Please don't spend money on this.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

After having seen Blue Ruin and Green Room I was very curious to check out Jeremy Saulnier's first film, Murder Party. The plot sounded interesting and Blue Ruin was excellent while Green Room is one of my favorites of 2016. However, I felt Murder Party was lacking. With this being his first movie and since he was very clearly working with a limited budget, certain things such as low production values can be excused. That aside the movie really didn't really do much to be scary, thrilling, or even funny. The movie mostly consists of our protagonist being strapped to a chair while all the other characters don't really do much of anything that's interesting or fun to watch. From then, nothing really happens up until the film's bloody finale. Murder Party has a lot in common with Green Room. Both movies consist of our main characters getting thrown into life and death situations that take place in one singular location. Green Room just delivers on the thrills while Murder Party does not. Though watching this movie after having seen his other two films, it was interesting to see how he's grown as a filmmaker. I look forward to more from Jeremy Saulnier.

When i started to watch Murder Party, i was definitely expecting a pretty typical horror movie, since neither the plot, nor the poster would promise anything more. But as soon as Chris follows the invitation and we get to know our "bad guys", you begin to realize that this is really not your typical movie. First i'd like to praise the team behind the movie, because, even though you can see the low budget sometimes (mostly when we are outside), it really looks like a higher budget. The camera-work is fine and it never gets boring. Saulnier always seems to know when there would be a possible moment of boredom and so he levels up the tempo and gives us some action. The effects are pretty good too and never feel cheap. The other part i want to praise are the characters, which don't have too much depth, but never feel like cardboard. They all feel unique and have their own quirks. This also contains the acting, as they all are acted really well and everyone seems to have a great time doing his job. My favorites are the beautiful Lexi and Macon, which are both people that i'd like to be friends with (without the killing though^^).In short: A great movie for Halloween, which just is fun from the beginning to the end. Kudos to Saulnier for making such a great movie. I will be looking forward to his new movie Green Room.

MURDER PARTY is a supposed spoof of slasher movies, thrillers where people are held hostage as well as a vehicle for poking fun at art generally.The plot sees Chris, a somewhat lonely guy who lives alone with a cat, finding an invitation to a murder party. He makes a very ridiculous Sir Lancelot costume from cardboard boxes and goes to the party, which is held at a warehouse. There is no party and Chris finds himself trapped by a group of deranged drug addicts who plan to kill him and film the act.The first few minutes of the movie were quite good and suitably misleading for what is to follow. There was nothing funny but Chris was an interesting character to start with. He would have been great in a different movie.By the time he gets to the party, things go downhill quickly. This would have been better if made as a serious horror/thriller since its attempts to be funny come off as downright ridiculous or plain bizarre.Chris Sharp plays the lead role very well. His reactions were well captured. In a more serious production, I would have been rooting for his character. But with this being a parody, I knew he was never in serious danger of harm.The remaining actors are all terrible, either underacting or overacting in various degrees.Most of this movie takes place in a single setting - a warehouse. There is nothing wrong with this - if the story and script play out well. Unfortunately they do not. The deranged drug addicts just talk a lot of endless nonsense about art and film whilst Chris is gagged and tied to a chair. Some scenes carry on like this for 10 minutes or more, making the modest running time drag out somewhat.The direction is very much along the lines of parodies such as SCARY MOVIE. The gags are telegraphed in advance, the attempts at humour are massively overplayed, there is comic music in the background when Chris tries to escape and there are some incredibly silly special effects.I am a fan of "so-bad-it's-good" movies such as CAMP BLOOD, THE NAIL GUN MASSACRE, TROLL 2, DON'T GO IN THE WOODS and CHOPPING MALL just to name a few. Comparing these laugh riots to MURDER PARTY proves that humour deriving from a serious subject only works when it is UNINTENTIONAL.Overall, MURDER PARTY is a seriously unfunny movie that has one interesting thing about it - the main character. It is hard to recommend this to anyone, except for perhaps fans of SCARY MOVIE or other intentional spoofs. For everyone else, I advise keeping to established serious horror or go with "so-bad-it's-good" classics.

Originality scores big points with me and 'Murder Party' has that in spades. Its dark humor and plot twists elevates it to near perfection. The premise is really pretty straightforward and the majority of the film takes place in one room. So simple and so bloody brilliant! This film is hilarious and made me laugh out loud several times. The humor is wickedly dark and the dialog is sharp as a razor. The writing really was excellent and the group of actors deliver their lines perfectly. The group of artists are pretentious and self involved, but their inane chatter was highly entertaining. After the first half of the film I was thinking, I am totally digging this, but I'm not sure I would call it a horror film. But by the time the credits role it absolutely solidifies its placement in the genre. It is cheeky as hell and those final scenes were quite spectacularly bloody and extremely rewarding. Highly recommended! 'Murder Party' deserves a cult following, and I can't suggest more enthusiastically that you give this one a try next time you're looking for a rental.