Murder Party (2007) Review

"Everybody dies!"
-Bill



Christopher (Chris Sharp), a very lonely man, stumbles across an invitation to a murder party on Halloween.  He dresses up and attends the party in a deserted industrial area.  The party is actually a group of art students who plan to murder Christopher to impress the wealthy Alexander (Sandy Barnett) and earn a grant from him.  Now Christopher will have to find a way to escape from these deranged art students and survive his murder party.


What Works:

Murder Party is a very funny movie.  It's a black comedy and has some very dark humor.  I laughed out loud quite a few times throughout the film, mostly at the absurdity of the art students, and the humor is one of the stronger points of the film.

It takes awhile for the film to get any gore, but for a low budget film, it's pretty impressive.  We got some awesome burn gore and characters getting killed via chainsaw.  That's always fun and it works here.

This is a low budget horror film, which could go very poorly, but this is a pretty fun movie.  It's got energy, decent acting, and a crew that really cares about their product.  All around, it's impressive work and I have to give them props.

Finally, I loved the handful of pop culture references.  I was scared that they might go overboard with the references, as young filmmakers do, but there were really only two.  One person's Halloween costume is from Blade Runner and another's is from The Warriors.  It's fun and they don't overdo it.


What Sucks:

Christopher is a god-awful protagonist and is basically impossible to root for.  He's one of the least interesting characters I've ever seen and he isn't likable either.  He makes so many stupid decisions and does virtually nothing to save himself.  Stuff just happens to him and that makes him frustrating to watch.

I don't get art.  Art snobs/students are a group of people I find to be insufferable and the killers of Murder Party are no exception.  These characters are so pretentious it hurts.  It's mostly tolerable, but sometimes it's simply too much.

Finally, the movie does slow down a bit too much in the middle.  It felt like they got away from the murder party aspect for too long.  They decide to wait until midnight to kill Christopher for some reason.  In the meantime, we just get characters waiting around for stuff to happen.  It makes the situation feel less urgent, which is not what you want in this kind of movie.

Verdict:

For a low budget film, Murder Party is a fun movie with solid gore and some really funny moments.  The characters aren't great and the pacing had some issues, but this movie is worth seeking out.

 7/10: Good   




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