Dude Bro Party Massacre III is the best horror comedy movie no one has ever seen

In 2015, a renegade company of comedians and filmmakers dared to prove that horror comedies can be more than the sub-genre’s median reputation suggests. Fans of 5-Second Films viral videos in Youtube and in 5secondfilms.com you probably already know about your crowdfunding-funded frat-slasher satire Brother III’s Party Massacre. Those who don’t won’t be bothered to miss any of the franchise’s previous entries, because they don’t exist. Brother III’s Party Massacre is a fake three-school that is presented as if the audience is viewing a pirated VCR copy of a Minnesota teenager, recorded at a “Midnight Morning Movie” screening at 4 am.

The main characters in this movie are guys. They are brothers. They love to party. They are massacred. It’s all in the title except the way the Delta Bi fraternity’s alcohol-soaked story is also a brilliant take on well-documented horror tropes, made for an audience that is obsessively aware of sorority killers and sorority killers. she’s ready for a loving analysis of why those movies are ridiculous.

A title like Brother III’s Party Massacre it’s easy to dismiss as a gimmick, announcing a movie that will be filled with superficial horror gags, like a Scary Movie continuation. Horror comedies are often judged more harshly than outright horror, because many serious horror fans believe comedy can’t be scary or have suffered Stan Helsing equivalents that don’t seem to come from a place of respect and appreciation for the movies they try to skewer. For every love parody like Ruben Fleischer’s 2009 horror comedy Zombieland, there’s another brain waste like 2014 A haunted house 2, seemingly built around the question: “What if Paranormal activity Did you have poop gags?

But humor wise in Brother III’s Party Massacre it’s a sign that filmmakers are horror fans. Targeting subgenre tropes is a solid route to making a good horror comedy. Filmmakers who embrace these repetitive expectations of the plot and extend them to their silliest degrees are showing their deep knowledge of horror and their willingness to laugh at what they love. Murder comedy is thoughtless, but this kind of compassionate comedy requires skill. Brother III’s Party Massacre is the rare horror satire that’s both funny and intensely studied, with its slasher delivery filtered through hobbyist brotherhood, beer bongs, and the life-saving power of blatantly homoerotic friendships.

It all starts when Brent Chirino (Alec Owen) enrolls at East Chico University to investigate the murder of his twin brother, Brock. After skateboarding past a sunbathing John Francis Daley (one of many recognizable faces featured in cameos, from Larry King to Nina Hartley), Brent crashes in front of the Delta Bi fraternity house filled with Solo glasses, where muscular alpha leader Derek (The room co-star Greg Sestero) welcomes him as Brock’s inherited brother. Brent advertises his interest in getting engaged to Delta Bi, as a cover for snooping behind the closed doors of their rooms in search of answers about what happened to Brock.

Per the horror franchise bylaws, this is the point where the movie’s villain, Motherface (Olivia Taylor Dudley) will start killing once again. Motherface is the masked nightmare responsible for all the dead Delta Bi broskis from the previous imaginary films in the series. Brent finds a new family in Delta Bi, but can only save them by defeating Motherface in Brock’s honor.

In its most digestible form, Brother III’s Party Massacre reverse the sorority house bloodbath setup that dominates 80s slashers like The house on Sorority Row, The slumber party massacre, or Killer party. Excitement and temptation are the fuel for Friday the 13th‘s infinite copycats, many of whom sacrifice character development in favor of bare chests and pillow fights. DBPM3 asks: “What if this type of framing was applied to men instead of women?”

Delta Bi’s motto is “No Girls Allowed”, especially during the Delta Bi Biannual Bicep Gauntlet. Frat idiots engage in familiar sorority movie behaviors, such as dancing topless around stereos, or nervously relying on their closest brushes about feeling pressured into sex by a persistently baby-crazy girlfriend. (Kelsey Gunn as Samantha is a star). There is no Driller Killer hunting down beauties in pajamas with a phallic weapon, and no despised ex-boyfriend stalking the woman he sees as his own. The role reversal is comical, but it’s also a stealthy apology for all the objectification imposed on women through decades of dumb victim stereotypes.

Cuts deeper into the hairless meat of Brother III’s Party Massacre, and the writing team’s intentions to roast the rules of slasher become apparent, especially in their delivery of ludicrous sequels. Brock’s introductory therapy session recaps the action from the first two imaginary films, through a montage of Delta Bi deaths that ooze vomit from open necks and spill blood-worthy aquarium tanks as a commentary on the tally carnage. of corpses who value the seediest slasher movies. about narratives.

