Killer Party: Vance's Retro Corner

Thanks to my buddy Vance, who graciously typed up this original Fangoria article for me, I am now able to post it here for you guys to read. Man, you have been awesome with all of the information, and help. Thank you so much!!

Fangoria Issue # 44

FOOL’S NIGHT: Previously mentioned in Fango #42 under the title The April Fool, Fool’s Night is the title for the film as we go to press, and we are informed that it should be in release through MGM/UA by the time you read this. The film revolves around three female students pledging a sorority. Twenty years earlier this sorority used to be a fraternity where a student died during a hazing. The house has been closed until now. It seems the house might carry a curse, and then resulting horrific action culminates at the sorority’s April Fool party.

The Film is described as a horror-comedy. Producer Michael Lepiner says, “I always felt that if you could combine both elements of horror and comedy, it would attract a broader audience. In addition to those people who like horror films, you’d attract an audience that perhaps might gravitate to something like an Animal House or Police Academy.” The comedy in the picture involves, to a certain extent, the sort of pranks and antics that you’d expect to find in a movie taking place on a college campus, but it also is very much tied in with the April Fool theme of the film. According to Lepiner, the movie intends to keep the audience guessing as to whether the potentially dangerous situations are real or whether they are April Fool put-ons.

Lepiner points out that the third youth oriented element in Fool’s Night, in addition to horror and comedy, is music. The film features several rock ‘n’ roll tunes and also boasts an elaborate musical production number, to be used, says Lepiner, in a surprising way.

The screenwriter for Fool’s Night is Barney Cohen who scripted last year’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. Lepiner says that he and executive-producer Kenneth Kaufman were just starting to play Fool’s Night when The Final Chapter came out. They had spoken with Cohen about other possible projects before, and when they talked to Cohen about “doing something in the horror-comedy vein, he just lit up. It was something he always wanted to do.”

Also involved in the project are director William Fruett (Smasms) and director Paul Bartel in one of his non-directing acting roles as the pretentious, befuddled Professor Zito. To correct a mistake in our issue #42 report, Gordon Smith is in charge of all special effects for the picture, not just the non-makeup effects.

Killer Party Fangoria Article Pic Issue 44

Killer Party Fangoria Article Pic Issue 44

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Famous Monsters Underground June/July 2011 Killer Party Article

Killer Party (1986) is a film within a music video within a film, and features what is arguably the most original opening to any 80’s slasher film. Then again, Killer Party isn’t entirely a slasher film; it’s also a film about demonic possession that stems out of a frat house urban legend. Then again, it’s not really an urban legend since the party boy who was rumored to be haunting his final resting place has a memorial gravestone in the back of the now abandoned house where he was killed. Got it? Good. Then you’re ready for Killer Party. Just remember, simple is beautiful but convoluted is better, and Killer Party is an unjustly overlooked gem of ‘80’s horror. Famous Monsters Underground June/July 2011 Killer Party Article

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Horror Hound Magazine

Killer Party: MGM offers up schizo campus cut-up during the zenith of the 80’s slasher boom. The story opens with not one but two pull backs… you know, those scenes meant to trick and fool the viewer into thinking what’s on-screen is truly happening in the film, only (haha) it ends up being a movie or a dream sequence within the film ( a gimmick employed in He Knows Your Alone, Anguish and American Werewolf in London). We eventually meet three female sorority pledges (Phoebe, Vivia and Jennifer) who must undergo the rigors of their initiation to Sigma Alpha Pi. They are also planning a big April Fool’s Halloween costume party (?) at the eerie condemned frat house on campus. College hijinks are in full swing as we are rewarded with a frat prank involving a hot tub and bees that leads to a little T&A action! The tomfoolery continues well into the party which includes a faux guillotine beheading, staged frat boys fighting and faked paranormal activity all taking place in the off-limits frat (the house being closed as a result of the accidental death of a pledge 20 years prior). Shifty characters such as Professor Zito (played by 80’s staple Paul Bartel: Chopping Mall) and the itchy-footed Martin (Ralph Seymour; Just Before Dawn) give rise to the whodunit element found in virtually every ‘80s slasher. After an hour in and only one kill, we finally reach the moment we have been waiting for as the mysterious killer appears onscreen, wearing (of all things) a big, bulky, old fashion, deep sea, diving suit, Yep … this film is a very tongue-in-cheek to say the least. His array of weapons includes a barbed trident, a machete and a hammer which he uses to “off” the party goers (sadly, with all the kills occurring off-screen). Not all is lost as we are rewarded with a fridge full of body parts, and an odd turn in the story as Jennifer (Joanna Johnson) suddenly becomes possessed by the revenge-seeking spirit of Allen, the deceased pledge who died in the house decades earlier. The movie then descends into Evil Dead-meets-Night of the Demons territory when the possessed Jennifer chases her friends through the house, crawling up walls, hanging from chandeliers and drooling with her elongated tongue exposed. A very fun melding of comedy and horror and possibly the oddest slasher of the decade – and in this issue. Famous Monsters Underground June/July 2011 Killer Party Article

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