After a prank goes wrong a group of sorority girls end up killing their domineering house mistress and are forced to hide the body. Soon after the girls start being systematically dispatched by an unseen murderer.
The premise may not be particularly original and the film adds nothing special to the horror genre, yet strangely the film is extraordinarily captivating and stands up well against the flood of similar films from the Eighties. Without attempting to over-complicate matters with preposterously impractical plot-twists unlike so many other slasher films, writer and director Mark Rosman seems to be completely aware of the limitation of the material. He obviously sought to provide genre fans with a simple slasher based more on character development/interaction rather than an overly implausible storyline and, one can argue, that he accomplished almost everything he set out to do. Granted, the characters were nearly entirely clichéd and there were sporadic moments of insignificant dialogue but even so, there are no more faults with this slasher than with one of the other supposed elites of the sub-genre - 'Friday the 13th' (1980). In fact, one could even be of the point of view that 'Friday the 13th' is made to look inferior by 'The House on Sorority Row'. 'Friday the 13th', although fairly unnerving in places, was always rather slow and attempts to build tension occasionally fell flat because the direction and excessively methodical approach to building this tension forced the movie into featuring inherently tedious sequences. On the other hand, 'The House on Sorority Row' may be lacking in any real scares, but the movie is paced and directed well meaning that there are very few scenes that end up being tiresome. It is doubtful that anybody would be immersed in this movie to the degree that one could become engrossed in Bob Clark's 'Black Christmas' (1974) or Michele Soavi's 'StageFright' (1987) but there are certainly enough pleasant aspects for the average slasher fan to be impressed to some extent.
The acting performances, while of no real distinction when compared to similar movies, were of a high enough quality as to not negatively affect the movie in any real way. The performances were all of standard B-movie quality but helped to make the movie nonetheless. Despite a silly plot-twist towards the end, 'The House on Sorority Row' is recommended to slasher fans and casual horror fans looking for something a little obscure. An impressively written and directed slasher film which despite a run of the mill premise and occasional flashes of scrappy dialogue is able to impact on the viewer and become an enjoyable experience. My rating for 'The House on Sorority Row' - 7/10.
The premise may not be particularly original and the film adds nothing special to the horror genre, yet strangely the film is extraordinarily captivating and stands up well against the flood of similar films from the Eighties. Without attempting to over-complicate matters with preposterously impractical plot-twists unlike so many other slasher films, writer and director Mark Rosman seems to be completely aware of the limitation of the material. He obviously sought to provide genre fans with a simple slasher based more on character development/interaction rather than an overly implausible storyline and, one can argue, that he accomplished almost everything he set out to do. Granted, the characters were nearly entirely clichéd and there were sporadic moments of insignificant dialogue but even so, there are no more faults with this slasher than with one of the other supposed elites of the sub-genre - 'Friday the 13th' (1980). In fact, one could even be of the point of view that 'Friday the 13th' is made to look inferior by 'The House on Sorority Row'. 'Friday the 13th', although fairly unnerving in places, was always rather slow and attempts to build tension occasionally fell flat because the direction and excessively methodical approach to building this tension forced the movie into featuring inherently tedious sequences. On the other hand, 'The House on Sorority Row' may be lacking in any real scares, but the movie is paced and directed well meaning that there are very few scenes that end up being tiresome. It is doubtful that anybody would be immersed in this movie to the degree that one could become engrossed in Bob Clark's 'Black Christmas' (1974) or Michele Soavi's 'StageFright' (1987) but there are certainly enough pleasant aspects for the average slasher fan to be impressed to some extent.
The acting performances, while of no real distinction when compared to similar movies, were of a high enough quality as to not negatively affect the movie in any real way. The performances were all of standard B-movie quality but helped to make the movie nonetheless. Despite a silly plot-twist towards the end, 'The House on Sorority Row' is recommended to slasher fans and casual horror fans looking for something a little obscure. An impressively written and directed slasher film which despite a run of the mill premise and occasional flashes of scrappy dialogue is able to impact on the viewer and become an enjoyable experience. My rating for 'The House on Sorority Row' - 7/10.