6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
It's April Fool's Day and the sisters of Sigma Alpha Pi have found the perfect place to throw a party: the abandoned fraternity house where a guillotined pledge lost his head in a hazing gone slightly awry.
Starring: Martin Hewitt, Ralph Seymour, Sherry Willis-Burch, Paul Bartel (I), Elaine WilkesHorror | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
1687 kbps
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The premise of a stalker attacking sorority houses had been attempted several times on celluloid during the first half of the Eighties in such genre efforts as Hell Night (1981), The House on Sorority Row (1983), The Initiation (1984), and Silent Madness (1984). It's because of this relatively crowded market of films about killers on college campuses that I think MGM decided to postpone the release of Killer Party until many months after principal photography wrapped in 1984. According to The Tampa Tribune's movie reviewer Bob Ross, this Toronto-shot production sat in MGM's vaults for a year and a half. Screenwriter Barney Cohen (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) and director William Fruet (The House by the Lake) add some new wrinkles to the genre in a ten-minute prologue that shows a horror movie watched by teen couples at a drive-in, who become part of a music video put on by a punk rock group!
Thereafter, Killer Party settles into a a more traditional narrative. Phoebe (Elaine Wilkes), Vivia (Sherry Willis-Burch), and Jennifer (Joanna Johnson) are three college teens who pledge to the Sigma Alpha Pi sorority. They're about to become sisters of what's now called the “goat house." Their initiation is staged in a fraternity house that has been closed for about two decades. On April 1, 1964, a pledge named Alan got killed in that house during a hazing prank. Sorority house mother Mrs. Henshaw (Pam Hyatt) knew Alan and speaks to the dead at his graveyard in the backyard. The boys of Beta Tau join the sorority girls at the derelict house for an April Fool's Day masquerade party. Will this be an evening of harmless pranks or murderous mayhem?
A crowded party.
Killer Party makes its global debut on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 33.9 GB). I don't know whether or not this transfer is sourced from the same master that was used for the Warner Archive Collection's 2011 MOD "Remastered Edition." Warner's DVD-r presents the film in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, whereas Scream's disc displays it in its native ratio of 1.85:1. The image is clean save for some dirt that pops up on a couple occasions. Thankfully, grain hasn't been scrubbed and is most clearly visible in the dimly lit scenes inside the old fraternity house. Scream encodes the feature an average video bitrate of 33000 kbps.
Scream has provided twelve chapters for the 91-minute film.
Scream has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1687 kbps, 24-bit). Dialogue is rendered pretty well throughout, although vocal range and pitch can vary from scene to scene. The eclectic Eighties sound track contains four ballads by Alan Brackett and Scott Shelly, "You're No Fool (April)" by White Sister, and two other songs. In an interview on this disc, composer Jeff Beal says that the music department employed a variety of synthesized instruments and live musicians to create a "hybrid score." The Chamberlin keyboard, which was performed by a lot of rock groups during this era, used tape loops to play back the sounds of instruments. Beal also states that he had a Fairlight CMI and DX7, plus a small string ensemble and brass players. The music is definitely the biggest highlight on this monaural track. I wish Scream had included a stereo remix on an alternate track. Dragon's Domain Records released a soundtrack album earlier this year containing practically all musical underscore and source music.
Optional English SDH can be accessed through the menu or activated via remote.
I had never heard of Killer Party until this year. I'm pleasantly surprised by the offbeat nature of this sleeper. While it reminds me of April Fool's Day (also from 1986) in some ways, it's superior in its creativity and the risks it takes. Scream Factory has delivered a very good transfer and an above-average monaural mix. Scream recorded eight new interviews with cast and crew, most of which are relatively short. I learned the most from interviews with Sherry Willis-Burch, Gordon Smith, and the two White Sister band members. A ROCK SOLID RECOMMENDATION.
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1987
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