Sorority House Massacre

Sorority House Massacre isn't too bad at all, but there is nothing original or fresh about it either. The basic plot is the same as Halloween (killer from an asylum escapes in search of his sister) and borrows a little from Nightmare On Elm Street (lots of weird nightmares about the killer). The nightmares don't really add much to the film, so I think it would have been better if they had been left out. The build up to the climax is a little slow, but once the action kicks in there are surprisingly a few tense moments, such as when the killer tries to climb in through the window.

Overall, Sorority House Massacre is just an average slasher flick. Watchable, but not very original. Also not very gory, so gore-hounds should look elsewhere.

Listen, I've suffered through a lot of bad movies in my day, but the exciting thing about them is that, sometimes, they're so awful they almost turn into bizarre comedies full of weird line readings, insane dialogue, completely inhuman responses to big twists, etc. For me, the worst thing a film can do is be boring or mundane without a single inspired moment and, honestly, most bad films are usually far from boring.

This brings me to Sorority House Massacre - a film so dull, passionless, and lacking in anything remotely resembling excitement that I'm surprised I remembered it enough to give this review.

It manages to cram the plots of Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street into one, but it does absolutely nothing of note. Usually, in even the worst of slasher films, there's a character or death scene or two worth remembering, but there's absolutely nothing to latch onto here. It's all just going through the motions.

If you value your time, skip it.

I had resisted renting this for a long time, expecting something very typical and stupid. And in some ways, it was pretty campy (watch for the dress-up session!) but once the horror gets started, it gets pretty good.

Beth, a girl plagued by obscure but genuinely creepy nightmares, moves into her new sorority, just when most of the girls leave for Memorial Weekend. She stays back with three others, who, that night, are joined by four guys for a night of fun. Seems pretty typical, right? Yeah, I suppose. But it does get good.

Through some study on the dreams, and memories, Beth realizes that this is the house she used to live in until her brother killed the family and attempted to kill her. And, surprisingly, it's not one of those "what a coincidence!" things when the crazy brother escapes the local asylum. It seems as if the the brother and sister have some connection in their dreams, and he knows she is at the house. So he breaks free (pretty easily) and goes on a hunt for her, but only after wreaking havoc in town, stealing a car, and breaking into a hunting store to get a knife and kill the owner.

It's nighttime, and it looks like Beth's dreams are becoming reality. They even find a hidden knife under a brick in the fireplace that she thought she imagined. Then the brother gets there, and the fun begins.

It's not stalk 'n slash, though, except for a few. Three guys are killed off, and then, when making out with her boyfriend, a girl is killed in a tent, and her boyfriend buck naked, escapes, gasping, "Some guy just killed Tracy!" Okay, so it is pretty campy, especially because he remains naked for a few minutes before miracuously finding some (girls?) pants in one room. Then the surviving four realize that they are trapped...with the killer...in the house....

Very good from there. The characters are likeable, and the killer is very twisted. It's great when he sees each of his victims as a family member he killed, right down to the end of the climax, which ends so well with Beth saying something like, "Get away from me, you sick son of a b*tch!" when she finally finds a knife while he is pulling her towards him.

Overall, an innovative movie, if you can look past the many stereotypes, and the cheese. The acting isn't terrible, and the characters become likeable, especially the last two girls. Definitely check this out, just for the really great horror towards the end.

one night when i came across this movie in blockbuster i picked it up knowing that i would probably get a bad horror film. but i thought it would be bad in a good way. i should have known not too rent this, horror films were great from 74-84, but anything after that for the most part sucked. there are so many things that made this movie bad, too many too name, but i'll name one. this is the biggest Halloween rip off i ever saw. killer breaks out of a Psycho ward, and goes after this girl and what we find out is that her familly was killed by her brother and now he's coming for her. if that's not a Halloween rip off i don't know what is, if you wanna rip off Halloween that's fine it was a great movie, but atleast do a good job. i almost past out so many times durring the movie, it's so boring i can't think of one thing good to say about this movie at all i give it 1/10, and i give it a one only cause they riped off a classic horror film so atleast the makers of the film have taste

(**1/2 out of *****)

This is the only movie in the slasher-slashes-girls-in-their-nighties series -- which includes the "Slumber Party Massacre" movies and Jim Wynorski's "Hard to Die" (he also directed the sequel to this one) -- that stands on its own. It has nothing to do with the others, and, storywise, it's better. Angela O'Neill plays a traumatized college girl who has sleeping and waking nightmares about a madman who murdered his family, except for one sister (guess who it is), twelve years ago in the house that is now O'Neill's sorority house. When she and three of her sorority sisters are left alone for the weekend, her dreams come true when the same nutcase escapes from the mental hospital and comes back home to finish the job. I'm not gonna lie to you -- this is far from great -- but, it is surprisingly suspenseful in parts, the characters are fairly likable, and, unlike most of these other movies, the script does a believably good job of keeping the girls trapped in the house. There is a silly dress-up montage (including the obligatory topless scenes), the obligatory false-scare climax (including a totally unnecessary final murder that ticked me off), and lots of scenes of knives going into stomachs and backs. Otherwise, the T&A is not as rampant as in the other nightie slashers, but the story is (slightly) more rewarding.

HIGHLIGHT: One sorority chic and her boyfriend are fooling around in a tent in the backyard when the killer ruins all their fun by slashing up the tent and stabbing the girl right between the -- well, not the eyes -- and her boyfriend ditches her and runs, screaming and buck-naked, back into the house.