Mean Girls, but in a creepier, weirder version, that’s what I thought while watching Surviving the Sleepover by director Patricia Frontain. Instead of Regina, Karen, and Gretchen, we’ve got Melissa, Abbie, and Charlotte. And then there’s Hannah, the new girl in town, just trying to fit in after her dad passed away. We see Melissa has this weird protective thing going on with her stepbrother, Cameron. But is it really just sibling love? When Melissa invited Hannah over for a sleepover, she felt a little skeptical but thought to give it a chance to make new friends. But then, the sleepover got really weird! Strange things started happening, and Hannah wondered why she even came in the first place! Will they survive the night?! Let’s dive in and find out together!
Spoilers Ahead
Who Invited Hannah For A Sleepover?
At the beginning of Surviving The Sleepover, we meet Hannah, who moved to her mother’s hometown following her father’s passing as her mother wanted some comfort in familiar surroundings during her time of grief. But what about Hannah herself? She finds it difficult to live in this town, completely new to her, with all her old group of friends elsewhere, struggling to make new ones. So, you can imagine how strained their relationship is right now! On top of that, they had to live in a motel for the time being as their new house was getting renovated. But the only way she is coping with the pain is through her page on social media named “Healing with Hannah,” where she talks about coping with the feeling of losing someone important and how she’s dealing with it all. She knows she has many followers, but she still feels alone with these feelings. She feels more pathetic because of her father’s death and blames herself for it. Do you know why? Because she snuck out of the room the night her father died in a fire in their own house just to be at a party. She was just being a typical teenager, but this pain really bothered her. Then we meet the mean girls of the school: Melissa, Abbie, and Charlotte. They saw her coming from the motel and started honking at her to intimidate the new girl in town.
Melissa was even more annoyed with her than the others. Why, you ask? Because she saw how her stepbrother, Cameron, has a crush on Hannah, which she does not like. If you think it’s a kind of sibling protectiveness, then that’s not it. She is obsessed with him; she loves him romantically, something even her best friends don’t know. But they secretly think it’s crazy how she made them take an oath so that they wouldn’t come close to Cameron ever! So when Cameron tried to talk to Hannah in school, Melissa threatened him that she would tell everyone that Cameron took advantage of her. But in their group, Abbie seemed a lot more normal, and when she saw both Cameron and Hannah have a crush on each other, she pushed them to talk to each other. Being the best baseball player in town, Cameron already has many followers, but the way Cameron also feels attracted to her has drawn Melissa’s attention. He even wanted her to come with him to see a match the next weekend. But as he was just about to ask her out on a date before that, Melissa, being the jealous overprotective “sister,” came and said something out of the blue—that she would arrange a sleepover at her house, and she wanted the “motel girl” Hannah to come with them to that sleepover. All were surprised—Hannah was skeptical! But she agreed anyway with her new friend Abbie, as she promised that they were going to have a lot of fun. I wouldn’t call it ‘fun,’ what’s going to happen next.
What Happened During The Sleepover?
After her husband’s death, Hannah’s mother understandably became worried about her daughter. So, obviously, she told Hannah to come back home within the night. But because of their strained relationship, Hannah, being a rebellious teenager, did not agree on this. Coming home and missing out on all the fun? Big no-no! So she went with them to Melissa’s big, beautiful house. Now, get ready, because things are going to get wild! The moment Hannah arrived at their house, Melissa started tormenting her—throwing her into the swimming pool for starters, without her expecting, and then calling it a “friendly prank.” After that, she saw Cameron and Hannah talking to each other by the poolside at night and got even more jealous, knowing it was her time to take revenge! So, they started playing “Never Have I Ever.” At first, they were enjoying it, but all of a sudden, Melissa put up a chit which read “never have I ever had a crush on my stepbrother.”
Melissa immediately thought it was Hannah who wrote this because she thought none of her other friends would write something like this! The reason Melissa was overly jealous was that Hannah was beautiful, and even her brother, who is a big deal in town, was attracted to her. But the fact that Hannah had not written such a thing but was being blamed did not sit right with her, and that’s why she wanted to leave. But Melissa was not going to let her go. She started threatening her with a knife in her hand! Abbie realized Melissa was acting crazy and tried to stop her, but as she turned, Charlotte pushed her, and mistakenly, Abbie walked into the knife Melissa was holding and started to bleed! But you wouldn’t believe what happened next! You would think that Melissa would call for help, but instead, she dragged bleeding Abbie and Hannah both into the basement and locked it from the outside! But Charlotte, who always used to treat Melissa like the queen bee and acted like her follower, said that she was the one who wrote that during the game. Melissa feels exposed and angry, and she starts manipulating her, saying that she is the one who actually pushed Abbie onto the knife that she was holding—so she is the one who stabbed her. And when Charlotte tried defending herself, you can’t believe what she did! She started choking her until she became senseless! And then she called Cameron, asking for help.
Hannah’s mother was worried sick when she received a notification on her tablet from Cameron saying he was on his way to save her. His messages made her concerned, thinking they might be in danger. So she drove to Melissa’s house, only to find out they were indeed not safe. But Cameron arrived and thought Melissa was in danger, so he hit Hannah’s mother from behind without knowing it was her. Then Melissa told him to help her move them to Hannah’s new house, which was getting built, so that she could put the blame on Hannah, framing her for the whole incident, threatening to burn the place down with liquid fluid otherwise. Do you know why she is doing all this? Because she thinks Hannah is an attention seeker, trying to steal her friends and her brother from her, whom she loves. She has nobody in her life except them, and she can’t afford to lose them. I mean, you were just about to burn the place down, and then you are thinking about how you can’t lose them! Maybe other viewers can empathize with her, but me—never! But Hannah tried to calm her down, saying that she understands her and this sense of abandonment that she also feels, so no one is going to judge her, but she, along with the others, wants to stay with her as friends. Ultimately, Melissa stopped her madness, and they safely returned home. I don’t know if anyone can be friends with someone like her!
During Surviving the Sleepover‘s ending, we are happy to see how Abbie and Hannah became best friends—a friend who literally took a knife to protect another! That’s a real friendship, if you ask me.
