Murder Party takes what could could be a very serious horror movie concept and instead opts to go the road of comedy. Christopher is a loner who lives a quiet life of habit. He receives a mysterious invite to a Halloween party. He makes a knight costume out of cardboard and duct tape and heads off. Finding the remote warehouse location, he finds a odd group. It turns out they are throwing a special party. He is quickly thrown into a room, as it turns out that Halloween party is for serial killers. And Christopher is meant to be one of their victims.
As I said, it is a straight up horror concept. But director Jeremy Saulnier goes for the dark humor. The film is full of little moments (such as Christopher riding the subway while a guy fires off a rap in his face) or when one of the killers acts all badass and when he thinks he has hurt Christopher and like kid, freaks out and starts apologizing. The film takes a turn when Christopher musters the courage to fight back and try and escape. The chases that ensue are comical.
The visual queues are a lot of fun. All the serial killers are dressed like characters from other films. For example, one kid is dressed like a member of the Baseball Furies from the Warriors, another as Daryl Hannah’s character from Blade Runner.
It is kind of interesting to compare this with his later works, the brutal and intense Blue Ruin and Green Room. This is, by comparison, a light-hearted film. It is also a lower budget (according to someone on the IMDB, it was made for no money at all). But Saulnier was skilled enough even in his debut to make a film that looks like he had more money than he did.
Murder Party is a weird and funny film, good for some laughs this Halloween.
Tripping Through Gateways 
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