Shudder Saturday: Sorority House Massacre (1986)

I think many of you will be able to understand why I mistakenly assumed that I had already seen Sorority House Massacre. I'd seen The Slumber Party Massacre movies, and I had seen The House On Sorority Row, but I hadn't actually seen any of the Sorority House Massacre movies. This weekend seemed like the right time to change that. But would the film be worth my time?

The story is simple, and not too dissimilar to one of the all-time great slasher movies, by the time everything is clarified in the third act. Beth (Angela O'Neill) is a new college student who starts to feel strange about her new living environment. It's like she's been there before, and the imagery that invades her mind isn't pleasant. She also seems to have some telepathic link with an escaped killer (John C. Russell), which makes things a bit stressful as she tries to settle in to college life and have some fun with her sorority sisters.

Written and directed by Carol Frank, her only directorial feature (after working in assistant roles on a couple of movies before this), this is a seriously underwhelming experience. It's always good to be wary of any slasher movie that came along in the second half of the 1980s. While not a golden rule, the sub-genre was certainly already showing signs of fatigue after the "halcyon days" that saw so many flood the market in the start of the decade. Sorority House Massacre brings nothing new to the table, but also doesn't do well enough with the basic elements that can provide simple entertainment for slasher movie fans. 

I'll be generous enough to say that maybe one of the kills stands out, because of the way it leads to one character quickly figuring out that they need to flee if they want to stay alive, but even that is undermined by being one of the few moments that also throws in some gratuitous nudity alongside some of the most savage violence shown in the film.

You don't watch slasher movies for the acting, of course, but there isn't anyone here standing out, for better or worse. O'Neill is decent enough in the lead role, especially when you consider what she has to do with her character, and she's ably supported by those who float in and out of the main narrative (Wendy Martel, as Linda, being one of the more memorable). Russell has to look like a deranged killer, even when he's not actually shown in the act of deranged killing, and he does just fine. He's not the most memorable killer, but nothing about this is memorable.

I can't quite pin down why this fails. Although Frank does nothing special in the writing or directing department, she also does nothing horrible. The silly plot is paced well enough, the short runtime certainly helps, and there is some occasional interesting imagery, but it's hard to get excited about a finale that feels overshadowed by a real classic that most horror fans would prefer to be watching instead of this. Ironically, the familiarity experienced by the main character is a sensation ultimately experienced by most viewers, and I believe that most of us would rather watch something that tries to be different, even if it fails, than something that tries to repeat the success of work that it cannot hope to rival.

4/10

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