Frenzy Night: Quando o Sonho Vira Pesadelo

Clearly a film shot on a weekend, this girls-in-peril flick clearly has an element of self-parody involved -- every cliche is present, and the pains the filmmakers go to to keep the women from just leaving the damned house is inspired! What makes it a schlock masterpiece is the straight-faced performance of Zoran Hochstetter as the Detective on the case who likes to sit in strip bars and ruminate -- I checked the database -- the guy's a cinematographer (!!!!) -- he should get an Oscar! Well, maybe not, because the true inspiration of this film is the character of Orville Ketchum (great name), the strange next-door neighbor who might be a homicidal maniac or a misunderstood anti-hero -- the actor Pete Spellos has a great straight face and pulls off this insane character. I also rented "Hard to Die," which is a sequel to this and is almost as fun....makes a good double-feature with "Hollywood Boulevard" or "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase" or one of those Claudia Jennings flicks of the 70's...

I liked and enjoyed "Sorority House Massacre II" because it goes directly to the point since minute 0 of running time.

The movie's opening credits are cool enough. The music in the style of "Phantom Of The Opera" and the orange bright letters are indication of something. The movie follows the bright tone of the opening credits until the end.

For about 90 minutes we have hot, and I mean HOT women in skimpy lingerie running around the house and some bar while escaping from a possessed butcher. That's all you have to know.

"Sorority House Massacre" is an entertaining 80's flick but it isn't for everyone who is into the Slasher genre. There is minimal gore, violence, or even suspense. True, the House is creepy enough but mainly because of the decent cinematography and correct use of lightning and thunders. It's also true that this movie fits better in the cheesy category because there isn't room for logic or common sense.

So I would only recommend this movie for a teenager male audience who will be cheering our hot heroines anytime they run or scream.

This is sexy material in the Slasher genre. Nothing more or less.

Jim Wynorski created a decent cheesefest with lots of hot women. The man truly knows the business.

Gail Harris and Melissa Moore are excellent. They are truly beautiful and had some skills to become scream queens. Too bad it didn't happen.

Five sorority sisters move into a big new mansion (Isn't this the same place Fred Olen Ray usually films his movies?) and are menaced by the fat, crater-faced, zombie-like next door neighbor "Orville Ketchum" (i.e. Peter Spellos). After lots of nonsense that exists just to fill time (and a pointless subplot starring two cops) someone in the group starts killing everyone off with a hook. For your money you get two shower scenes, three clothes-changing scenes, a bathtub full of blood, a foot in a bear trap, a OUIJA board, a possession, a knife stuck in a neck, a "spank" room, a man eating a sandwich made of raw meat, flashbacks featuring footage from SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, the slasher scene from Hollywood BOULEVARD seen on a TV set, a trip to a strip club where deceased porn star Savannah dances and much more. It's quite the little B-movie package we got going on here.

Sure, the acting's not Oscar caliber (though the roles ARE played with enthusiasm, especially by Gail Harris *love her accent, by the way*) and it's totally clichéd, but it's actually a pretty fun and extremely entertaining little B slasher if you like these kind of things. Jim Wynorski never aims high with any of his films, but the fact not one moment in this film is played seriously makes it emerge as a sort-of parody. (If you loved this, you'll also love HARD TO DIE, by the way.)

I'm with Joe Bob on this one.

****SPOILERS AHEAD****

What other movie shamelessly borrows lengthy scenes from another totally unrelated movie ("Slumber Party Massacre") and uses them as flashback sequences, but with completely different back story and character names? This technique, by the way, kept this movie from being less than 70 minutes in length.

What other movie could boldly insert a lengthy topless bar scene (featuring the late porn-star deluxe, Savannah) simply to cast suspicion on the neighborhood pervert? Well, wait a minute...I guess a lot of more mainstream movies do that, too.

But you have to admit that this movie confirms what we males have always suspected: When women get together for a sleepover or slumber party, they spend half their time running around the house naked and the other half wearing the lingerie that even Victoria's Secret refuses to sell.

****END OF SPOILERS****

But above all, this movie is watchable. It's not too long, the scenery is interesting, and the blood is evenly spread throughout the movie. What more can you ask for from a B-movie?

(*1/2 out of *****) I gotta admit -- it was tough giving this one a low score simply for the base reason that viewers are treated to an absolute cavalcade of bodacious babes in the skimpiest of lingerie, and every single one of them has her own topless scene to boot. But, I gotta be true to myself and rate this according to how it represents the horror/slasher genre, and, unfortunately, it's represented pretty poorly with this derivative junk. This was released the same year as Wynorski's Hard To Die, and both movies have some of the same actors and use flashbacks from the original Slumber Party Massacre rather than the first SHM (don't ask me why.) The plots are also nearly identical, right down to the ho-hum demon posession that's thrown in for laughs. Orville Ketchum also repeats the same role he played in Hard To Die. I don't know if his character is supposed to provide comic relief or what, but, under Wynorski's terrible direction (as in Hard To Die), he gets real tiresome real fast. Overall, this is a poorly-written, highly exploitative, and frustratingly tedious mess, but -- damn me for being a sexist male -- them girls is hot!

HIGHLIGHT: Not to beat this thing into the ground, but I honestly don't think this flick goes five minutes without a gratuitous T&A shot (or two). I need to get out more. ...