Matty checks out a welcome upgrade of a historically important B-movie bonanza.  

Depending on your taste, SCREAM QUEEN HOT TUB PARTY is either a travesty or a bravura masterwork. As a ‘proper’ picture it’s kitsch at best and painful at worst: anyone wanting such prosaic things as a plot or stylish photography should give it a wide berth. But if it’s a tongue-in-cheek and succulently meta plunge into tits n’ terror you’re after, this charmingly cheap celebration of five B-movie vixens hits the sweet spot. 

The first of a near uncountable amount of team-ups between Fred Olen Ray and Jim Wynorski — billed under their Sergio Leone-indebted pseudonyms, ‘Bill Carson’ and ‘Arch Stanton’, respectively — Scream Queen Hot Tub Party was shot in a single day at Ray’s house and in Ray’s own hot tub (which appears rather cramped when populated by said quintet). Anchored by a gloriously disposable premise, the film finds shapely Ray staples Michelle Bauer and Brinke Stevens; power-packed Wynorski regulars Monique Gabrielle and Kelli Maroney; and Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) starlet Roxanne Kernohan — who, alas, was killed in a car crash at the tragically young age of thirty-two in 1993 — gathering for a seminar on horror flicks before cavorting around in various states of undress, all while introducing extended, run time-padding clips from their most famous offerings; y’know, scream queen favourites like Slumber Party Massacre (1982), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988) (incorrectly credited as ‘Hollywood Chainsaw Massacre’), Hard to Die (1990) (or ‘Tower of Terror’ as it’s called here), and a then-upcoming Evil Toons (1992).

Yes, it’s a glorified home video. Yes, archival footage aside, Linnea Quigley is conspicuous in her absence. And yes, today, in an age where gonzo porn is only a swipe of a thumb away, the film’s USP — bare boobs and bare bottoms — seems more quaint than arousing. However, as a snapshot of a moment in pop culture history that’s rapidly fading from view, fashioned by two of the period’s biggest proponents, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party is a fascinating artefact.  

A legendary title among Ray and Wynorski buffs, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party was assembled as an exercise in self-distribution. Though licensed to Colourbox in the U.K. — the VHS label responsible for unleashing the aforementioned Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers and fellow scream queen auteur David DeCoteau’s era-defining classic, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988), on British soil — Ray and Wynorski issued Scream Queen Hot Tub Party themselves stateside, making its cassette available for mail order in the pages of Psychotronic Video, Femme Fatales, and — where else? — Scream Queens Illustrated [1]. Despite shifting thousands of units and a nicely profitable venture, the film had effectively disappeared by 1997 but reentered cult consciousness when Ray’s boutique outfit, Retromedia, released it on DVD in 2004.

Using the DVD as their basis, Retromedia’s new Blu-ray is, essentially, a straight port. The hardline will balk at the blooper reel not being carried over, but the rest of Scream Queen Hot Tub Party’s extras spread is identical. Gary Graver’s amusing, Bauer-fronted romp, the thirty-five minute long One Millions Heels B.C. (1993), is again included as a recommendable secondary feature, and Ray and Wynorski’s old commentary track is dusted off. A jocular and illuminating listen, the co-helmers are their usual great company and fill their matey natter with a plethora of trivia (how Ray went on to use his house as a location in Cyberzone (1995) and Invisible Mom (1996), and how Wynorski tackled the bulk of the scripting, for example).   

Tech specs are solid considering the film’s DIY production. Lensed on Hi8 video tape, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party’s upscale quality transfer is as permissible as you’d expect and audio is delivered with a perfunctory 2.0 stereo mix.

[1] An interesting parallel: British genre mag The Dark Side also briefly doled out copies of Colourbox’s tape as a subscriber gift.