Murder Party

"Murder Party" (2007, Magnolia Pictures, Jeremy Saulnier) is a "horror" "comedy" based in Brooklyn, New York.... I bought this film for three reasons:

1. It was cheap and had free shipping
2. The cover looked entertaining
3. It had one of those terrible horror names (a fact the film itself makes a nod to by including a video tape called "Scarewolf" in the plot)

A strange and lonely man called Christopher (Chris Sharp), who lives with his cat (who, as all cat do, owns the sofa), finds an invitation to a Halloween party called "The Murder Party" on the street and decides to go... He makes a Halloween costume out of duct tape and some cardboard and sets off.

He gets to the secluded spot to find a bunch of  'artists' wearing Halloween costumes and toting weapons... It turns out that the artists are looking to murder someone in the name of 'art', and Christopher has accidentally volunteered!

I'm sure they were going for 'ironically uncomfortable.'.. What they got was 'normal uncomfortable'. This film is not funny, at all. The only thing really going for it were some good low-budget gruesome moments (the "wolfman" getting burnt so badly his mask melted to his face being particularly yucky and some axe through the face action being quite impressively accomplished).

Other than the above mentioned effects and setting up quite a good 'weirdo' lead character in Christopher, the film achieved very little. The 'Patron' character is kind of like a badly written Will Ferrill character.

On the other hand, it's an independent film made by people with next to no money, so in that respect, deserves kudos. The special effects are impressive and the relative idea behind the film is otherwise sinister. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

[Picture: The Lab of Madness & Magnolia Pictures]

Hani