Nice party. Who's the entertainment director?
By the time Killer Party came out in 1986, the '80s slasher boom that made it a viable project had all but run its course. That, however, didn't stop director William Fruet (who previously brought the "classic" chiller Funeral Home into the world) and writer Barney Cohen (the screenwriter of record on the misleadingly titled Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) from assembling a group of horny frat boys and skanky sorority girls and letting the vengeful spirit of a fraternity pledge who died 20 years earlier pick them off during an April Fool's costume party, the first one being held at the boys' dilapidated frat house since it was shuttered (you know, over the whole "causing a student's death" thing). First, though, Fruet and Cohen have a couple of fake-outs to get out of the way, starting with an absurd funeral scene that turns out to be part of a movie playing at a drive-in that turns out to be the setting for a music video by a real band called White Sister. Then, having eaten up ten minutes, they turn their attention to the actual characters who will be attending their "killer" party.
The action revolves around three best friends -- level-headed blonde Jennifer (Joanna Johnson), impulsive brunette Phoebe (Elaine Wilkes), and myopic geek Vivia (Sherry Willis-Burch) -- who are rushing Sigma Alpha Pi together and hope to stay on pledge mistress Veronica's (Alicia Fleer) good side long enough to get in. Meanwhile, their soon-to-be sisters are engaged in a low-stakes prank war with the fellas from Beta Tau fraternity, whose sub- Animal House shenanigans are about as witless as can be. Still, they do provide two of the girls with potential romantic partners -- top-billed Martin Hewitt's Blake for Jennifer, Woody Brown's Harrison for Phoebe -- while Vivia has to content herself with the comparably nerdy Martin (Ralph Seymour), who isn't terribly picky since he initially makes a play for Jennifer before being roundly rebuffed.
Martin is also the subject of another one of Fruet and Cohen's tiresome fake-outs since they focus on his ratty white sneakers while he follows the girls around, making him appear to be the killer when he's just an ordinary, non-homicidal stalker. As for the real killer, when he finally materializes -- at the April Fool's masquerade, naturally -- he's wearing an old-fashioned diving suit with a helmet, and the five minutes where he works his way through the insufferable guests are the best part of the movie. Honorable mention goes to Paul Bartel for his all-too-brief role as stuffy English professor Archibald Zito, whose tenure as faculty advisor to the school's Greek community is similarly short-lived.
