SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE (1986)
Tagline: A slash course in absolute terror!
(Horror, Slasher, Craig Believes This S--t) [R]
Hey take it easy, there’s no guy here. If there were, Tracy would have found him.
In this one, Beth is in a sorority where she is trying to fit in with the rest of the girls. Unfortunately, she is having visions of a brutal killing but doesn’t remember her connection to the victims or where it took place due to a memory block. It soon becomes clear that she has an almost psychic connection with a patient in a mental institution that is hell-bent on escaping to kill her and whoever gets in his way.
If this plot sounds almost exactly like what happens in HALLOWEEN II, then that means I am not crazy. Because a ton of people think that. I mean why not? HALLOWEEN at the time was a massively successful franchise with 3 films under its belt even though HALLOWEEN III was much maligned. It was maligned because it really wasn’t connected to the other films in the series, not necessarily because it sucked as a standalone film. What was I talking about again? Oh, yeah. SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE.
I have seen a lot of pretty brutal reviews of this film, but it’s better than probably well over 100 slashers that came out during the same era. I am not kidding when I say that, but it’s not as great as it might sound. According to a quick search on the internet, I was able to find a list that had at least 308 slasher films from the 80’s listed. So if this was better than 100 of them, it puts it in the bottom 2/3rd’s still. Having said that, I haven’t watched that entire list and I don’t know if I ever will. Some films I start and they kick off so badly I just give up and turn them off.
There are a few things to like about this movie, but one of them is the fact that we finally get a film involving a sorority where the inner circle of friends is actually non-competitive and gets along. Linda, Tracy, Beth, and Sara are actually likable characters. One of the other things liked was that once Beth starts to recall things that are going on, she actually tells people about it and they don’t freak on her. There is also a scene where there is a Dee Snyder poster. Yeah, the dude from Twister Sister. What is not to like about that?
Acting wise we get Angela O'Neill who plays Beth. She was pretty solid in this but did get outacted by every other girl in her sorority. Wendy Martel plays Linda and actually seems to get quite a bit more dialog than the rest of the cast. Linda is a psychology major and a dream expert, so she is always the smartest person in the room. Martel only ended up in 3 productions. Pamela Ross (MOONSTALKER) plays Sara and also does a solid job. Here role in MOONSTALKER though, was so forgettable that I didn’t even mention it in my review. Nicole Rio plays the skeptical but mostly kind Tracy in this and is pretty solid. She is a producer now, but also showed up in THE ZERO BOYS. The male cast is all pretty forgettable and isn’t given much screen time.
The pacing in this thing is pretty great. One thing that helped was that they didn’t waste a lot of time with lame scenes. This flick is only 74 minutes long. I thought the score was really solid but not iconic. There really isn’t a soundtrack to speak of. I am not sure it would have worked with this movie unless they were going to do it when there is a bit of a light-hearted scene between the 4 main girls trying on clothes. The rest of this thing is definitely trying to deliver a creepy horror feel.
One tidbit about the movie's poster is that it features Suzee Slater who isn’t in this movie. She did appear in CHOPPING MALL the same year.
Overall I don’t have the same complaints about this film as others do. I think that when you are putting a movie out in the slasher genre, some of the ideas in the films are going to have some overlap no matter what you do. Most have about 10 ingredients just thrown in a blender and you try to be as creative with it as you can.
This thing isn’t without its flaws (like if you are going to show a close-up of the knife, at least give us a real-looking one), but it’s far from bad. SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE gets a 5 out of 7.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF CONCORDE PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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