Dark Intentions

Samantha Willows (Leighton Meester) is a college freshman pledging a prestigious sorority. However something supernatural is killing its members. There was a mysterious girl missing from the previous year's pledges. Meanwhile, Sam's high school boyfriend has come along to college but is jealous of her new life.

This is a low budget weak production horror. The supernatural is revealed right off the bat. The big mystery is revealed before it even asks the questions. The CG is poorly done. The only good thing here is Leighton Meester. She takes this weak material and makes a little something. However, the production is so low that there isn't even enough members in this sorority. It's just weak overall.

THE HAUNTING OF SORORITY ROW/DEADLY PLEDGE (TV Movie 2007)

BASIC PLOT: Samantha Willows (Leighton Meester) is having a blast her freshman year at college. She's pledging the hottest sorority on campus, and has made lots of new friends. Her new roommate, Jane Horten (Kailin See), is a bit odd, but she's still nice to have around. The only problem? Jane never sleeps. She's always awake, and she never seems to eat either. There's something unusual about Jane, but Samantha chalks it up to freshman jitters, and tries to keep up with pledge week.

Samantha is also having problems with her high school boyfriend, Oliver (Adrian Petriw). He's always been a great guy, but lately, he's been a bit smothering. After Oliver makes a scene at a sorority party, Samantha decides to let him down gently. She wants to see other people, and Spencer (Carlo Marks) fits the bill.

After leaving a heartbroken Oliver, Samantha is approached by Collin, the boyfriend of a sorority sister who disappeared last semester. He tells her a strange story about his girlfriend Jenna Thorne (Lara Gilchrist). She disappeared during pledge week last year, a week after they got engaged. He knows she'd never run out on him, or college, and he tells Samantha to be on the lookout for her engagement ring.

Things get weirder and weirder for Sam, she knows the older sorority sisters are hiding something about Jenna Thorne. One by one, they either disappear or die, and the question becomes, does someone know what they did last summer? And is that someone human?

WHAT WORKS: *This movie uses actual music, AND gives credit to it at the end. It makes the all difference, and enhances the storytelling. In the scene where Samantha breaks up with Oliver, the haunting song, "Goodnight, Moonshine," by Dusty Rhodes & The River Band, sets the mood.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *Why does Sam make fun of Spencer (Carlo Marks), when he tells her he likes theater, more than regular frat guy behavior? She's not a bobble head, so why? The whole scene doesn't work, it should give them something in common, but instead, it makes Sam look cruel.

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys light paranormal frights. It's not scary, but it is entertaining. Remember, this is a made-for-tv movie, not a big budget picture.

CLOSING NOTES: *This is a Made-For-TV movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews. Hope I helped you out.

Attending a new sorority, a new pledge discovers her terrifying visions and hallucinations are brought about by the return of a hazing ritual that killed a former initiate who is now haunting and killing them one- by-one.

This one turned out to be quite a decent Lifetime thriller. One of its better attributes is its engrossing mystery, which is far creepier than it has any right to be and is given plenty to work with. This one has some great parts during the beginning focusing on their visions of the coffin and the secretive nature of the previous ceremony, and when brought about with the nature of sorority and it's got a pretty decent time through the first half. This is really aided along by several really freaky moments where the ghost goes into action with it's death scenes, including a pretty harrowing sequence that's rarely seen in this kind of entries on the channel as well as a pretty chilling revelation of the ruse through the back-story and some wicked haunting scenes which give this a nice horror feel. There's still a few flaws here, mainly in the opening introductions to sorority life with the different rituals and traditions as well as the hazing portions coming off as really tame and traditional due to their being featuring in many different films, and when it focuses on the strained high-school romance is when the film's pacing lags considerably during these sections. In addition, the rather overblown CGI in the finale is out-of-place with the more naturalistic efforts of the rest of the film. These are the film's true flaws.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and Language.

The movie did start off promising enough but quickly fell apart with it practically telegraphing, in a number of very obvious clues, to the audience who the killer is. I ended up figuring it out about half way through the story who the killer was. Do to this I was a bit bored and kept checking on the time that's left over of the film. It is an above average movie due to the actors and the story premise. But I wouldn't watch it again even if someone asked.

I feel that the current rating of 4.x is not really indicative of how good this film is. Sure, it is not a masterpiece or anything and the CG is cringe-worthy in places, but overall it is an entertaining addition to the College Horror Sub-Genre. Especially for a Telefilm.

It is competently done and well presented, but it's not gonna win any Oscars (I don't think it did : ) Not terribly original but well put together; so, I give it a 7 to balance out the somewhat low 4.x that it now has. It probably falls around a 6 or so. If you are not expecting too much more than the genre normally delivers, than you should have a reasonable amount of fun watching it.