Party Girl

Directed By: Jayson Densman
Written By: Dustin LaValley
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Tagline: It’s her party….. she’ll kill if she wants to.

Buy it at Raw Dog Screaming Press

Back in 2008 Raw Dog Screaming Press published a collection of short stories called “Lowlife Underdogs” by writer/martial artist/all around badass Dustin LaValley. One of the stories in that collection is “Party Girl.” The story is a creatively written, stark, disturbing work of art that reads like a hybrid between an actual police report and lyrics by Cannibal Corpse. It’s creatively gritty, grim and ripe with all sorts of potential to be adapted to a short film. Apparently director Jayson Densman saw the same potential, and thus gave birth to his own mangled version of “Party Girl.”

Quite simply, the film just does not do the story justice. I wanted to like this. I really did. In fact I got all giddy with excitement when Mr. LaValley sent me the copy for review, as I’ve read his work before and I dig his style. So it’s hard for me to be negative. But honestly, after watching “Party Girl” five times now I just can’t help but be disappointed and…irritated.

This film is riddled with all sorts of problems. First, there is the excessive use of fake slow motion, which is absolutely one of my biggest pet peeves in film-making. Frame-rate dropping is absolutely everywhere. The running time of “Party Girl” is about 16 minutes but it feels like 2 hours. Then, there is the soundtrack that bounces around from nu-metal to ambient to classical without any rhyme or reason. The gore effects are cheesy and badly hidden behind blurry post effects and more…slow motion. Where the film should be disturbing it is laughable. Where it should be intense with action it crawls at a snails pace.

But worst of all is how the story was adapted. If it were not for the direct-from-story narration there would not be any indication whatsoever that this is based on LaValley’s story. The DVD cover reads “Dustin LaValley’s Party Girl” but that’s just false advertising. It should read “Jayson Densman’s First Slasher Movie.” What we have here is a case of a filmmaker taking a story and running loose with reckless abandon.

In the end, I’d recommend everyone go give “Party Girl” a read over at The Dream People and skip the film entirely. And believe me, it pains me to say that. I hope Jayson Densman and crew take this review constructively. And I pray to the horror Gods that we will some day see a worthy screen adaptation of some of LaValley’s work.

UMM…
MAYBE…
I DUNNO…

One Response to “Party Girl”

1. Jaysondensman says:

   May 30, 2010 at 5:09 am

   Thanks for the review!