Movie Review - 'Sorority Row'

Sorority Row Starring Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis, and Jamie Chung Directed by Stewart Hendler Rated R

I don't know what to tell you other than maybe it was really late when I saw the movie as part of a double feature that had already started out very well, but I liked Sorority Row. Now, it's not a horror movie for non-genre fans, but if you like a little splatter, this one's pretty OK. It's still not a great movie but more like an infectious pop song you can't get out of your heard no matter how hard you try. I had a lot of fun with it, as did the cast (which is patently obvious), and in a predictable slasher flick, that's enough reason to walk away vaguely impressed. To the credit of the filmmakers, director Stewart Hendler and writers Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger, this Sorority Row tries not to closely resemble the original version of the film. If you've never seen The House on Sorority Row, now there's no reason to. This completely makes that film obsolete. Instead, the new Sorority Row is injected with the right amount of humor, thereby having a greater understanding of its audience than a lot of these horror re-treads that comes across as needlssly serious when all we want to see is the hack and slash. We get that, of course, but it's only half the fun. We don't get great acting or a compelling story; in fact, it's a fairly leaden concept: Sorority sisters play a prank on the boyfriend of one of their herd, faking her death to scare the boyfriend shitless by making him think he's responsible. But she actually dies. Oops. Not wanting to take the fall for the accidental death, the sisters make a pact to dispose of the body and never speak of the unspeakable again. One by one, sisters start dying and the solution that's staring them in the face, of course, can't possibly be the truth. The dialogue crackles more than it has a right to, but the film doesn't overdo the humor, and that's a very thin line to walk, especially when the movie doesn't have much else going for it. Of the stars, it can only be said that they fit the material. There are no breakouts to be aware of, not second generation performers Rumer Willis or Briana Evigan, who are probably the most noteworthy of the sorority sisters, at least on the way into the theater. It there is a stand-out, it would be scene-stealing Carrie Fisher as the sorority house mother. I think there are three worthwhile mainstream horror movies this year, with Sorority Row joining Drag Me to Hell and My Bloody Valentine 3-D, albeit lower on the chart than the other two. All of them know the audience is in on the joke, and I can't believe that's a coincidence.

Comments

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That's my feeling on this film... I didn't hate it, but I couldn't take a bit of it seriously. Not that this is always a bad thing if you want to turn you brain off for a couple of hours (which I was forced into doing), but I think it could have been a better (and scarier) film if it had been written with more seriousness.

I mean, the one-liners were clever and all, but come on. When characters are responding to corpses with phrases such as "Megan!? She looks awful!" and "That tire iron looks, like, all pimped out", you can't help but roll your eyes.

The original 1983 film was more ominous and more creepy.