Fraternities like to party. At least, that’s what the movies have told us. In the new comedy Neighbors, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne find themselves (and their newborn) living next to hard partying lotharios Zac Efron, Dave Franco and Christopher Mintz-Plasse and frequently tempted – and annoyed by – their efforts to throw the wildest party in history. They come up with some pretty cool ideas, but the “wildest party ever” is a trope that’s been exploited by one movie after another for decades, and Neighbors isn’t even fashionably late to the shindig.
We here at CraveOnline put our heads together to recall our lost memories of utterly mad – or at least epically awesome – parties that put the frat boys in Neighbors to shame, and came up with this, our list of The 15 Wildest Movie Parties of All TIme. Many of them are funny, some of them are cool, and some of them scare the living crap out of us. But good, bad or ugly, these are the movie parties that raised the bar.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 15 Wildest Movie Parties
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15. Real Genius (1985)
The only thing better than an indoor interschool pool party with horny science nerds making time with foxy beauticians is an indoor interschool pool party with horny science nerds making time with foxy beauticians WITH LASERS. Unfortunately, like a lot of the best parties, this highlight from Real Genius gets called off before it really gets good by William Atherton.
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14. Animal House (1978)
The first raucous college comedy, and still one of the best, Animal House popularized the toga party with copious amounts of booze, poor judgment and the hilarious antics of John Belushi. It seems a little tame by today's standards, but it was extreme enough to raise Dean Wormer's hackles back in 1978.
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13. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Tom Cruise sneaks into the masked orgy of the rich and powerful in Stanley Kubrick's often misunderstood exploration of sexual shame Eyes Wide Shut. The sex is dispassionate, but the party really gets out of hand when Cruise is discovered and mysterious lords of the manor have to decide the proper punishment.
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12. Weird Science (1985)
Two teenagers create a godlike sex siren played by Kelly LeBrock (oh, Kelly LeBrock...) and use her to boost their popularity in a party that's soon invaded by Road Warriors. How do two nerds with no confidence solve this dilemma? They break out the guns, of course!
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11. PCU (1994)
The cult classic PCU (the "PC" stands for "politically correct") stars Jeremy Piven as the patriarch of a quasi-fraternity that's about to be thrown out of the goody-two-shoes academy for not giving a crap about social propriety and pelting the university's vegan protestors with meat. The only way to raise enough money to pay their rent - and accidentally unite the school's disparate tribes together for the very first time - is to throw a raging kegger headlined by George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, who just happened to stop by to use the bathroom.
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10. Old School (2003)
When a trio of disenfranchised thirtysomethings decide to start their own fraternity, they're obviously just looking for an excuse to party. And party they do, culminating in an epic meltdown from recovering alcoholic Frank "The Tank" (Will Ferrell), who teaches those youngsters a thing or two about conspicuous consumption before going on a solo streak through town.
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9. Risky Business (1983)
Lots of teenagers throw a party when their parents are out of town. Few use the party as the front for their own personal brothel. But that's just what Tom Cruise does with his pseudo-girlfriend Rebecca De Mornay, much to the shock of the Princeton admissions counselor. "Looks like the University of Illinois!"
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8. Iron Man 2 (2010)
It should come as no surprise that alcoholic billionaire Tony Stark throws the best parties. It should also come as no surprise that Iron Man just might show up to the festivities as well. But it probably came as quite a shock when War Machine shows up for an impromptu intervention and superhero brawl in the middle of the dance floor. Pretty cool though.
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7. Get Him to the Greek (2010)
Jonah Hill has only one job: get rock star Russell Brand to his venue on time. But come on... it's Russell Brand, of course he's going to drag Hill into a party where our young hero is raped (holy crap), filled with drugs, injected with adrenalin and then has to flee the hootenanny (which is now on fire) through endless Kubrickian hallways.
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6. Cherry Falls (2000)
A serial killer has been stalking the teenagers of Cherry Falls, and this one ONLY kills the virgins. There's only one way these horny youngsters can survive: to throw an enormous orgy. Funny thing is, a house full of naked adolescents with no way to defend themselves is pretty tempting target no matter what the killer's M.O. is...
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5. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Ain't no party like a post-apocalypse party 'cause a post-apocalypse part has weird undertones. In the underground city of Zion, the last surviving humans like to celebrate in raves that were already passé by The Matrix Reloaded's release in 2003, and we're pretty sure it ended in an orgy. If you were about to killed by squid robots, this is how you would probably like to go out too.
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4. Project X (2012)
An unexpected experiment in taking the found footage genre out of the horror realm, Project X found a gaggle of unpopular teens trying to score social points by throwing the craziest party imaginable. Their imaginations get a little out of hand: cars wind up in the swimming pool, drug dealers show up with flamethrowers and the damned gnome's filled with ecstasy.
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3. The Hangover (2009)
The comedy hit The Hangover centers around a pretty simple gag: a bachelor party that must have been fun as hell, but one that none of the participants can remember. Putting together the puzzle is a blast though, with Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms uncovering mysteries involving lost babies, stolen tigers, Mike Tyson and shotgun marriages, culminating in an unexpected montage of exactly what went down after all. The sequels were even crazier, but by then the joke was already stale.
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2. Bachelor Party (1984)
Early, funny Tom Hanks starred in this crazy-ass comedy about - what else? - a bachelor party that spins wildly out of control, complete with donkey shows, a coked out donkey, naked assholes falling out the window, suicide attempts and a climactic chase throughout a multiplex.
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1. Society (1989)
You may not want to know what's going on in this picture. Suffice it to say, the high society parties you can't get into are WAY less stuffy than you'd imagine in Brian Yuzna's horror thriller Society. By the time the hero discovers the truth about the richest people in America, it's too late. The Shunting has already begun. Parties don't get any wilder than this. We hope.
