The Dorm That Dripped Blood

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.

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?

This is probably one of the least known of the early 80's hay day hack n slash family - consisting of a slue of cousins which themselves have gathered dust, triumphantly sitting with legs crossed> on videostore shelves through half a generation. - that is, until DVD finally unearthed some lesser knowns for a second chance.

(I have the old Media VHS version, btw) (The UK DVD release is known as 'PRANKS)

A killer lurks on a college campus - through the closterphobic corridors of Meadows Hall, killing working coeds in some very creative ways. A baseball bat with barbed-wire around it. A girl is ran over.(Not too creative, but has to be seen within its context, consisting of three murders within thirty seconds.) A girl is shoved in a pressure cooker and is cooked to death. A janitor gets a drilling headache. A woman gets incinerated - you name it.

While the film is quiet amateurish, it delivers on most all levels that simply make up a good slasher film. I could take away merit by assigning scoff at the quality of the production - the dark-shoddy look of the film, etc; - but I won't. - A solid slasher film in all respects, with one hell of a twist ending.

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.

College students, who are clearing out a condemned dormitory, are stalked by an elusive killer.

The Dorm That Dripped Blood (aka Pranks) is a bit of a mixed bag for slasher fans. The movies production values are pretty low and the story for the most part is pretty routine, there's even a creepy bum hanging around for a red herring. In fact much of the story's build-up is pretty forgettable, save for one or two brutal murders. But the movie is really made better by its surprisingly intense climax (in an atmospheric setting) and one fairly bold, unconventional conclusion.

The cast is lackluster for the most part. Stephen Sachs is the best of the lot as he does a pretty nice turn in character. Also look for a young Daphne Zuniga as an ill-fated student.

Over all this is a pretty standard B slasher effort, but the finale is well worth savoring and for this viewer saved the movie from being a complete ho-hum.

** out of ****