The film follows a high school senior who gathers her friends for a slumber party, unaware that an escaped power drill-wielding killer is loose in the neighborhood.

The Slumber Party Massacre grossed $3.6 million at the box office on a budget of $220,000, and received mixed reviews from critics.

In Venice, Los Angeles, Trish Deveraux, an 18-year-old high school senior, decides to throw a slumber party while her parents are away.

As the party begins that night, the girls smoke marijuana and drink alcohol, while Valerie babysits her younger sister, Courtney, across the street.

Russ falls into a swimming pool and sinks beneath the water, only to emerge moments later and attack them once more, but Valerie finally kills him with the machete.

Author and feminist activist Rita Mae Brown wrote the original screenplay, titled Sleepless Nights, as a parody of the slasher film.

Jones chose the script that would become The Slumber Party Massacre, then going by the title of Don't Open the Door, and decided to film the first three scenes.

Her husband, cinematographer Michael Chapman, acquired equipment and film and hired actors from the University of California, Los Angeles,[5] and they shot the scenes at their house over a weekend for $1,000.

[8] Distributed by New World Pictures, the film premiered in Los Angeles on September 10, 1982,[1] and was given a limited release in New York City on November 12.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote of the film: "The Slumber Party Massacre is just the usual cavalcade of corpses, all of them dispatched by a maniac who wields a power drill.

[9] Time Out gave the film a middling review, noting: "Despite the unlikely script credit for Rita Mae Brown, Jones's debut feature is little more than a Halloween clone, reliant on buckets of blood and sudden surprise rather than suspense.

[10] Variety's published review, however, praised the film: "Besides its obviously catchy title, Slumber Party Massacre is an entertaining terror thriller, with the switch that distaff filmmakers handle the 'young women in jeopardy' format.

"[11] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader also gave the film a positive review, noting its even pacing and direction by Jones.

[13] Dale Schenck of The Morning Call deemed the film a "rousing thriller" that "delivers as many vicarious thrills as one could want from this sort of cinematic mayhem".

[17] The company subsequently re-released the film on a double feature DVD alongside Slumber Party Massacre II in July 2003.