Jeremy Saulnier is one of my favorite directors right now, his two most recent films (Green Room & Blue Ruin) are two of the best movies I have seen in the last five years or so. I originally saw Murder Party years ago when it first came out but I was too young to fully appreciate it and didn't really have too many memories of it, once I realized that Murder Party was in fact Saulnier's directorial debut I knew I had to go back and check it out again.
The film centers around a lonely young man (Chris Hawley) who lives alone and has no real plans for Halloween other than sitting at home with his cat watching horror movies. On his way home from the video store he stumbles upon an invitation to a "Murder Party", Chris assumes that this is just an invitation to a normal Halloween party and decides to put on a homemade Halloween costume & attend the party. Upon arriving Chris quickly realizes that the party is anything but normal, instead it is actually a project set up by an art collective made up of some very pretentious artists. Their plan is to murder Chris simply for the sake of art, and everything just spirals from there.
I love the plot of this movie and the overall comedic tone of it as well, the film never takes it's self too seriously and they do an excellent job of mocking the art scene. I was very pleased with the way the characters were all written, I loved how calm and casual they all were through all the insane events that transpired throughout the film.The acting was all top notch for a low budget flick, especially Macon Blaire's performance (who has been featured in all of Saulnier's films so far). It's very rare that horror comedies are able to be genuinely funny but "Murder Party" really succeeds in that sense, it never felt like the comedy was forced or anything which made the jokes really land for me. One of the things I really like about Jeremy Saulnier's films is how brutal and violent they are, and "Murder Party" definitely doe not disappoint there. There is a massive amount of gore and brutal murders (hence the name), even during these scenes though the film still manages to be hilarious and make you grin.
"Murder Party" really delivers on multiple fronts, it's violent, hilarious, bizarre, and at times super witty. If you want to laugh and you are not afraid of a little blood then I highly suggest checking this out, it's a blast.
The film centers around a lonely young man (Chris Hawley) who lives alone and has no real plans for Halloween other than sitting at home with his cat watching horror movies. On his way home from the video store he stumbles upon an invitation to a "Murder Party", Chris assumes that this is just an invitation to a normal Halloween party and decides to put on a homemade Halloween costume & attend the party. Upon arriving Chris quickly realizes that the party is anything but normal, instead it is actually a project set up by an art collective made up of some very pretentious artists. Their plan is to murder Chris simply for the sake of art, and everything just spirals from there.
I love the plot of this movie and the overall comedic tone of it as well, the film never takes it's self too seriously and they do an excellent job of mocking the art scene. I was very pleased with the way the characters were all written, I loved how calm and casual they all were through all the insane events that transpired throughout the film.The acting was all top notch for a low budget flick, especially Macon Blaire's performance (who has been featured in all of Saulnier's films so far). It's very rare that horror comedies are able to be genuinely funny but "Murder Party" really succeeds in that sense, it never felt like the comedy was forced or anything which made the jokes really land for me. One of the things I really like about Jeremy Saulnier's films is how brutal and violent they are, and "Murder Party" definitely doe not disappoint there. There is a massive amount of gore and brutal murders (hence the name), even during these scenes though the film still manages to be hilarious and make you grin.
"Murder Party" really delivers on multiple fronts, it's violent, hilarious, bizarre, and at times super witty. If you want to laugh and you are not afraid of a little blood then I highly suggest checking this out, it's a blast.