|
The House On Sorority Row
[Liberation Entertainment]
1983; color
Directed by Mark Rosman
Starring: Kate McNeil, Eileen Davidson, Janis Ward, Robin Meloy, Harley Jane Kozak, Jodi Draigie, Ellen Dorsher & Lois Kelso Hunt
|
|
Set, obviously, in a house on a sorority row, The House On Sorority Row just as obviously features a story revolving around a group of female college students. A group of female college students about to partake in one of the most time honored collegiate traditions, Greek or otherwise, the end of semester blow out. Before you get your bed sheet twisted into toga formation or uncoil your beer bong though remember, this is a sorority party not a frat party. Plus it's 1978. Meaning at this soiree the order of the night is not bare hairy chests, potty humor and that band who plays "Shout!" (Otis Day and the Knights I think? I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.) Instead it's all about disco dresses, horrible new wave crap and violent bloody death. Before we get to the violent bloody death however, or even the dowdy disco dresses, we must have the set up; the cause that determines the eventual effect, if you will. In this case a supposedly harmless, possibly humorless, prank played upon the house's well past college age house mistress. (PS: Not to change the subject but one may imagine, if this seemingly childless woman were to be a mother, it's likely her offspring would be around the same age as these college students. Hmmmm... And ahem.) Naturally this would-be prank doesn't go according to plan, leading to said house marm's "accidental" "death", before leading to the girls banding together in a sisterly fashion to save their own asses and, more importantly, the party. Which in retrospect wasn't all that great a party but, you know, when you're in your early 20s even a lame party is better than spending the night at home with your parents. Anywhoo, it's a good thing they did fight for their collective right to throw a party in their sorority house because, as we the viewer already know at this point, many of these young ladies won't live to see another party or even survive the wrath of whoever just so happens to begin using the school marm's cane to slaughter girls off one by one long enough to have drunken sex with some random jock at 3:00 AM. By the way, by this point we the viewer already pretty much know who is on the non-receiving end of the cane as well but you may as well keep watching. Despite it's apparently legitimate "cult status" status I had not really heard of this prior to it's scheduled 25th anniversary DVD release. (Possibly it's DVD rerelease, I'm not sure. Also, technically this edition ended up being released in the year of the film's 26th anniversary but we won't hold that against them. There was a remake made in the past year or two as well but we won't hold against anyone involved with the original film either.) Which is surprising since it's hardly the worst slasher film I've see. Actually, I kind of liked it. Even considering the fact the plot was so transparent the Kommandant and I correctly sussed out the entire storyline before the black-and-white-turned-duotoned prequel scene ended. (By the way, apparently the director filmed this sequence in black and white but the producers didn't dig it and added the color. And that pretty sums up what I learned from the commentary track. I fell asleep shortly after that anecdote.)
—Bunny
|
|
