Sleepover Massacre – review

Director: Gary Whitson

Release date: 1989

Contains spoilers

This film originated from an advert offering to make custom videos according to IMDb “All the guy gave {Whitson} was a basic plot about six women having a reunion who are attacked by a female vampire. He also sent a couple of pictures to Whitson of how he wanted the vampire bites to be shown.” So, going in, we know the level of quality we’re looking at.

However we need to address the opening intertitle, which gives a quote of “according to vampire legend, a vampire can feed of a victim twice before turning them into a creature of the night.” The three bite rule does show up from time to time but… the quote is attributed to Bram Stoker… ahem… no…

Denise and Janet

So after the fake quote we meet two women, Janet and Denise, who are having a catch up. They went to college together, along with four others, and time has passed. Denise is still in contact with Julie (Denise is a TV reporter and Julie a producer for a rival station). They have the idea of a sleepover and Janet offers to host and contact Amy, Terri and Sharon. They aim for a Saturday night.

run, girl, run

Denise is suffering from restless sleep and in her dream she runs through woods, pursued. She awakens and disturbs her boyfriend, Carl. She says she has had the dream again, in the first two times she was caught and her neck was bitten. In this the vampire stated that he would bite her a third time and make her his bride. Carl puts it down to stress but later she hears a news report of a man trying to bite someone in a park, the attempt by the police to arrest him lead to him being impaled on a wooden post – perhaps that was why she wasn’t bitten a third time?

rotten vampire

So, they are having the sleepover but Terri and Sharon are going to be late die to work (they work at a hospital) and then get very delayed. Janet has bought a coffin for a laugh and tells the story of the man and woman who, after he inherited a property, found the coffin in their basement. After some sex in there she found a bracelet, out it on and she turned into a vampire. She attacked the man but, before he died he flung a stake and killed her. The woman who sold the coffin then finds the bracelet and puts it on, turning into a rather rotten vampire (Terri Lewandowski, Vampire Brides).

Denise injured

For some reason, when Denise goes in Janet’s cellar to get more beer, the new vampire has moved there (obviously to do with the coffin but unexplained – just as is the reason that the bracelet creates vampires). She is attacked (the others think her screams are a joke). The vampire then goes after the others. The late (and staggered) arrival of the other two allow some pacing out of kills. Of course, Denise believes she has been bitten twice already by another vampire…

the cross

There isn’t much lore. A magic bracelet or three bites turn (and they can hunt in dreams it seems). Sunlight seems an issue and two bits of wood work as a cross. A stake to the heart kills. There is some evidence of eye mojo. The vampires reflect and that is about it. So, it’s not great but compared to the other Whitson movie we’ve looked at (Vampire Brides) this worked a bit better. 2.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.