The House on Sorority Row

Alternate titles : House of Evil

Tagline : "Sister in Life, Sisters in Death."

This vintage 80s slasher, about good girls gone bad, takes place at a college sorority house, which is due to close for the summer term. But, the girls have other plans and refuse to leave when told to.

Instead, the girls start making preparations for a wild party to celebrate the end of the school year. Which is met with heavy resistance by the house caretaker, Mrs Slater, who does everything she can to make life hell for them.

In retaliation, the girls decide to play a prank on her, by scaring her with a gun loaded with blank bullets. Unfortunately, the prank invariably goes wrong, when a live round is left in the gun and Mrs Slater is accidentally shot dead.

Panicking, the girls attempt to hide the body till after the party. But when the body goes missing, they realise something is very wrong. More worryingly, when the girls and party guests go missing also, they realise that someone is clearly exacting revenge, but who besides the girls knew about what happened? And why is Mrs Slater's doctor so concerned about her whereabouts?

Filmed during the height of the slasher film boom of the early 1980's, whilst this may not be the best of those, it does boast some interesting kill scenes and should appeal to fans of cult horror movies. People who only enjoy modern big budget Hollywood may not find it so appealing, but I found it sufficiently entertaining.

Overall Marks : 5/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate tag lines "When the Nightmare ends . . . the Terror begins", "Seven graduates of sorority sisters stalked as they hold a guilty secret", "Welcome to the Sorority of Your Nightmares", "Pledge Theta Pi... and DIE", "Nothing can prepare you for what happens when she fights back", "Where nothing is off limits", "Welcome Home...to the Sorority of your nightmares".
• The film's budget was $450,000.
• Mrs Slater's voice in this was actually dubbed by voiceover artist Barbara Harris, as actress Lois Kelso's Hunt's voice was not considered to be scary enough.
• Writer-director Mark Rosman claims he based the movie on his own real-life experiences from going to college.
• The original UK release, entitled "House of Evil", was cut by the BBFC, which shortened the death of one of the girls getting killed with a cane. It also omitted a short scene of one of the girls looking for her boyfriend, and had a slightly different ending, showing some shots of children's toys after the killer has been dealt with, as opposed to just ending at that point. The original uncut US version was finally released onto UK DVD in 2002.
• Eileen Davison, who plays Vikki, went on to have a prominent TV career, appearing in the US shows, "Young and the Restless" and "Days of our Lives".
• The intro was originally shot in black & white, but was tinted blue by the distributors.
• A different ending was originally filmed which would have followed on from where the existing one finished, where the police arrive and find the body of the last surviving girl floating in the pool. However, this ending was rejected as being too downbeat. The original elements to this scene are apparently missing as this has not been included in any known release. However, still photographs of the scene were included on the 25th anniversary US DVD.
• The gory aftershots of each murder were added after initial production had wrapped, as the distributers insisted on more gore. So the director had to film some additional scenes, which he shot in his back yard.

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