Sorority Row

Hey there my faithful followers! The Cinema Lunatic is back and I apologize for my long absence. But enough of that, let’s talk about one of my favorite guilty pleasures, the slasher movie. God these were great in the 80’s. They had some nice kill scenes, usually had some very pretty girls, and a ridiculous enough plot that I actually laugh yet secretly admire how they take something so stupid and make you want to see it to the end.
But sadly we have entered the Dark Age, and boy am I sad. Basically in the 80’s there were a bunch of pretty interesting entries to the genre like “The Burning” or “Happy Birthday to Me”, and even things like “April Fool’s Day” or the original “Prom Night”, then sadly due to gross over saturation it became a bit of a joke and “Scream” came out, and it was basically a slasher that made fun of the clichés that had been created and then, well, that was it. All the slashers that have come out since then have been jokes, really bad jokes. Either we get shitty remakes of classics, like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or the up coming remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”(seriously even with Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy, it ain’t gonna hold a candle and you know it!), or things that hardly try like “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and its sequels. Some decent ones have come out on video like “American Nightmare” but we have yet to see a really good one come main stream to theaters in a long time. That is until last summer, which I regretfully admit I missed out on until it came to DVD.
Yes, a movie called “Sorority Row” is actually something that I found whole heartedly to be one of the most well done of the genre since “Scream” started the trend of just saying its all been done and we should just poke fun at it. It’s a bit jarring because I actually did specifically rent this to make fun of and bash on it, but the more I watched it, the more I started to like it. The film encompasses all that I dig about slashers and yet it doesn’t really seem to care about the clichés, it knows what it is and because of that just focuses on being a lot of fun to watch which has always been the point of the genre to me.
The plot is a rip off of, well almost every slasher movie, ever. A prank goes wrong and some one gets killed, so the main characters try to cover it up and then later it comes back to bite them in the ass and they get killed in increasing elaborate ways. That’s all you really need for a slasher. Nothing overly deep or insightful, just good gory fun. In this case it has to do with a sorority and the main characters are sisters of said. It does start off as a joke, but it doesn’t try to be too serious about it’s self and that is a nice change of pace to the slashers out there that still want to try and be. The plot has a bunch of holes, but it’s so much fun to watch that it doesn’t bother me, and shouldn’t bother you. Plus, for once a slasher actually had a well executed twist. It’s not great, you could either see it coming if you really think about it, or just think it was out of place, but it’s so well done that it actually does get props from me, mostly because it’s like “The Prowler” or original (yes original, there was one) “My Bloody Valentine”. They had twists that really didn’t make a ton of sense, but damn they were jarring and here it is equally so.
I have to say that the cast knew that this was just fun. They play frat boys and sorority girls so well it’s kind of admirable. They back stab and bitch and moan so much that it grates your nerves, yet I found always find some endearing quality in most of them. The majority of them know that what they did was wrong so they lament, but are afraid that the consequences would cause massive rifts in there lives, it’s selfish but at the same time I can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t think the same, even if only for a second. The director like I’ve said already, knew what he was making and decided that he would just try to make the best slasher in a long time. So while they have unlikeable traits, a lot of them, you never hate them enough to actually want them to see them die. So in that way a bit of suspense is achieved and a nice amount of fun can be had with if not really scary a couple of jumps can happen.
Then there is the make up effects, and I’m going to come out and say it: God I’m glad most of the gore effects in this movie were practical! I’m sorry for those who love the hell out of CGI, I have moments where I have to admit there was no other way, but it was so nice to see a horror movie that actually wanted to try and show really things like a girl getting a wine bottle shoved down her throat. In these movies, if it isn’t actually happening in front of the camera, what’s the fucking point? I’ll admit they do spice them up with some arterial spray here and there that is clearly CG, but the actually effect is still enough to get me excited to see that there are still people out there that are trying to practice the tried and true techniques of Tom Savini and Dick Smith, and that make me a happy reviewer.
Overall, I have nothing much left to say about this movie. I highly recommend it if you like horror films, especially slashers. It’s fun, dark, and if you’re like me, a nice thing to see. It goes back to what I said about “Zombieland” this a movie that knew what it was, didn’t try to be anything else, and just had fun with it. And to me, that’s truly what makes movies of this kind enjoyable. Is it good? No, not in the least. Is it scary? Not really, unless blood scares you. No this is just the perfect movie for a night of pizza, beer and friends on a Saturday. A highly recommended rental to say the least in my opinion. Come on, it has Carrie Fisher (You know, Princess Leia) swearing, drinking like a fish and packing a fucking shot gun! That alone deserves to be watched!