"Sorority House Massacre" follows Beth, a college coed who is spending Memorial Day Weekend at a sorority house with several sisters who want her to join. The house seems strangely familiar to Beth, and a series of dreams and bizarre visions link her to a madman who is dead set on nabbing her in the house.
In some ways a "Halloween" ripoff of the highest order, "Sorority House Massacre" takes the blueprint of Carpenter's classic and bases itself on the precise premise without an ounce of shame. Madman breaking out of a psych ward, shots of a group of girls walking through the tree-lined suburbs to class (except here the location is unabashedly California, and the girls college students). While some people have ripped this film for its shameless imitation, genre fans are more likely to appreciate the funky weirdness the film has to offer.
There are tinges of a psychic thriller set inside the slasher framework here that are handled surprisingly decently; lots of talk of ghosts, dreams and psychology, and brainwave connections make for some inventive plot fixings. The flashbacks and Beth's bizarre visions of the villain are edited and presented in a startling fashion, and somehow manage to be mildly creepy. The film is much less gory than the title would suggest, which is another reason the film falls in line with a psychic thriller perhaps more than a straightforward slasher. The performances are ho-hum at best, but for a low-budget late eighties horror flick, they are completely respectable.
Overall, "Sorority House Massacre" is a heck of a lot better than it should be. It is contrived and at times silly, but there are some genuinely startling on screen encounters with the villain, and the film is engaging in all of its hokey eighties corniness. The obnoxious late- eighties "Saved By the Bell" wardrobe and California atmosphere is also another amusing point of interest. 6/10.
In some ways a "Halloween" ripoff of the highest order, "Sorority House Massacre" takes the blueprint of Carpenter's classic and bases itself on the precise premise without an ounce of shame. Madman breaking out of a psych ward, shots of a group of girls walking through the tree-lined suburbs to class (except here the location is unabashedly California, and the girls college students). While some people have ripped this film for its shameless imitation, genre fans are more likely to appreciate the funky weirdness the film has to offer.
There are tinges of a psychic thriller set inside the slasher framework here that are handled surprisingly decently; lots of talk of ghosts, dreams and psychology, and brainwave connections make for some inventive plot fixings. The flashbacks and Beth's bizarre visions of the villain are edited and presented in a startling fashion, and somehow manage to be mildly creepy. The film is much less gory than the title would suggest, which is another reason the film falls in line with a psychic thriller perhaps more than a straightforward slasher. The performances are ho-hum at best, but for a low-budget late eighties horror flick, they are completely respectable.
Overall, "Sorority House Massacre" is a heck of a lot better than it should be. It is contrived and at times silly, but there are some genuinely startling on screen encounters with the villain, and the film is engaging in all of its hokey eighties corniness. The obnoxious late- eighties "Saved By the Bell" wardrobe and California atmosphere is also another amusing point of interest. 6/10.