Slumber Party Massacre remake will debut on Syfy this year

If you organize a slumber party with your friends, chances are good that a power drill-wielding maniac is going to give you a hard time; that’s just how it is. Directed by Amy Holden Jones and written by Rita Mae Brown, 1982’s The Slumber Party Massacre has obtained a large cult following over the years and has even undergone a reassessment that paints it as a feminist satire of the slasher genre. Naturally, The Slumber Party Massacre is ripe for a remake and the only surprising thing about that is that it’s taken this long.

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Deadline has reported that The Slumber Party Massacre remake from Shout! Studios has already wrapped production and will be debuting later this year on Syfy. Danishka Esterhazy (The Banana Splits Movie) has helmed the remake from a script by Suzanne Keilly (Ash vs. Evil Dead), and while the film’s plot is being kept under wraps, Deadline says that it will be a reimagining of the original “set against the backdrop of a girls basketball team’s sleepover and a crazed killer who starts knocking them off.” In a statement, Shout’s Head of Original Content Development Brent Haynes said:

Remaking one of the seminal films of Roger Corman and Amy Holden Jones’ early work is exciting and audacious. But there are no better hands in which to place this challenge to Danishka Esterhazy, Suzanne Keilly, and the team at Blue Ice Pictures. Their creative vision will both honor the Corman ethos and captivate today’s audiences.

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The Slumber Party Massacre remake stars Hannah Gonera, Frances Sholto-Douglas, Mila Rayne, Alex McGregor, and Reze-Tiana Wessels. The original film was actually written as a parody of the slasher films which were in the midst of sweeping cinemas at the time, but the producers repurposed it into a more standard slasher, albeit one with a little more humour than usual. It was followed by two sequels, both of which were also written and directed by women, which I believe was a first for a horror franchise.