MY CALL: Some blood, weak death scenes, no actual gore, and nothing scary. Still, solid characters and story (even if highly and obviously derivative) made this an experience I did not regret. I’m not recommending it. But I’m impressed with what was accomplished with little FX budget and a genuine care for at least passable writing in a genre starved for anything more than throwaway characters and often topless victims. MORE MOVIES LIKE Sorority House Massacre: For more sorority horror, try Black Christmas (1974), The House on Sorority Row (1982), The Initiation (1984), Sorority House Massacre II (1990), Black Christmas (2006) and Happy Death Day (2017). However, I’d skip the remakes of Sorority Row (2009) and Black Christmas (2006).
Giving her account from a hospital bed, Beth (Angela O’Neill; Grandmother’s House, Alien Nation) explains her recent stay at a sorority house that ended in mass murder. Her arrival was admonished by a trio of NOES-ish young girls during a surreal, mildly bloody nightmare. Then, by day, she has waking visions of a man with a knife interdimensionally stabbing at her. It seems that director Carol Frank is sampling some Freddy Kruegerisms. Meanwhile, in a nearby mental hospital, a male patient becomes rambunctious. He lives in a perpetual half-sleep state and has visions of Beth! Oh, boy. Yet another 80s slasher with a psychic link.
Our mental patient escapes from the hospital, steals a knife and a car, and heads to the sorority house which was once his house where he killed his entire family except for his little sister (spoiler alert, it’s Beth!)… in a manner that in no way smacks really hard of Michael Myers’ return to Haddonfield. And returning to the NOES connection, Beth awakens with a bloody knife wound that occurred during one of her visions. Yeah, Frank’s influences are pretty obvious.
The nudity is present, but not so salacious. I mean, it’s abundant but it never feels so dirty as typical horror nudity. Plus, as an equal opportunist movie, we see a guy scrambling and running from the killer totally buck naked as well. It’s refreshingly amusing seeing a naked dude sprint in sneakers and nothing else.
Our silent killer picks off the sorority girls and their boyfriends one by one in generally boring fashion. None of the death scenes are worthy of mention. I was annoyed by their simplicity and clearly budget-challenged execution.
This was director Carol Frank’s (The Slumber Party Massacre) second 80s slasher pitting a male slasher against a bunch of cute coeds. But despite the generally goreless, very weak death scenes, this movie was somewhat entertaining. The characters were likable and far above the typical slasher fodder, and the story—though blatantly highly derivative—actually worked. Not going out of my way to recommend this. But it’s not bad.