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At the Movies! The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) and Piranha (1978)
š„ NOVEMBER 26 š„
The second of four nights of double features presented in collaboration with American Genre Film Archive.
$10 gets you into both movies.
Doors at 7:30pm
08:00pm The Slumber Party Massacre
10:00pm Piranha
The Slumber Party Massacre Amy Holden Jones, USA, 1982 8pm
“A top tier 1980s slasher that hits all those sweet spots.”
— belial_carboni, LETTERBOXD
Amy Holden Jones turned down an editing job on E.T. to direct this movie. She made the right choice. Written as a commentary on the inherent sexism of slashers by feminist icon Rita Mae Brown (but shot completely straight), THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE is a terrific inside joke that also delivers the goods as a skid row photocopy of Halloween — complete with a killer who gets figuratively castrated when the tip of his power drill is hacked off. With its stylized photography, plot points that involve pizza, and endlessly cool homemade synth score, THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE is a drop-dead masterpiece of subversive trash-horror.
Piranha Joe Dante, USA, 1978 10pm
We should all be thankful for Steven Spielberg. If it wasn’t for him, there would be no JAWS. And if it wasn’t for JAWS, there would be no PIRANHA. And if there’s no PIRANHA, what’s the point?! Half JAWS spoof and half trash-gore powerhouse, Joe Dante’s PIRANHA holds the key to a most bitchin’ summer. When some jerks skinny-dip near a government testing lab, they accidentally unleash . . . PIRANHA!! The bloodthirsty fishies rend flesh in a small-town lake while a drunk scientist, a go-getting detective, and exploitation superstars Dick Miller, Paul Bartel, and Barbara Steele hang out and take care of business. From GREMLINS to INNERSPACE, director Dante is a master of transforming genre pastiche into peerless entertainment. PIRANHA is a rare delightāa knockoff just as fun as the original, with SFX guru Rob Bottin’s puppet fish a wonder to behold.
