Killer Yacht Party, Troma takes to the High Seas

From our friends at Troma comes today's blog entry, 2006's "Killer Yacht Party" (aka "Dead in the Water"). Though just a few years old, this movie reminds me so much of 1980's "Terror Train." Over the top carnage of beautiful clubbers...but instead of a train, we have a yacht. Widely available, in good quality, on YouTube, this film averages a murder every five minutes.  Though the surprise ending will be easy for the discriminating B Movie fan to figure out, it is great to see that 1980s style slasher movies are still popping up.

The plot: Lacy (Becky Boxer) and Jane (Maggie Marion) are unlikely pals (see photo above).  Lacy lives for nightclubbing and some ungenerous critics may term her a "skank."  Jane just moved to L.A. from Iowa and and has geek written all over her, including her prudish wardrobe.  Thanks to Lacy, they secure an invite to a party on a yacht....the kind of party that one needs to be on a list for admission.  Jane has eyes on handsome Gavin (Taylor Gerard Hart) and Lacy has eyes on everyone except the guys she has already had a one-night stand with.  Other than Jane, every guest is a sexy clubber.  The boat is leased by a heel who supplies the gals with ecstasy, and has a girl named Monica (Kate Luyben).  Uh oh...our yacht has a history.  On it's maiden voyage, the owner killed his wife.  Legend has it that the deceased wife haunts the yacht.  For the first half of the movie we see the guests behaving badly with drugs and promiscuity.  In the latter half, all bloody carnage.

One of the first to go is Monica, as she lay in wait (clad in lingerie..see above photo).  She is bludgeoned to death with a mallet.  The suspects are numerous...a drug dealer with a beef, an unbalanced captain, an admirer of the woman who was killed on the maiden voyage, some jealous ex-one-night stands of Lacy's, etc.  Ah yes, perhaps clean cut Jane?  Maybe.  The killings come fast and furious at this point.  We have mallet, fish hook, electrocution, flare gun, knife, fishing line, and trash compactor carnage galore.  The sexier the outfit of the victim, the gorier the kill.  Though we don't sympathize with any of the victims, we are able to see huge judgment errors.  For example, if you are wearing lingerie, don't wander into a dark hallway to check the fuse box after the lights go out.  Another example, if "Get off my boat" is written in blood over a mangled corpse, this is probably a good time to take the yacht back to port.

Is Jane from Iowa as pure as she appears?  Is a ghost responsible for all the carnage?  Though the setting is a yacht, not a cruise liner, there seems to be an endless supple of really great looking guys and gals...all with the life expectancy of a house fly.  For fans of 1980s slasher films, this is a must see.  With no slasher films due out this summer, catch this one on YouTube.