Rated R for strong bloody violence, language, some sexuality/nudity and partying, 101 minutes
"Sorority Row" doesn't make the grade
Another week, another bad horror film. Unlike some recent releases, "Sorority Row" isn't exceedingly terrible. After all, it's a remake (though that didn't help the recent "Halloween"), it features a few recognizable names (Rumer Willis, anyone?) not to mention Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, who's around to lend a sarcastic tone to the film and throw out a few fun lines. "Sorority Row" still isn't that great, and falls prey to gratuitous violence and blood, bad acting and a ridiculous ending.
When five sorority girls (Willis, Briana Evigan, Margo Harshman, Jamie Chung and Leah Pipes), inadvertently cause the murder of one of their sisters ("The Hills" Audrina Partridge) in a prank gone wrong, they agree to keep the matter to themselves and never speak of it again, so they can get on with their lives. This proves easier said than done, when after graduation a mysterious killer goes after the five of them, their boyfriends and anyone who knows their secret.
"Sorority Row" is a remake of the 1983 horror film "The House on Sorority Row," which focused on the initial murder of a sorority house mother. This time, it's one of the sister's, and the house mother is played tongue-in-cheek by Fisher, obviously strapped for cash in a take-the-money-and-run cameo if there ever was one. Loads of blood, graphic violence and more inventive ways to die, as if we really need to see that again.
Directed by Handler, who gets the opportunity to direct a few of the worst actresses working today, though Willis, looking more and more like her mother Demi Moore, is probably the only one who makes a stab at trying to formulate the semblance of a character. Overall, the movie lacks suspense, originality and any genuine chills and instead goes for the jugular, literally, with loads of blood flowing and plenty of deaths (for those interested in things like this) - shower, things shoved in mouths (a flare gun is a fun moment) not to mention death via wine bottle.
Then the film unevenly tries to take a stab at "Heathers"-like dialogue at the end to try to make up for the splatter and gore we've just seen, not to mention to (and very unsurprisingly) reveal the killer, who takes a long time explaining why they're the killer. There's a few fun moments and some laughs, courtesy of Fisher, but otherwise a pale imitation of a film that wasn't good to begin with. Find some better things to do than "Sorority Row," even if it does involve those often unlikable sorority girls getting their due.
