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‘Sorority Sisters… Sisters in Life. Sisters in Dying.’
The Home on Sorority Row is a 1982 American slasher horror movie a few group of younger ladies who’re stalked and murdered in revenge for a previous prank. Additionally launched as Home of Evil
Written and directed by Mark Rosman (The Invader; Evolver; Mutant [uncredited]), with extra dialogue by Bobby Effective, the VAE Productions film stars Kate McNeil, Eileen Davidson, Janis Ward and Robin Meloy.
The orchestral soundtrack rating was composed by prolific Richard Band (Puppet Grasp; Re-Animator; Parasite; et al), Charles Band’s brother.
Overview:
The Home on Sorority Row is without doubt one of the finest (and sadly, one of many extra underrated) slasher movies to be launched through the horror increase of the early Eighties.
Sure, I do know that the poster above in all probability makes it look just a little generic. And ‘The place nothing is off limits’ sounds extra like a tagline for a movie about snowboarders than a slightly participating and sometimes even witty suspense movie. However irrespective of! The Home on Sorority Row is a minor masterpiece of the style (keep away from the unfastened 2009 remake, Sorority Row).
Seven sorority sisters are enthusiastic about graduating and wish to throw an enormous occasion. Nevertheless, their strict and barely insane home mom, Mrs Slater (Lois Kelso Hunt), has a strict no occasion coverage. She additionally has a strict “everybody out of the home as soon as the semester ends” coverage.
Mrs Slater could be very sad when she discovers that the seven ladies are planning on staying for the weekend! She calls for that all of them depart after which proceeds to make use of her cane to destroy a waterbed whereas one lady is on it together with her boyfriend. Because the hallway floods, the women marvel what’s unsuitable with Mrs Slater.
After all, what they don’t know is that Mrs Slater has a tragic previous. Nicely, truly, they type of do comprehend it. On the very least, they believe it. They know that Slater does have a motive for at all times closing the home on the weekend instantly following the tip of the semester. They know however they don’t care. As an alternative, they plan an elaborate prank. That’s proper! V for Vengeance!
How does the prank work out? Nicely, like most faculty pranks, it finally ends up with two laughing ladies, 5 indignant and/or apprehensive ladies, and one useless home mom floating within the pool. Oh no! They’ve bought to each throw a celebration and conceal a useless physique! See, for this reason I by no means joined a sorority. I can throw a celebration. And I can conceal a useless physique. However not each in a single evening!
At first, issues go okay. No person discovers the physique. The occasion goes off as deliberate. Everybody’s having pretty much as good a time as you may whereas making an attempt to cowl up a future-ruining felony. However then abruptly, the physique disappears. After which the women begin to disappear, one after the other…
So, let’s simply be sincere right here. Plotwise, The Home on Sorority Row just isn’t going to win factors for originality. Although the movie does embody a number of intelligent twists, it’s just about your normal slasher movie and it has its share of scenes the place the women stupidly cut up up, drop knives that they actually shouldn’t drop, and conceal in foolish locations. I at all times really feel unhealthy for the lady killed within the toilet stall as a result of severely, that’s the final place I’d wish to die. (Add to that, her head later turns up in a bathroom. Bleh!)
Whereas the plot could also be acquainted, The Home on Sorority Row is a triumph of favor. Director Mark Rosman could have instructed a well-recognized story however he instructed it effectively, placing extra emphasis on suspense than gore. No matter how foolish the plot could also be, you continue to get caught up in it. Rosman is at his finest in the direction of the tip of the movie when the ultimate survivor has to struggle off the assassin whereas underneath the affect of a hallucinogenic drug.
Lastly, the movie is much better acted than your typical slasher movie. Although the vast majority of the characters are positively acquainted varieties (there’s the bitchy lady, the marginally much less bitchy lady, one of the best buddy, the mousy lady, the sensible lady, the dumb lady, and so forth), the actresses who play them are all sympathetic and likeable. You truly care about them.
Sure, you even care about self-centred, immature Vicki, despite the fact that she’s the one who got here up with the prank within the first place. Eileen Davidson performs Vicki and she or he provides top-of-the-line performances in slasher movie historical past. It’s onerous to not relate to her exasperation because it seems to be more durable to cowl up a homicide than she initially assumed.
Lisa Marie Bowman, visitor reviewer through By way of the Shattered Lens
MOVIES and MANIA score:
Different evaluations:
“Some followers would possibly discover the first half of the movie gradual, but I didn’t have an issue with the tempo at which it set issues up, and although a number of of its results fall in need of the mark, The Home on Sorority Row stays a really entertaining slasher flick.” 2,500 Motion pictures Problem
“The unseen killer stalks in a first-person visible and kills. Generally the kills are proven (graphically) and typically they’re unseen… however in basic horror movie model, there’s a last scene the place all of the our bodies pop-up and also you additionally get one other scary horror clown.” Basement Rejects
“The Home on Sorority Row is a rudimentary and extremely standard slasher movie with a number of neat twists and sufficient pressure and chills to make sure it received’t disappoint followers of the sub-genre. Whereas not as masterful as Halloween, or as gory as Friday the thirteenth, it nonetheless emerges as one of many higher slasher movies from the early 80s.” Behind the Sofa
“There’s nothing that can shock seasoned slasher viewers and the gore results are fairly restrained […] however it’s nonetheless one of many stronger and extra entertaining entries within the slasher style with some cleaning soap opera-ready bitchiness from Davidson…” DVD Beaver
“The hallucination scenes in the direction of the climax are inventive horror-imagery at its most interesting and the operatic rating is at instances pulse-raising. That last scene, which sees the killer elevate from the shadows in creepy clown apparel, is as iconic as something from the life-span of the style…” A Slash Above…
“Rosman’s debut film was a reasonably honest show-reel promising, falsely it appears, extra and higher to come back.” Time Out (London)
“It’s uncommon to see a slasher movie so in contact with its medium that there’s apparent effort in making it look gorgeous, taking what labored in its ancestors and recycling it to higher visible impact. There are flaws however not many…” Vegan Voorhees
“Certain, the victims right here would possibly skirt on being clichés however you may’t deny the truth that Davidson provides a pleasingly bitchy efficiency, Hunt exhibits some staunch authority, and Kathryn McNeil provides a stable flip as our moralistic heroine, Katie. That is balanced fairly properly by a number of first rate moments of bloodshed together with a number of stabbings and a reasonably kick-ass scene involving a bathroom.” The Video Graveyard
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