Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama

David DeCoteau has somehow managed to come up with a winner here. An outstanding cast most probably has something to do with it, i.e. Lead singer/songwriter of Washington band The Previous, Andras Jones, The B-Queens, Bauer, Quigley, and Stevens, and a slew of others. This was also one of the best performances by the late Robin Rochelle Stille. Definitely worth checking out!

What do expect? Just glance at the title and this will give you a good indication of what is in store for you while watching this movie. This movie never was meant to be a great horror or comedy movie. There were no intentions of it being serious, Watch this movie with the expectations of poor acting, absurd circumstances, poor characters, bad lines, topless girls, sexual situations and language, violence and a mixture of horror, and comedy. This is what I expected and this is what I got. It's a fun movie with enough going for it that it does keep your attention. Don't expect a very serious film, lighten up, laugh at the bad lines and situations and you could find this to be somewhat enjoyable.

Although I hold Dave DeCouteau, Fred Olen Ray, and Jim Wynorski personally responsible for the decline of the low-budget horror genre into brain-dead comedy and boring, softcore porn, they did create a handful of relatively non-awful movies between them. This is probably DeCouteau's best movie ever (kind of like being the best venereal disease ever, I know). For one thing it doesn't all take place in one house. There are three (!) bonafide locations: a sorority house, a dorm room, and, of course, a bowl-a-rama. It also features three of the most famous 80's "scream queens"--Brinke Stevens, Michelle Bauer, and Linnea Quigley. And though two of the three of them do the obligatory undraping scenes, DecCouteau doesn't use the nudity to simply paper over the total lack of a plot a la his earlier "Nightmare Sisters", for instance, which features the three of them cavorting in a hot tub for what seems like half the movie (even though by the late 80's seeing this ubiquitous trio naked was about as exciting as peeping on your spouse of ten years). And while the movie, like most vintage DeCouteau, is painfully unfunny, it does have a creative and completely off-the-wall plot (which was probably cribbed from "Hell Night", "The Initiation", and/or "The Outing", but nevermind). Catching this late at night on "USA Up All Night" fifteen years or so ago, I even remember being mildly entertained (even if I probably wasn't too sober at the time). OK, it still sucks, but if you are ever forced at gunpoint to watch something from the DeCouteau-Ray-Wynorski collective oeuvre you could do (a lot) worse.

Just like most of the music in the 80s, this is supremely enjoyable on a strictly camp/cheese level. Of course, it's a complete no-brainer low-budget horror spoof, but that just makes it all the more endearing and charming. One day, I really could see someone putting this little gem in a time capsule and sending it into space as a prime example of fighting back against conservativeness and "Reaganism" with pure, no-questions-asked exploitation. It never pretends to be otherwise. It never takes itself seriously. It is the perfect example of a film crafted by people who have their target audience in sight and don't want to let them down. And it was reasonably well made considering it cost less than 100K to produce.

Taffy (Brinke Stevens) and Lisa (Michelle Bauer) are sorority pledges at the mercy of blonde meanie Babs (Robin Stille), a future prison warden, who gleefully subjects them to "institutionalized sadism" such as paddling their fannies and spraying whipped cream all over them (which of course must be showered off). After some nerds are busted spying on the ladies, Babs forces them all break into a shopping mall to steal a bowling trophy as part of their initiation rites. There they encounter both ill-mannered biker babe Spider (Linnea Quigley) AND an evil, wish-granting Imp (with a soul voice!) who traps them all inside and proceeds to turn some of them into murderous zombies. Ah ha! It's great stuff. Really! It's totally infectious fun.

It's very nice to see that it's gotten a DVD and video reissue because now that USA Up All Night is off the air, this kind of good-natured B-movie needs to break through to the next generation of fans. I grew up on this fluff and it truly does enrich your life in a unique way Hollywood never could. NIGHTMARE SISTERS and SORORITY BABES make a perfect double feature and are proof that Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer may just be the greatest trio ever captured on film. They are combined force to be reckoned with that has yet to be equaled. Someone please reunite these ladies again sometime soon!

Score: 7 out of 10.

As I said in my review of Night of the Demons, this is another example of enjoyable 80s indulgence in sex charged portrayals of comely young women. This time we get nice full frontal views of two babes. Sadly, neither of them is the babelicious Linnea Quigley, although the two who do bare it all have nicely enjoyable assets of their own. The way Linnea looks in her skin tight spandex pants and bare midriff tells you it would have been quite a treat to see her bare it all. Ah well. The plot, such at it is, revolves around sorority candidates trying to make the grade by stealing a bowling trophy from the local bowling alley. They're accompanied by horny frat boys who were caught ogling them in the bathroom. Bad things ensue when the trophy turns out to contain a demonic "imp" with supernatural powers and the ability to grant wishes. Linnea plays a tough, hard edged bad girl robbing the place.

The film is fair escapist fun. I found myself attracted to its wonderfully cheesy title, which has to be one of the best ever. An aspect of the film that's annoying is that one of the horny frat boys instantly transforms into an "I'm shy and not ready for it" idiot when he's granted what he wished for: To have one of the girls be a sex maniac eager to have him.