Actualités

1982 - 84 mins. - Rated R

D: Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow

C: Laurie Lapinski, Stephen Sachs, David Snow, Daphne Zuniga, Pamela Holland 

Group of college students playing pranks on one another while getting an old college dorm ready for a demolition are picked off by an unseen killer.

Ok. Yes there are more technically proficient slashers from the mid to early 80's out there. And yes, there is better acted ones out there too. However, one of the main objectives of a slasher is its ability to craft suspense, tension and unease. With that in mind, The Dorm That Dripped Blood succeeds admirably. The Dorm That Dripped Blood features creepy sequences of the killer lurking in shadows, stalking his victims from afar. The music score is well used throughout the film helping to heighten the suspense and involvement in the film's proceedings. The death sequences, while not overly gory, are brutally effective.

The Dorm That Dripped Blood (aka "Pranks") (1981) D: Jeffrey Obrow, Stephen Carpenter Laurie Lapinski, David Snow, Pamela Holland and Daphne Zuniga. You have to hand it to Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter. What their feature debut Death Dorm lacks in pacing, technical acumen and suspense, it makes up for in sheer ballsiness. How else to describe a film that was renamed to capitalize on the Vincent Price classic The House that Dripped Blood? You may also find the film under its DVD title Pranks. At any rate, it's never a good sign when a film is released under three...