And Yet ANOTHER Good Horror Comedy...

I finally got around to seeing MURDER PARTY, having missed its 2007 limited theatrical run in NYC.  After just watching the brilliant TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL, I was weary that this would'nt be half as funny.
While not hysterical, MURDER PARTY has its share of laughs and features a simple but clever premise: a nerdy male meter maid finds an invite for a "Murder Party" while walking home on Halloween.  He whips up a knight costume with a cardboard-box and duct tape and heads to the bash. Nearly seconds after he arrives, he's tied to a chair by a group of psycho artists, who plan to kill him and paint/film it in an attempt to get grant money from hot shot artist Alexander.  Despite the fact everyone's been doing tons of cocaine and weed, Alexander makes everyone shoot up with truth serum, and all hell quickly breaks loose when everyone's true feelings come out...and when they discover Alexander is a fraud.
Star Christopher S. Hawley does a fine job as the nerdy lead in the lame costume, and every artist is quite entertaining, especially Bill, who finds out everyone hates his art and goes totally ballistic in his Baseball Furies costume, hacking everyone in his path up with an ax.  The coked-up Lexi (played by singer Stacey Rock) looks great in her Liquid Sky-meets-The Fifth Element get-up, and Macon (with a werewolf mask that gets melted to his face) is quite funny as he chases the escaping Chris around with an electric chainsaw (!), continually re-plugging it in as he goes (bringing to mind the famous cello-marching band sequence from TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969) ).
The final ax vs. chainsaw duel between Chris and Bill in a still-life art gallery is as gory as it is funny, and the post reaction from a few artsy-fartsy types when they discover the room full of corpses is a riot.
Two things would've made this a bit better: one is the seemingly endless truth-serum sequence, that could have easily been cut in half, and they could have done SO much more when Alexander's dog finds and consumes an entire bag of crank-cocaine.  The shot of the pooch chomping the drugs reminded me of the infamous horse-coke-snort from BACHELOR PARTY...but the end results weren't nearly as funny.
Otherwise, MURDER PARTY is a lot of fun, features some great commentary against New York's snobby art community, and the DVD has some fun extras, including old shot-on-video "films" the director and cast members made when they were teenagers.  Makes a fine Halloween-party viewing.

Actor William Lacey in his first role as psycho artist Bill (gotta LOVE that costume!)

Lexi (Stacey Rock) plays dominoes while snorting more blow than Scarface.

Chris (Christopher S. Hawley) as the chainsaw-wielding cardboard knight

Lexi, Sky (Skei Saulnier), and Paul (Paul Goldblatt) contemplate how they're going to kill Chris at the onset of MURDER PARTY.