05 June 2014

SUMMER OF BLOOD, WEEK 3 POLL: NOVELTY MASSACRES

VOTING CLOSED - WINNER: THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE
Thanks to everyone who voted!

The 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a watershed moment in the development of horror cinema and, indeed, independent American cinema as a whole. But right now, all we care about is one very particular piece of influence it had: there are a stunning number of movies titled "_____ Massacre", in which the blank is either a place or implement, the more baroque the better. This week, we tip our hat to the great art of knockoffs, with a slate of three candidates that are all playing in Tobe Hooper's sandbox

Mardi-Gras Massacre (1978)
From IMDb: "Police try to capture someone who is commiting ritual murders of women during Mardi Gras in New Orleans."

Nail Gun Massacre (1985)
From IMDb: "After a young girl is gang-raped by a crew of construction workers, someone starts killing off members of the group with a nail-gun."

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
From IMDb: "An eighteen-year-old high school girl is left at home by her parents and she decides to have a slumber party..."



13 comments:

  1. Surely "Nail Gun Massacre" is the only sensible choice here

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  2. These all sound great, but Slumber Party Massacre is just too great a movie to NOT want a Tim write-up.
    And hey, it might lead to a lampoon of Slumber Party Massacre II. And goodness knows we all need that.

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  3. NAIL GUN MASSACRE sounds to be in the most inexcusably grisly bad taste, therefore it's the clear best choice.

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  4. From wikipedia: "Written by author and feminist activist Rita Mae Brown, [Slumber Party Massacre] was intended as a parody of the slasher film. Producers filmed it not as a parody, but a straight genre film."

    Come on, it HAS to be Slumber Party Massacre.

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  5. I have never actually seen any of these, but am familiar with Nail Gun Massacre and The Slumber Party Massacre, and WOW this is a hard choice. On the one hand we've got a parody played straight, on the other we have one of the most legendarily awful slasher/rape-revenge movies ever made. Choices, choices...

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  6. How can you say no to this VHS cover. This is a work of art.

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/NailgunMassacre.jpg

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  7. McAllister Grant, you've made up my mind. Slumber Party massacre!

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  8. FWIW, this is the first week so far for which I don't have a clear personal favorite myself. It's also the first week that I haven't seen any of the three movies I'm nominating, so do with that whatever you like.

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  9. I watched Mardi Gras Massacre last summer because I remember hearing that it was one of the most asinine entries on the Video Nasties list. I tried to write about it (I think my notes are still on my computer), but it broke my brain.

    What I'm trying to say is this: you need to see Mardi Gras Massacre.

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  10. I vote on these blind, based on titles alone, because otherwise I'd get bogged down in the comments and never decide. Between that poster, "Written by author and feminist activist Rita Mae Brown", and "one of the most asinine entries on the Video Nasties list", I;m very glad I did.

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  11. I've always wanted to see Slumber Party Massacre and its background may make it easy for me to convince my staunchly feminist wife to watch one of these perverted slasher exercises in misogyny she thinks are utter garbage. Let me tell you giallos aren't feminist friendly films at all. I'm a feminist too and I can't intellectually justify why I enjoy them so much aside from the fact they're awesome.

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  12. I have to say, I'm disappointed by the result here--Nail Gun Massacre sounds like by far the most sociologically interesting of these.

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  13. 'twas not to be. The titillating call of nubile teenagers trumped the promise of nail-gun related violence. alack.

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