naked body. But I caveat that with it was also my best part because I liked looking at it, but then also this discussion, I get what they were trying to do. So I get that it's supposed to be reflective of how many times women's bodies are portrayed on in horror films and how much the camera is on it because it was like getting uncomfortable at one point. I was like, please, no one cares. No one like looks at abs anymore like that.

SPEAKER_03 59:09

What? If you listen back to episode 82 when we covered the original film, we talked about the fact that the director was required to have a minimum number of boobs in the shower scene. So she tried to shoot it as least male gazy as possible, but it's exactly a reflection of that.

SPEAKER_00 59:27

Well, I'm gonna go ahead and flip-flop this back to the flip-flopping because that was the best part of the movie was you know dealing with the whole trope, the whole slumber party trope, but not just like having the women be strong, because I think obviously it's a great part, but showing the guys as like defenseless, silly targets was great. Obviously, too much mammoth. We've talked about it a lot. Um, literally the close-up of a butt in a shower for like 30 minutes. Um, but like having their personalities be like basically helpless. They needed the women to like protect them and keep them safe, and that's always what women are shown as in every movie ever. And I love that they didn't just like okay, we've got you know strong women now. Cool. No, they have to like completely flip-flop it and show men in this way that they're not usually shown in.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:15

I particularly loved the is this what guys do at slumber parties? It's so sad. Oh, I love that. It was perfect, it was perfect, and it was so perfect that I enjoyed it even more the second time around watching it. I can't wait to see the version of this movie that doesn't have the made-for-TV edits that this one did. I absolutely plan on re-watching it again.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:37

I won't probably won't be re-watching this movie. I wouldn't mind it being on somewhere. If somebody wasn't into horror and wanted to watch something, I'd throw this on and be like, yo, it's a joke.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

Let's watch a joke. But not obviously a total waste of time because you're gonna watch it probably again. Probably never though, if we're being completely honest here. I'm just talking in theories.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

Non-theoretically, I'm with you, Ryan. I'm not gonna watch it again.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:03

Interesting. I would definitely watch it again. Probably not as much as I think I'd watch the 1982 version, though. I feel like I appreciate that one more and enjoy that more. But I feel like I'll be seeing this sometime soon.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:15

Okay, well, there's a lack of enthusiasm all around here, but let's see what Mac has to say for fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:22

Number one, ah, an ode to women by women. This film released on TV the same day it's screenwriter's divorce finalized.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

I'll say fact, because that sounds fun. Fiction?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:35

Yeah, it's a fiction. It was actually the day she got married.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

I you know what? As I was saying fact, I was like, I bet it's actually when she got married. Yeah. Because we were not man-haters, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:45

You gotta always expect a flip-flop here. Number two, Brini's Space Baby t-shirt is a reference to Kim's shirt in the Slumber Party Massacre in 1982.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

Just gonna guess fiction here. No clue. Didn't even see the shirt.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

It's an amazing shirt. I can't believe you missed it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

I'm not a sci-fi. Yeah, I didn't see the shirt, but seems pretty cool. There's a lot of nods to the original, so fact.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:05

Yeah, it is a fact. It was a nod. Taking us into number three, the telephone van seen at the gas station is an exact replica of the telephone van from the original.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:15

I'm gonna say fact, but it also feels like I'm picking the opposite of the right answer tonight, so Alexis, be careful.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:20

Oh no, this is definitely a fact because I even went to look at old photos of both the original and this one to compare them. Because I thought that was like an awesome little tidbit for the movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:34

It's a cool nod, but it's not an exact replica.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

Oh fuck, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:37

Therefore, a fiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Yep. Inspired by true events.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:41

Alright, let's flip-flop, go to something different here. Number four, the film shares another tie to its original. Frances Schultz-Douglas, who plays Maeve, is a cousin of Robin Still, who played Valerie in the original film.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:52

Sure, why not? Fact. I'm just gonna say fiction, because it's probably a fact.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:57

You got one right. This one's a fiction.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:00

And number five, there's a lot of a lot of semi-nudity in this film, but it's pretty much all male. There's no boobies. There's no female boobies that we get. And that's because the director of this film found the the nudity and the breastges of the first film to be overwhelming and deplorable.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

Well, I don't think it's because they were overwhelming or deplorable. I think it's because they were making a point. I don't know where that leaves my answer. Fact? I don't know, the way you worded this is kind of fishy.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:28

Some say fiction.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

Indeed. Indeed. This is a very deliberate choice, like you've mentioned, but she understands where the original movie's director came from. She said she accepted that restriction, like we've mentioned this restriction before, where they had to have so many boobs on screen. And she delivered it, and she did what she could on the movie. She also had some anger that people would judge her and criticize her for delivering that female nudity when it was the only way she would be able to get her foot in the door as a director.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:54

Yeah, I mean, I get it. What else are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:57

Just gotta lead with empathy. And more men, but that's been factor fiction.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:02

Well, there you have it, folks. Slumber Party Massacre from 2021, the reimagining of the 1982 Cult Classic has earned two hacks and two slashes. I guess we'll get uh Paris' opinion when he gets back from vacation. Now we've had a lot to talk about here, but it doesn't end here by any means at all. We want to know what you think, we want to know what you thought about this reimagination. Now, keep in mind there are a number of ways you can reach out to us, starting with our website hackerslash.live or on our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:31

And if you liked what they did here with the man butt, because you're tired of seeing so many boobs in horror movies, you can also reach out to our Hackerslash Hotline. You can leave us a voicemail at 757-606-0128 or visit hackerslash.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:50

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons. You can visit patreon.com slash hackerslash and earn cool perks for as low as $1 a month.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:00

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, playing the Hawk Girl is exhausting. Bye.