Murder Party
Encyclopedia
Murder Party is an American comedy
-horror
film
directed by Jeremy Saulnier. It was shot in Brooklyn
, New York
. It was given the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival
.
costume party entitled "Murder Party", on the street. Constructing a knight costume out of cardboard, he makes his way to Brooklyn
to attend the party, only to discover it is actually a trap set by a group of deranged art students. The art students are costumed as a goth/vampire, a werewolf, a zombie
cheerleader, Daryl Hannah
's replicant
character from Blade Runner
, and a Baseball Fury from The Warriors (film). They intend to commit a murder as a piece of artwork to impress their wealthy and sinister patron. Chris brought along a loaf of pumpkin raisin bread, which one of the students starts to eat. She then reveals that she is allergic to non-organic raisins, and didn't know about them. The group asks if she'll be OK, and she agrees explaining she's only a little dizzy and needs to sit down, however she falls over and hits her head on an axe and dies. The group hides the body, as they don't want their patron when he arrives.
The patron comes and has arrived late to the Murder Party and is searching for students to award grant money to. Drugs and alcohol fuel the group as the situation spirals out of their control and Christopher tries to make it home from the Murder Party alive.
and shooting short horror films on a VHS
Camcorder
and Super 8. Their first film was made in the 6th grade and was titled Megacop (1986). Later they were joined by Paul Goldblatt, Sandy Barnett, and Bill Lacey. The group would often do school assignments as video projects, so their vast filmography includes interpretations of classical works such as Macbeth
and Beowulf
. After high school, all went to various film schools and kept in touch.
The Lab of Madness' first attempt at a feature
was a screenplay
titled Moustache. They shot a short film titled Crabwalk in an attempt to get funding
for the film. After failing to find investors, the group decided to greenlight
Murder Party with no money in August of 2005, and in February 2006 they began shooting.
constraints but because of this a lot more focus was put on a few individual effects. Visual effects artist Chris Connelly was brought in to work in post-production
on the make up effects to supplement what was done on set. Director Jeremy Saulnier names Sandy Barnett as the most difficult actor to work with considering constant pranks and lack of attention span
.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
-horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Jeremy Saulnier. It was shot in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It was given the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival
2007 Slamdance Film Festival
The 2007 Slamdance Film Festival took place in Park City, Utah from January 18 to January 27, 2007. It was the 13th iteration of the Slamdance Film Festival, an alternative to the more mainstream Sundance Film Festival...
.
Plot
Christopher, a lonely and plain man, finds an invitation to a HalloweenHalloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
costume party entitled "Murder Party", on the street. Constructing a knight costume out of cardboard, he makes his way to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
to attend the party, only to discover it is actually a trap set by a group of deranged art students. The art students are costumed as a goth/vampire, a werewolf, a zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
cheerleader, Daryl Hannah
Daryl Hannah
Daryl Christine Hannah is an American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Hannah starred in a number of Hollywood films throughout the 1980s, notably Blade Runner, Splash, Wall Street and Roxanne and Kill Bill.-Early life:Hannah was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Susan...
's replicant
Replicant
A replicant is a bioengineered or biorobotic being created in the film Blade Runner . The Nexus series—genetically designed by the Tyrell Corporation—are virtually identical to an adult human, but have superior strength, agility, and variable intelligence depending on the model...
character from Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, and a Baseball Fury from The Warriors (film). They intend to commit a murder as a piece of artwork to impress their wealthy and sinister patron. Chris brought along a loaf of pumpkin raisin bread, which one of the students starts to eat. She then reveals that she is allergic to non-organic raisins, and didn't know about them. The group asks if she'll be OK, and she agrees explaining she's only a little dizzy and needs to sit down, however she falls over and hits her head on an axe and dies. The group hides the body, as they don't want their patron when he arrives.
The patron comes and has arrived late to the Murder Party and is searching for students to award grant money to. Drugs and alcohol fuel the group as the situation spirals out of their control and Christopher tries to make it home from the Murder Party alive.
The Lab of Madness
The Lab of Madness began with Christopher Sharp, Macon Blair, and Jeremy Saulnier as they were growing up in the 1980s1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
and shooting short horror films on a VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
Camcorder
Camcorder
A camcorder is an electronic device that combines a video camera and a video recorder into one unit. Equipment manufacturers do not seem to have strict guidelines for the term usage...
and Super 8. Their first film was made in the 6th grade and was titled Megacop (1986). Later they were joined by Paul Goldblatt, Sandy Barnett, and Bill Lacey. The group would often do school assignments as video projects, so their vast filmography includes interpretations of classical works such as Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
and Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
. After high school, all went to various film schools and kept in touch.
The Lab of Madness' first attempt at a feature
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
was a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
titled Moustache. They shot a short film titled Crabwalk in an attempt to get funding
Funding
Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money , or other values such as effort or time , for a project, a person, a business or any other private or public institutions...
for the film. After failing to find investors, the group decided to greenlight
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
Murder Party with no money in August of 2005, and in February 2006 they began shooting.
Production
The shoot was rough with many taking multiple roles on the production. Despite the freezing set, a tight knit crew emerged. Much of the planned of the special effects had to be compromised due to budgetBudget
A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
constraints but because of this a lot more focus was put on a few individual effects. Visual effects artist Chris Connelly was brought in to work in post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
on the make up effects to supplement what was done on set. Director Jeremy Saulnier names Sandy Barnett as the most difficult actor to work with considering constant pranks and lack of attention span
Attention span
Attention span is the amount of time that a person can concentrate on a task without becoming distracted. Most educators and psychologists agree that the ability to focus one's attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one's goals....
.
External links
- Muder Party at IMDB
- Murder Party at Allmovie
- Interview with The Lab of Madness on MonsterFresh.com