The House on Sorority Row

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.

Living in a new house, a group of sorority sisters ordered out of the building by the house mother decide to partake in a prank only for her to be killed, and while trying to hide the accident find themselves stalked and killed by a strange being forcing them to find a way of stopping it.

This wound up being quite the fun and entertaining slasher. One of the film's strongest points is the slasher-potential of the main setup that gets everything involved in the main storyline. The idea of the house being used to throw a party against the wishes of the arrogant, spiteful house-mother who's preventing their planned fun generates a kind of overall familiarity to the type of traditional slasher fun that comes about in the later half. As the party rages on and they get more and more panicked about the discovery of the body, there's a rather enjoyable atmosphere created here that's paid off nicely by the strong stalking featured throughout mixed with their desire to keep the crime hidden the entire time. That interplay is rather important as the film goes on with so many near-misses and interactions with others as they're trying to keep their activities hidden that the killer bumping them off intrudes on things rather nicely in order to punch up the suspense of their encounters. From the initial encounter in the backyard that results in the scene with the killer appearing behind the boyfriend to the ambush outside the mechanics of the pool room and the scene in the bathroom where they see the killer arrive in the house before and begins chasing them leading into the quest to get to safety in the stalls which gives this one some great moments. The finale as well, with the chase around the house featuring the killer and the doctor both trying to capture the last survivor for their own plans as she has to get away while being drugged the entire time offers up some solid and highly chilling elements as this one builds to a nicely creepy and fun finish as they try to get the upper hand for their own methods. The entire film is based on the idea of mostly stumbling upon the killer accidentally which leads to some nice suspense as the tactic proves the killer really could be anywhere at any time. Coupled with a stellar-looking clown disguise and some brutal, lively kills that are somewhat restricted by the rating, these here are what hold it up over it's few minor flaws. Among the main problems with the film is that the central prank they're trying to set up is moronic and makes no sense at all. Firing a blank-loaded gun at the woman as she attempts to retrieve a walking cane from a floatation device in the pool against her knowledge is simply stupid as that doesn't strike any kind of accord to what she put them through which is the entire purpose of the stunt. Here, this entire prank just seems foolish and destined to turn out the way it does so the entire purpose of this just feels underdeveloped and rather lame. Likewise, the fact that the majority of the stalking scenes emerge as just simply having the killer stumble upon them in the way he does offers a lot to like but it also means the film doesn't have the same type of suspense present by never making us be aware of the killer's presence. This turns some of the scenes into somewhat bland sequences as the idea of the killer being around has a very prominent feel yet somewhat fails to utilize that properly with the way this plays out their encounters as merely shock encounters. As well as the censored gore in the kills, there's not much else really wrong here.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and violence-against-animals.

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.

Do pranks every go right in slasher movies? They always seem to leave someone injured, traumatized enough to turn into a murderer, or stone cold dead. In that grand tradition, The House on Sorority Row presents this well worn chestnut, but it's served up with a reasonable amount of style and even class.

The graduating class of a college sorority has had it up to here with their bossy and moody housemother, Mrs. Slater, after she says that they will not be throwing a graduation party at the sorority house. To get back at her, they devise a prank to scare her into letting them go ahead with the party, but it backfires when the blanks they loaded the gun with turn out to be real and, now, they have a dead housemother in their muddy, unused swimming pool. They go ahead with the party and keep trying to keep people away from the pool as someone starts killing them off one by one.

The House on Sorority Row feels more polished both in terms of script and production values than just about any other slasher film of its time. There's some gore, but it's a mostly restrained affair with only a few notable blood-soaked set pieces. Each of the sorority girls has their own personality, which makes it easy to tell them apart and most of the performances are better than what you'd usually find in a film of this type. Eileen Davidson really shines as the queen bee and Richard Band's lush, orchestral score sets a nice mood.