Planning A Slumber Party (Massacre) - Part 7: The Morning After

Start with Part 1: Invitation

Finally, we come to the conclusion of Slumber Party Massacre. This shot wraps up the story - the killer is in custody, but it's too late for the poor girls. I shot this last of the entire series, in March, and it was actually a last minute idea. After shooting the slumber party itself, and coming to the end of the project, I felt it needed a conclusion. And so this shot was born. I had to fish out the police cap from some boxes of old Halloween costumes way back in the crawl space of the attic. It came with a uniform, but it was a costume for a 6 year old, so there was no way I'd be able to fit into it. So I doubled up my cheerleader spankies, since they were a nice 'police blue' color, and did a bit of a 'sexy cop' thing - which was appropriate, given the nature of my photography.

Here you see an alternate version of the shot. I moved a couple of the bodies around between some of the shots, but the significant difference here is that the killer is still hard. Looking back, you'll notice that the killer is hard in every single shot. After all, he's a sex-crazed maniac. I took that to be one of his trademarks - that he'd be interminably hard even in the most unexpected situations. But then, I thought that it would make much more sense if the killer was finally soft, after not only finishing his job, but having come to an unfortunate end. The drooping softy seems to mirror the killer's bowed head, reflecting his defeat at having been caught in the end.

And here he succumbs to the cop's personal brand of 'justice':

When I started the original Slumber Party, I was excited because it was the most elaborate shot I'd done, requiring hours of preparation time to change hair and wardrobe, and set up the clones - and it was the first time I'd ever done four clones! This final shot of the Slumber Party Massacre ups the ante with five clones, but the whole project itself, spanning seven themed shots (not including alternates and outtakes), and months of planning and execution, is by far the most elaborate photography project I've helmed so far. It's been fun, and lots of work, and I'm excited to finally be able to share the results with the world.

Fun trivia: Here's your last unexpected outtake! I took this shot at the same time as the shots for The Morning After.