Dir. Paul Ragsdale & Angelica De Alba (2020)
Bachelorette parties can be fun, unless there’s a maniac who wants to kill all of the guests.
CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Filmmaking duo Paul Ragsdale and Angelica De Alba are already well-known for adding to the holiday horror festivities with 2013’s Cinco De Mayo, and they haven’t stopped ever since. Slashorette Party opens with the bride-to-be, Brie, having a dream where her betrothed murders her, which… I gotta be honest, probably isn’t a great sign. She confesses her thoughts to her therapist, played by the legendary pornstar Ginger Lynn, including the fact that her fiancée, Dolph, is kinda a prick. After some emotional back and forth, she decides to give it all another shot after being forced to go on a trip with everyone involved with the wedding. This leads to the worst bachelorette party in history, in which the appearance of a killer is almost as bad as having to spend the weekend with her fiancée.
Dolph is basically Matthew Glave’s character from The Wedding Singer, complete with douchey polo shirt and a desire to sow his wild oats before their wedding day (and possibly after). The wedding party is filled with exceptionally unlikeable people, which is also absolutely the point. Nobody wants to see likeable people get brutally murdered, and that’s what we’re here to see after all! There are some bright shining characters though, most notably Molly Souza’s Brie and Nina Lanee Kent’s Nia, who is badass as all hell (and is in A&P’s next film Murdercise too!)
A slasher comedy that hits all the right notes to become both parody and paradigm, Slashorette Party is a nice slasher throwback with equal parts laughs and bloodshed. So many recent slasher films don’t pay much attention to the “who’s the killer” mystery of it all, choosing to just have a vicious beast who tears through teens and young adults as often as possible. Like it’s previous-generation predecessors, Slashorette party has this foundational tenet nailed down. The score is pure 80’s goodness, all foreboding synth the way it should be. The kills are gratuitous and low-budget gore, looking better than the majority of the kills from Troma films and just as goofy. And I mean that in the absolute best way possible, of course.
It’s a fun film, and funnier than I expected it to be. Horror comedy is hard to do right, and A&P clearly knows what they’re doing. They don’t forsake the horror for the funny, which is the fatal mistake that so many films fall victim to. It’s not the best I’ve ever seen, but it’s got a little bit of something for everyone. Unlike most slashers, the carnage is saved mostly for the end of the film, but it is indeed a blood-saturated finale with some excellent gore. Once the mystery behind the killers is resolved, we get one of the more batshit insane endings in recent memory, very much in line with some of the crazier shit from the 80’s and 90’s. Definitely worth a watch and streaming for free on Tubi.
Who this movie is for: Indie film fans; Low budget lovers; Julia Guglia
Bottom line: Low budget indie films don’t get a whole lot better than this, with some serious cinematography and excellent aesthetics. The acting is capable for the most part, though some are of course better than others. Crazy ending and genuinely funny throughout. Highly recommend giving this one a shot if you’re down with comedic horror.
