UNA FIESTA INOLVIDABLE

directed by: Tito Rodríguez
starring: Laura Gisselle Reynoso, Luis del Valle, Christian Alvarez, Ivan Aybar, Elizabeth Chahin, Margaux Da Silva, Virginia Del Sol, Richard Douglas, Luis Felipe Fernandez, Yasser Michelén, Vic Morey, Anyelina Sánchez

“Do we want to hook up with or scare the girls?”

- teenage dilemmas


	Sadly, UNA FIESTA INVOLVIDABLE is a party that's only too forgettable.

UNA FIESTA INVOLVIDABLE (which translates as AN UNFORGETTABLE PARTY) wins points for being the sole slasher movie from the Dominican Republic, but sadly little else. A group of college students arrange a horror-themed party in a remote beach-side house, where - 20 years previously - a woman had committed suicide. Then a killer in a scarecrow mask turns up and starts to pick off the guests one-by-one. A solid slasher setup. The only problem is that this moves like molasses and even a perverse twist does little to alleviate the tedium once it has set in.

Roberto (Vic Morey) is persuaded by his two friends - José (Yasser Michelén) and Carlos (Ivan Aybar) to hold the party at his parent's abandoned holiday home. A woman called Yoana (Ivan Aybar) had killed herself in front of his father Mario (Luis del Vall) and mother (Elizabeth Chahin) two decades before - the reasons for which have been hushed up by the local police chief (Richard Douglas). At first reticent and fearful of his father’s reaction should he find out, Roberto gets behind the idea of the party and the three friends go all out to decorate and theme his old home as ‘The House of Death’ - and promote it to partygoers as attending a ‘crime scene’. They also invite their whole college class to attend - and Roberto is amazed that hot girl Susanna (Anyelina Sánchez) invites herself and her two girlfriends.

All seems set for a fun night, but the festivities are interrupted by the arrival of a masked slasher intent on settling old scores and punishing the sins of the fathers.


	A killer in a scarecrow mask turns up in UNA FIESTA INVOLVIDABLE.

UNA FIESTA INVOLVIDABLE has all the elements for a fun popcorn slasher. A killer in a scarecrow mask offing horny college students in horror garb in a spooky old house. The costume party is certainly reminiscent of early 80s college slashers. It’s shot well and has good production values. The acting on the whole is pretty good. But this party is dead on arrival. Part of the trouble is that, whilst there is some blood, the horror scenes are largely perfunctory. There is no build-up. No suspense. No chase scenes. Nada.

However, it has at least one WTF moment when a character quotes lyrics of a The Smiths song - only for another to say: “Are you quoting The Cure? They are my favourite band!” I don’t know if this misattribution was intentional, but it briefly shook me out of my slumber.

The film wins some props for heading in a slightly different direction in the closing third into more of a revenge thriller when we discover the real reasons for the killer’s retribution. The twists are relatively easy to guess but are pleasingly icky and leftfield. The trouble is, by this point, the film has worn out the goodwill of the viewer due to its pacing flatlining ages ago.

UNA FIESTA INVOLVIDABLE was shot on HiDef Video and released to cinema screens in The Dominican Republic after Christmas 2019. The promotional materials sold it as a popcorn teen slasher, which it only partly is.

1) Female slits her own throat
    2) Male stabbed in the neck
    3) Male stabbed in the neck
    4) Female stabbed to death (off screen)
    5) Female stabbed to death (off screen)
    6) Male found dead (method unseen)
    7) Male has throat slit
    8) Male burnt to death
    9) Male burnt to death
   10) Male stabbed to death
   11) Male stabbed to death