Todestrauma

The Dorm That Dripped Blood has never been mentioned in many "best horror films of all time" lists and it probably never will be, but if grisly gore is your thing, there are worse ways to spend your 90 minutes. It at least has an admirable mean streak that runs throughout where you feel that no one is safe and that's a good thing to feel in a horror movie. A lot of the college kids look like they might be old enough to have children in college themselves, but that's part of the fun of these cheap horror movies, isn't it?

Must give Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow credit for having the guts to go against established slasher formulas to create something different. There's definitely an attempt to set atmosphere over numerous scenes of gore. There is attempt to develop the characters. The ending is what makes the film memorable. Maybe the motivations for the killings isn't original, but it doesn't have to be. Sometimes in life bad people win. It sucks. It's infuriating, but sometimes that's how it goes. I applaud the writers and directors for going against the grain with this one.

While I'm not a Christmas-Film Lover, usually I watch the occasional Christmas movie or five by now. Can't believe thee ONLY one I've seen was a new-to-me: THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD. If you think Die Hard borderlines as a "Christmas" movie, this one is about 9 yards removed...but still technically, Christmas time.

Standard slasher with a ton of padding, one of my Melrose Place gals' first appearance (Daphne Zuniga) and while nothing great it did have some creative kills and one HELLUVA ending. In fact, no spoilers, the finale's shocking decision was so perfect, it elevated the whole movie and earned a recommendation. Available on YouTube for free - though I think that's the edited down version. I saw one driller-killer scene more graphic somewhere else.

***

Final thoughts: Unbelievable this was called "Pranks" at one time. In only one scene were "pranks" even brought up and it had zero to do with the plot, motivation or the rest of the movie. Thank God they changed the title.

Routine slasher about college kids working on boarding up a college dorm that is about to be demolished and being killed by an unknown, hiding in the shadows killer. Made on a budget of only $90,000 and featuring an unknown Daphne Zuniga at the time this is a lot better then I expected. Sure it is inept at times, but this film manages to be exciting, creepy and scary throughout. That's more then you can say about a lot of the other films in this genre.

Rated R; Extreme Violence & Profanity.

College girl Joanne Murray takes on the unenviable job of readying the student housing building to become apartments,which includes selling the unneeded furniture This takes place during a break,so a mysterious psycho is stalking the nearly-empty premises on campus."Dorm that Dripped Blood" is a low-budget slasher flick that is quite entertaining.The acting is pretty bad,the plot is predictable,but the gore effects are quite good.The film was made by UCLA film students Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow for next to nothing.Soon a dreamy ambiance kicks in,very similar to the enveloping forests of Jeff Leiberman's fantastic "Just Before Dawn".7 out of 10.It's great to see Daphne Zuniga of "The Initiation" fame run over few times by a car.