Murder Party

Rating

Director

Jeremy Saulnier

Screenplay

Jeremy Saulnier

Length

1h 19m

Starring

Chris Sharp, Sandy Barnett, Macon Blair, Paul Goldblatt, William Lacey, Stacy Rock, Skei Saulnier, Bill Tangradi, Puff Snooty, Beryl Guceri, Beau Sia

MPAA Rating

Not Rated

Review

A municipal employee leading a miserable life stumbles upon an invitation that leads him on a journey through the dark underworld of artistic expression in the haphazard and perversely meandering Murder Party.

Christopher S. Hawley (Chris Sharp) is so docile that he can’t even convince his furry cat to vacate his chair as he arrives home at the end of the day. Having picked up a mysterious invitation blowing through the suburban streets, Christopher decides to accept the questionable invitation to a murder party where a group of artists are fighting to secure grant money from an egocentric art aficionado. With few wits to his credit, Christopher manages to periodically luck into escape as the artists turn on each other or pursue him across rooftops in hopes of hacking him to pieces in the name of art.

The various actors in the film also took on roles with the production, making this low-budget picture run lean but diminish itself through divided attentions. The performances are underwhelming with Sharp playing on familiar tropes to convey his bumbling buffoon act into narrative success. Director Jeremy Saulnier’s screenplay is a minor league indictment of the superficiality of big city art communities. Ultimately, it comes off as crass, calculated, and corny in equal measure. While some of the practical effects are compelling, and a three or four scenes play quite well, the mercifully short 79-minute film drags more often than the viewer will expect and fails too often at being inventive.

There are a handful of homages to prominent ’80s horror films, from which the film draws measurable inspiration, but the end result is something disappointingly lifeless. Cameras stumble from scene to scene, creating a sense of inevitability but never finding genuine moments to enthrall the viewer. If they root for Christopher’s success, it’s only because they feel obligated to rather than getting any story-based reason for doing so. It’s the kind of film that a student filmmaker might make with cohorts who are as inexperienced as they.

Saulnier’s future success with films like Blue Ruin and Green Room aren’t evidenced in this tedious production. Murder Party wasn’t his debut, but it certainly wasn’t a feather in his career cap either. There’s a compelling concept buried within a bunch of attempts to create unique and clever death scenes. It works in places but ultimately requires the audience to infuse more good will into it than it deserves.

Review Written

October 12, 2026