Slumber Party Massacre 3 (1990, Sally Mattison)

The second and last 'official' sequel to "The Slumber Party Massacre" series takes the sleepover slaughter back to it's basics after that oddball supernatural, rock n' roll-themed "part 2". They didn't really strike while the 80s slasher 'iron' was hot with this one, though, as it came out too little, too late (the non-horror friendly 90s).

It's the basic formula from before: group of teen girls are having a slumber party, guys crash the party and, eventually, a drill-wielding killer joins in the fun...

Part 3 is more of a 'whodunnit' formula up until a certain point, where they throw in a few over-the-top red herrings. When the killer is finally exposed, we get down to his back story which, I must say, is probably one of the best motives given for a slasher film antagonist. Seems as though his cop uncle - who used to molest him - killed himself and he's upset about it. So he's taking it out on slumber partying girls who like daring each other to do stripteases for their giggly amusement... Ahh, slumber parties...

The gore is a bit more tame this time around and there's no drill guitar, unfortunately. I'd say this is my least favorite of the "Slumber Party Massacre" series, of which I know a lot of people would disagree and adamantly consider 'part 2' to be the top stinking shit-heap of the already lackluster franchise. Personally, the original had the ultra-straight forward 80s charm and the second one is just so ridiculously campy and bizarrely shitty that it's a total fucking hoot! Part 3 is fine as an extremely by-the-books slasher entry, but it's post-80s odium is evident. It's shitty, but more of a boring kind of 90s shitty, whereas the others have more of a 'stand out' kind of shitty to them. It's not as laughably entertaining, in my opinion. Slasher die-hards might dig it, but, as it was meant to be, with the end of the 80s came the end of "The Slumber Party Massacre"... Lights out.