The Plot.On Halloween Eve in Brooklyn, an average Joe loser named Chris finds an invitation to a costume party. Arriving at the "party", Chris discovers he's fallen prey to the lethal trap set by deranged artists. As the night wears on, rivalries within the group flare up. A body count accrues, and Chris must take advantage of the ensuing chaos if he's to survive the night.Plow budget but it works. Yes, the story sort of doesn't make sense all that much, but they make it interesting and so you're willing to stick it out to see what happens!

Once upon a time, I felt like watching a movie. I was in the mood for horror, yet I couldn't think of anything I was particularly itching to see. I began to browse the web for suggestions, and stumbled upon a film I had never heard of before. I went to my local movie rental store, rented it, and went home to watch it. What I witnessed was one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable films I ever had the joy of experiencing. That film was Murder Party.Murder Party is the story of a loser named Chris who finds a card on the ground that invites whoever finds it to a Halloween celebration. Since he has nothing else to do that night, he decides to throw a costume together and attend. He soon finds out that he has made a dire mistake, putting his fate in the hands of murderous college students who want to kill him as art.What's simply wonderful about this film is how they manage Horror-Comedy. Most films in that sub-genre, such as Evil Dead II or Dead Alive (both great), derive humor from the insane and ridiculous special effects and scenarios they can pull off. While some of that is present in Murder Party, the film mostly relies on the distinct weirdness of each character and their motivations. It's an interesting spin on the formula. The insanity really comes in later in the story, but telling why would be a spoiler.Overall, this is an extremely impressive film. Not only due to the fact that it was made independently and that it technically had no budget, but also because the filmmakers brushed the limitations aside and created a thoroughly fun and enjoyable experience by focusing on the writing, directing, and acting more so than the effects. It's goofy. It's tense. It's Murder Party.

'Murder Party' is about just that. A bunch of pretentious (psychopathic!) art students send out random invitations for strangers to attend the titular Halloween 'murder party.' Their reasons... they want to kill them (and call it 'art').Only one person is lonely enough to take them up on their invite. A loser who basically has no friends and makes his own costume out of cardboard drops by, only to find himself tied up and gagged while the nut-jobs decide how best to murder him.Now, the problem I had with it was that our unwitting 'hero' spends most of his time tied up and gagged. Therefore, we hardly get to know much about him, other than what we saw at the beginning, which basically shows us how much of a loser he is. Therefore, it's hard to relate to him or care much about his predicament. We really get to know his captors more them him for the first two thirds of the movie. And his captors aren't the sort of people you'd really want to get to know.The gang of murderous art students are a pretty awful bunch. Yes, they're the 'villains' of the movie, so we're hardly meant to root for them, but without a decent hero to follow there's no one you're going to care that much about.There are plenty of murders and the natural gore to go with it, but there isn't really that much story. There's a few nice moments of black humour which help out the viewing and it is a pretty short film (it needs to be!).It's not awful, but I felt like there were long periods of time that felt like they had only been put in there to extend the runtime of a movie that doesn't really have enough plot to warrant it being anything other than a TV episode (length).

Despite the silly name, Murder Party is a surprisingly well-made movie that takes itself seriously only in the bits where it mattered. The director described it as "Breakfast Club but with chainsaws and hard drugs" but I felt like it was more Tarantino meets Kevin Smith and they get together and double team Sam Raimi. Which I guess kinda gets the same effect. But still.The plot is a stereotypically simple one: Lonely guy finds an invite to a "murder party" (see what they did there?) and decides to attend out of boredom (and because his cat, Sir Lancelot, refuses to get out of his chair). This plunges him into a nightmare world where dimwitted hipster art-major-flunkies vie desperately for the attention their friend Alexander through MurderArt™ (i.e. they plan to kill the main character for the sake of art) and also take entirely too many drugs while doing it. Meanwhile, our hero, who's almost as idiotic as his captors, is sitting in his goofy-ass cardboard knight costume and continually screwing up his escape plans with sheer incompetence.Most of the movie feels like a parody of horror movies, because it constantly takes horror stereotypes and either tips them on their heads or transforms them into Shaun-of-the-Dead-esque gags. Throughout, there are some truly hilarious points that really display the talents of both the writers and the actors.But when it comes time for the movie to actually be a legitimate horror movie, it really does hunker down and deliver in an incredibly satisfying way. And it's not just the gore/special effects, which are by themselves -very- impressive. When a character's face gets burnt off, the makeup is so good I honestly found it very difficult not to look away.But it's got the suspense aspect as well. You're really terrified for the main character by the end of it, because the events are set up so well, and the way they unfold keeps you glued to the screen until the very end.On top of all this, the movie is beautifully shot. The director has a real eye for what makes an aesthetically pleasing shot, whether it's of the hero making pumpkin bread or somebody's head being ripped apart with a chainsaw. So kudos to that, too.Now, I purposefully left out plot-related spoilers because I really, truly want everyone and anyone who reads this to go out and see this film. I only knocked it down a star because the actors were admittedly not fantastic and there were a couple low-budget effects that offset the relatively high quality demonstrated through the rest of the movie that left a slightly bad taste in my mouth, but they were easily overlooked.Also, if you get a chance, get your hands on a version with the special features and watch the Making Of short. The story behind this movie is genuinely heart-warming and inspirational, especially to anyone who's even vaguely considering film-making as a career.If you like senseless gore, making fun of pretentious hipsters, watching people take hard drugs, or seeing a middle aged man running around in a stupid looking cardboard costume, this movie is for you.