Two unnamed characters, “Flannel Bro” and “Turtleneck Bro”, later make a reference to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to jokingly highlight the horror trope of unimportant minor characters who serve as fodder for the slaughter. Other signatures of horror cropping up here: mindless plot devices and Motherface’s witty lines after she executes her victims. They are all intended as odes to horror movie tropes that were poorly written even by 2am standards, seen through tracking a VHS tape.

The brilliance of these tropes is in what they hide. As much as Brother III’s Party Massacre He pleasantly manipulates his fraternity landscape to remind audiences that siblings are capable of sharing emotional connections, the script’s ultimate goal is reflective – he’s satirizing his own satire. Take Jimmy Galoshes (Jon Brence), who is electrocuted because he can’t help but touch the bare chest of a deceased Tri Beta scratcher, even though his rain boots avoided such a shocking fate two seconds earlier, when Motherface drops a cable in the puddle. under him and the feet of the naked student. Not only does the film approach the slashers of the ’80s from a place of throwback warmth, it attempts to contextualize the toxic male industry that started these free blood factories and dares to demand a different path forward. (The “innocent horndog” character dies instantly, illustrating what the filmmakers think of that trope.)

The beauty of a horror comedy is that the thematic messages are easier to digest when we laugh. In 1985 The return of the living dead, viewers can laugh at America’s bureaucratic and military incompetence, even though it is otherwise deadly serious. Subversions may have more significant changes, such as the way 2011 The cabin in the woods rewrites how audiences view horror tropes by blaming a malevolent agency for every silly prototype-character choice.

Circle back to DBPM3, and Brent’s leveling up as “Final Boy” captures his transformation into an indomitable bodybuilding berserker when the ghosts of his dead brothers enter his body, through his butt. The best visual metaphors hit like sledgehammers, but outside of this kind of humorous context, such nonsense couldn’t last. Reassessing ridiculous tropes by reproducing them perfectly to laugh at them is a way of balancing a takedown with an acknowledgment of adoration, proof that the creators know the territory they walk through.

Brother III’s Party Massacre is a crazy love letter to the horror genre, as evidenced by its parody mode deeply connected with sincerity. Indulgence reigns supreme in Motherface’s kills, as he slams Spike’s (Michael Rousselet) skull instead of a barrel, and serves him a bloody homemade concoction. Indulgence also inspires over-the-top acting, like the way actor Paul Prado overstates his lines as Delta Bi-resident Turbeaux when it’s time to row up hopeful promises.

DBPM3 works through an entire library of slasher tropes, from the plan to “split the group” to Delta Bi’s reliance on dance numbers to unwind in times of conflict. The filmmakers generate characters by distilling Porky and Animal house-was stereotyped down to their skeletal arches. Flannel Bro and Turtleneck Bro break the fourth wall to signal a continuity error. It’s a guarantee that everyone, both on and behind the camera, is heroically committed to both honest satire and outrage. These tropes provide viewers with understandable familiarity and a reliable horror frame, amid much stranger jokes.

That Brother III’s Party Massacre what he does best is poke fun at “outdated” slasher shots from a place of obsession and with an open heart. DNA from your sources of inspiration flows through tubes filled with corn syrup blood substitute and thick fake vomit. The motivations of the movie’s characters are a continually jaw-dropping delight, a reaction to the flaws of the genre that horror fans have grown used to scoffing at.

Brother III’s Party Massacre it’s nothing but a good time, and watching it promotes a healthier relationship between viewers and the horror genre. Laughing at yourself and the things you love requires a certain kind of humility, which the horror genre benefits from as audiences reevaluate trends from eras and movements past. By holding the genre accountable for its flaws through humor and introspection, we can retain an appreciation for even the weakest parts of its story and introduce evolutionary thinking about how filmmakers might pull something like The slumber party massacre in current slasher weather. Horror comedies favor entertainment over scares, but they are crucial to understanding the weaknesses of past horror movies and growing the genre by putting it to the test.

The best horror comedies can exploit the past, keep the present in check, and laugh at the genre’s worst tropes and enduring cliches, while still tickling movie-loving audiences that are under fire, because filmmakers can love those. movies even more. Certainly that is true of Brother III’s Party Massacre, which ends up being the funniest horror comedy of the last decade that most people haven’t seen, and perhaps the most revealing.

Brother III’s Party Massacre is transmitting free on Tubi with ads and is available for rent or purchase at digital platforms like Amazon.