So-so Row

Back in the early 1980s, when old Shep was a pup and Michael Meyers/Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kreuger had not yet become post-modern icons, the stalk ‘n’ slash/slice ‘n’ dice horror experience was still in its relative infancy, but the decade as a whole came to be deluged with a steady stream of examples of the sub-genre, most of which were made by morons with cameras showing little artistic desire other than to outdo each other in terms of blood, guts, sex and body-count.

However, 1983 saw the release of Mark Rosman’s The House on Sorority Row, a film that broke the mould somewhat, in that it was relatively well acted and constructed, and did not have blood for blood’s sake.

In a nutshell (or case), a group of sorority sisters play a prank that goes horribly wrong – they cover up their crime but, as anyone who has seen 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer (itself a referential return to 1980s-style horror) will tell you, that’s not a plan likely to succeed.

And now, Stewart Hendler (The Closet (2008)) presents his take on the tale, and, against all the odds, it’s not appallingly bad.

Of course, you shouldn’t come along with any expectations of new ground being broken – the not-very likeable set of misfits, namely Jessica (Leah Pipes), Chugs (Margo Harshman), Ellie (Rumer Willis), Claire (Jamie Chung) and Cassidy (Briana Evigan) all correspond to slasher sterotypes, and it’s not long at all before the gals are running around, arguing, screaming and dying, but, thankfully, some effort has been made to create and maintain mood and atmosphere, which is relatively well sustained until the obligatory ‘Big Twist’ comes a-calling.

Not a complete waste of time, but likely only to really appeal to curious young-bloods and hardcore fans. For the rest, this has ‘Saturday-night DVD’ written all over it.

101 mins.