The House on Sorority Row

I will always have a special place in my heart for The House on Sorority Row. Back in 1982, my father was vice president of a small company in Washington, D.C. called VAE (Visual Aids Electronics). They had contracts with all the major hotels in D.C. to provide their audio visual equipment for all the meetings and conferences that were held there (microphones, TV's, overhead projectors). The company was doing so well, that the president of it (John Ponchok) wanted to branch out and try different things. They started a record company (which failed miserably), and then wanted to try their hand at producing movies. Their first (and only) project: The House on Sorority Row. Filming took place during the summer of 1982 in Baltimore, MD. One day during the summer, my father drove me, my sister, and my mom out to Baltimore for the day to watch them film the movie. I was 7 at the time. We watched them film the scene where they had just shot Ms. Slater, and they were trying to revive her by the side of the pool. I had a blast. I remember meeting some of the girls, and the lady that played Ms. Slater. Later in the afternoon, my family and I were taken up to the attic where the final scene takes place (I'm not sure if it was Mark Rosman or not that took us up there). While my parents were talking with whoever took us up there, I was cruising around the attic on a toy pedal tractor that was up there. In the movie, that same tractor that I rode on is used by the character Peter. One more thing. When they are trying to revive Ms. Slater by the side of the pool, one of the girls screams "Oh my God, the band's here!" A shot is then shown of a station wagon and a white truck coming up the driveway. That white truck was actually one of VAE's old company trucks that they lent them for the scene. After they were done using it in the film, my father bought it from VAE to use as a moving truck for my family's move to Northern Virginia that summer. After we were done with the move, we parked the truck in the woods below our house where it rotted away for the next 15 years, before it was finally towed away to the junkyard.

The House on Sorority Row is formulaic, but I'm sure it only feels that way because so many slashers have taken its template and mined it for their own use. We follow the good girl, the girl who is sure to be our final girl, and we're introduced to the other characters who all reveal flaws that will surely lead to their deaths at the hands of our killer.

In this movie, the first act introduces a motive for our killer, and we spend the rest of the movie trying to guess who it might be, while also wondering when and where our next victim will be offed. Some kills are better than others, but that can be said for all slashers.

Unlike the best the genre has to offer, the movie never makes you truly care for any of the victims, they all played a part in a crime early in the movie, and that hinders the movie's ability to get you invested in their fates, but it's still a fun time. I enjoyed the scenes at the party, particularly one scene where the camera in one smooth shot follows each of our sorority sisters as they try to act naturally as they keep a terrible secret.

For any slasher fan this is a can't miss. For anyone looking for something more, you can probably do better elsewhere.

You have to respect The House on Sorority Row. It's trying that whole "when you go low, we go high" thing, but it'd be so much more fun if it just let its hair down and kicked someone into the mud every now and then. It's way better shot and acted than just about any other slasher movie from this time and it's not like it's super chaste and gore-free, but you just get the feeling that it's a little too scared to really dip into the sleaze pond.

Great little slasher flick! The soundtrack stands out. Very memorable. The characters and actresses are much better than many other 80s horror movies. Good amount of suspense.

The main drawback is the ending. It's abrupt and less satisfying than everything that came before. It feels like they just ran out of money and threw together something quickly. I wanted something more from the ending.

Better than average slasher flick about a group of sorority babes who accidentally kill someone during a prank and try to cover it up. Later they're murdered one by one by until the inevitable 'final girl vs the killer' showdown all these things seem to have. It's a good movie of its type with some humor and gore (although probably not enough to appeal to gore hounds). Starts out with some Miss Marple-type music that, back in the day, had me double-checking the VHS label to make sure I had the right movie. The cast is pretty good, with early roles for Eileen Davidson and Harley Jane Kozak, and a nice leading role for Kate McNeil. My favorite scenes are Eileen Davidson showing off her breasts and the Sea Pig scene. Given her age you would assume Lois Kelso Hunt (playing the sorority's house mother) was a seasoned pro, but her acting is so bad that she's outshined by everyone in the cast. Even the Sea Pig. There's also a corny band that screams 1980s. It's a fun movie, if you like '80s slashers (which, I assume you do or else why would you be watching this). Might lose a little punch if you've seen a lot of similar movies that came after. Oh, and avoid the 2009 sort-of remake at all costs. It's garbage.