Kelsey's Review

Summary - Good 3.0

Chris (Sharp) is very much a loner. He doesn’t get respect from anyone. His dog doesn’t even obey him. When Halloween comes around he doesn’t want to stay home alone, he wants to be with others who he can celebrate the holiday with. When he finds an invitation titled “murder party”, he assumes it is just a themed Halloween party. Chris decides he would like to attend this so he prepares for the evening. He even makes his own costume. He makes a knight costume with armor made of cardboard. When Chris shows up he is surprised that there aren’t that many people there. Quickly, he learns why. This isn’t a real party; it is merely a scam. The people there are Lexi (Rock), Macon (Blair), Paul (Goldblatt), and Sky (Saulnier), a group of kids who have set out to murder a victim that night. Since Chris is the one who showed up, he is tied up and prepared to kill.
They have all more the reason to when Chris mistakenly kills one of them.
Later, the kids’ leader, Alexander (Barrnett) and his assistant, Zycho (Tangradi) join them in the process. Alexander critiques them on their ideas on how to murder Chris. It turns out this is a creative test. All of the kids are artists, hoping to make a success and start careers. Alexander has grant money that he has promised to them if he remains interested in their art. They soon find out more about this and the tables turn as it seems there might be someone among them that will betray and harm them all.

Acting - OK 2.5

The acting was quirky, but overall pretty well done. The best performance was by Chris Sharp who played the fearful protagonist. The character of Chris really helped the movie be more likeable. He was such an innocent guy who was facing such terrors. Chris is a very imaginative and almost child like man. He simply wanted someone to share his creativity and thoughts with. His attempt of this fails though. It is clear that this is a life changing experience for him and understandably so. The other characters weren’t quite as strong, but they served their own purpose. They were strange and they would have to be to conduct a real murder party for grant money. Alexander put up this perception of a powerful man who could bring these kids success. We learn that this may not be completely true though.

Film - Good 3.0

As an independent horror film, Murder Party should be recognized, because it uses its’ resources well. It was shot in empty warehouses in New York. It focused on the city of Brooklyn, which seemed to be a fitting area for the party scene. The fact that they did this almost completely in a warehouse was a good budget choice not to mention it took away some of the hope of survival. There seemed to be less of a chance that anyone could find Chris here. Jeremy Saulnier deserves recognition as well as the writer and director of the film. Murder Party is his first full length movie. It is unique and interesting if nothing else, making the movie a very promising start to his film career.

Edge - Sordid 3.1

There are violent scenes mostly towards the end when people are being killed. The blood is visual, but it is not extremely graphic.

Reality - Surreal 2.2

The plot in the movie itself isn’t all that realistic. However, the symbols and representatiosn in the film are. Trickery is a very big part of what goes on and how the characters react to it. This changes fiction to reality and a horrible one at that. The biggest issue with the movie though is that once Chris is tied up, the film stalls a bit. Chris is tied up, waiting to be killed for the majority of the movie. This may be because they wanted to make an evening out of it, but the plot is put on hold making the movie have a slightly slower pace than it should. If a murder party was really taking place I doubt they would wait so long unless they were afraid to kill him. Luckily though, the dialogue makes up for this. It is there for more than comedic relief though. It helps us see in to the characters somewhat. These people are so desperate to make something of their art that they are willing to become murderers to achieve that. It isn’t even a guarantee either which some of them learn the hard way. The artists try to justify what they are doing by claiming it is Chris fault for coming to a murder party, as if his stupidity is reason enough for killing him. It really seems like their insecurities have gotten the best of them. They doubt themselves and their abilities. To try to assure that they will have a fighting chance they resort to hurting others. They do all this for the approval of one man. Murder Party is a very funny film and the obscurity of the situation makes the movie more enjoyable.

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