‘You’re the last one of your friends alive. You’re the bait...’
I’ve watched and reviewed so many ’80s slashers by this point that it’s difficult to find anything new to say about them—particularly one as generic and unoriginal as this one. To stand out in what is an incredibly crowded field, you’re looking for several elements. An original premise. Innovative death sequences. A healthy dollop of the ridiculous perhaps. The best slasher movies of the era have all three. It could be argued that The House on Sorority Row has none of the attributes to make a successful ’80s slasher and yet inevitably it has become a cult classic in the years since its release…
A group of seven sorority sisters lose patience with their domineering house mother Mrs Slater (Lois Kelso Hunt) and decide to play a prank on her. Obviously, it goes horribly wrong and those responsible start to be picked off one by one.
Writer-director Mark Rosman started his career as an assistant director for Brian De Palma, and he is fairly successful at building suspense and creating an aesthetic that matches the grimy subject matter. That doesn’t make up for the fact that the plot is derivative, the characters forgettable and the death sequences uninspired.
What’s frustrating is that there is more imagination demonstrated in the final 15 minutes here than at any other point in the film which is a testament to the lack of care that goes into the rest of the movie. Ultimately, this is an uninspiring and forgettable slasher movie. Watch Black Christmas instead.
