Film Review: Party Night

Before I go into my review, I want to disclose that I was a backer of the film’s Kickstarter campaign and part of the Fright Meter Films’ sister company Fright Meter Awards which is an awards committee that nominates the best in horror. This is my objective opinion on “Party Night”. Figured that I get that out of the way before I start my review.

“Party Night” is about a group of kids who throw an after party after enjoying their senior prom at a house in the woods. They’re having a fun time making love, playing cards and having fun. All of this comes to an abrupt end when a psychopath begins to stalling and killing them. Soon, they are going to wish that they went straight home, as he is out to ruin their fun night.

This is a film that I’ve been looking forward to as the premise had an 80’s vibe in the way of films like “Prom Night” and “The Mutilator” which were very good film. I thought this would be a homage to those films and be good at the same time. I never thought it would have an intense feel like “Party Night” has.

This film is very good because of its direction from first time writer/director Troy Escamilla. He does a very good job making sure the film has an intense feel. Whether it’s the way that he approaches everything to making sure the film has an 80’s slasher feel with the gore, everything is done in a way that it makes it both terrifying and fun. It helped made this an enjoyable film. The other thing that Escamilla does well is to make sure the performances are good. He makes sure that the cast gel with each one another as it made that performance aspect work well as these characters were likeable and not annoying. He gets a good lead performance from first time actress Lauren Toupal and good supporting performances from Ryan Poole, Tommie Vegas and Destine Orndoff. The performances help make this entertaining for me.

The screenplay also written by Escamilla does a very good job with building the characters. By doing that, it allows the film not to move at a fast pace and allows for you to become interested in the characters. This also provides some good build up to the film’s many death scenes. The other thing that I liked about it was the fact the death scenes had a punch to them. They were done well as it had some good kills and makes sure it delivered on the gore like an eighties slasher film.

If there was one problem that I had with was this, it had to do with the running time. The film clocks in at seventy minutes and I felt like I wanted a little more as I was enjoying this film and thought it could’ve gone for another ten or fifteen minutes somewhere in the third act. It’s a minor grip with this film, as I like films to be at least eighty minutes long unless the short running time fits perfect with the story. Still, I liked this film a lot.

This is a film that you should definitely check out when it get released as I had a fun time with this film. With its good directing and fun time, “Party Night” is one party to die for.

Review Rating: Four Stars