Slashlorette Party (2020) Review
Paul Ragsdale and Angelica De Alba the writer/director team that gave us Streets of Vengeance are back with Slashlorette Party, another tribute to 80s exploitation. And as you’ve probably guessed from the title, this time they’re paying their respects to slasher cinema. They channel everything from Friday the 13th to He Knows You’re Alone and add a few modern twists along the way.
Slashlorette Party opens in a blue lit church as Brie (Molly Souza) walks down the aisle toward her soon-to-be husband Dolph (Andrew Brown) who promptly stabs her to death. Yes, it’s a nightmare but things aren’t all roses for Brie in real life either. Bad enough that she tells her shrink Dr. Jordan (Ginger Lynn, House of Many Sorrows, Evil Breed: The Legend of Samhain) that she’s ready to call the wedding off.
Nia (Nina Lanee Kent, Nite Time Creatures) encourages her to end it. Her maid of honour Alexa (Brooke Morris) however talks her out of it and they head to a cabin in the woods for the bachelorette party. A combined party for both the bride and groom actually so she’ll have to deal with Dolph all weekend. But when some repairmen turn up to fix the cabin’s Wi-Fi and bodies start dropping, till death do you part begins to take on a whole new meaning.
By about the twenty-minute mark, I was more than ready for the killing to start because I hated almost everyone in the film. Slashlorette Party is one of those films where the entertainment comes from seeing obnoxious assholes meet nasty ends.
And assholes they are, from Dolph who reminds Brie that it’s her duty to have sex with him to Trinity (Shalene Prasad) who addresses the cable guys as “boy”. Apart from Brie, Nia and maybe the best man, Finn (Daniel James Moody, The Last Alleycat) they’re a bunch of catty bitches, pick-up artists and all-around jerks.
The killings start on a very auspicious note with a machete impalement. And it’s all done with practical effects, for once not even the blood is CGI. There are disembowelment, dismemberment, a knife through the skull and assorted other bloody fates to be dealt out and Slashlorette Party doesn’t rely on off-screen kills.
I was expecting it to be a bit more on the Maniac or Mutilator end of the gore scale. But I can’t complain about what we do get, it’s solid hard “R” material with one scene going a bit above and beyond. And speaking of “R” ratings there are strippers and some bare skin in keeping with slasher traditions.
One thing that is a bit different about Slashlorette Party is we know who is doing the killing early on. It’s obvious and has to be intentional, you’ll know what I mean when you see the film. The question is why? And that’s both one hell of a reveal and possibly the film’s cleverest homages. It’s one I didn’t see coming at all.
Unfortunately for Slashlorette Party, the ending is a major miscalculation. In two minutes what feels like a tacked-on coda damn near ruins everything in the seventy-four minutes before it. It’s one of the most disappointing finishes to film that I’ve seen in a long time. I’m still giving it three and a half stars and a guarded recommendation, the main body of the film is that good. It’s just a pity it had to go out on such a sour note.
Slashlorette Party is available on Blu-Ray, you can check the Facebook page for either the film’s production company A and P Productions or for the film itself for details.