Sept. 13, 2009
RUTHERFORD AT THE MOVIES: 'Sorority Row': More Challenging Than Most College Co-Ed Slasher Flicks
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Entertainment Editor
Fifty crazy girls live in a sorority house. It happens at campuses all around the globe. And, when graduation day approaches (and during rush) hazing and pranks can get out of hand.
“Sorority Girls” holds off on most of the grisly gore allowing a few thrills and mysteries to cower in viewers minds, unless you’re a student of “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
Bottom line: A sexual prank goes astray leaving the victim unconscious. The ‘sisters’ panic and determine they have to protect their future careers and literally cover up Megan’s body, who at the time was unconscious, not dead.
Keeping solidarity and secrets repeatedly underscored, vanity , arrogance, and extreme selfishness rule the sisterhood, whose “I love you’s” have callous shallowness. Jessica ( Leah Pipes) in particular as she thinks of a future life as the wife of a senator’s son, pretending to be “P.C.” but actually a conniving, slutty witch. Weaving amongst “make all this go away,” “she died of drugs at our sorority,” her “we need a minute to talk” scenarios have deviously evil ramifications all too quickly. You’d wonder if her clean criminal record might have silicon erasures.
Originally made as “The House on Sorority Row” (1983), it avoided the supernatural in favor of exploiting psychological distress on the house mother.
The update has a case of filmmaking stutters; it toys with other worldly implications just not enough to generate goosebumps, which partially negates one pivotal scene. The editing choices --- no, not inventive camera angles and perspectives --- of on screen and in the cutting room floor allow bodies to start piling up, but we’re not sure why they were designated for vengeance.
Otherwise, the better than your average ten little coeds bleeding out on campus premise has inventiveness and restraint. Both qualities allow the production filled with drinking, bra and panties races, and out of control bubbling Jacuzzi to beget chills and thrills without a need to cover your eyes and predict the outcomes after five minutes.
Grab a quick session of mean girls jabbering sculpted true and dares in and out of flashy party dresses, laugh at an occasional bulls eye one ups-woman one liner (“you can’t afford silicon?”), and draw straws for survivors and killer.
Final warning: These are “Legally Blonde” / “90210” college co-eds, who fix their hair, check their make up, and add lip gloss just before decapitation. And, they run excellently in imitation Jimmy Choo’s.
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RUTHERFORD AT THE MOVIES: 'Sorority Row': More Challenging Than Most College Co-Ed Slasher Flicks
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Entertainment Editor
Fifty crazy girls live in a sorority house. It happens at campuses all around the globe. And, when graduation day approaches (and during rush) hazing and pranks can get out of hand.
“Sorority Girls” holds off on most of the grisly gore allowing a few thrills and mysteries to cower in viewers minds, unless you’re a student of “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
Bottom line: A sexual prank goes astray leaving the victim unconscious. The ‘sisters’ panic and determine they have to protect their future careers and literally cover up Megan’s body, who at the time was unconscious, not dead.
Keeping solidarity and secrets repeatedly underscored, vanity , arrogance, and extreme selfishness rule the sisterhood, whose “I love you’s” have callous shallowness. Jessica ( Leah Pipes) in particular as she thinks of a future life as the wife of a senator’s son, pretending to be “P.C.” but actually a conniving, slutty witch. Weaving amongst “make all this go away,” “she died of drugs at our sorority,” her “we need a minute to talk” scenarios have deviously evil ramifications all too quickly. You’d wonder if her clean criminal record might have silicon erasures.
Originally made as “The House on Sorority Row” (1983), it avoided the supernatural in favor of exploiting psychological distress on the house mother.
The update has a case of filmmaking stutters; it toys with other worldly implications just not enough to generate goosebumps, which partially negates one pivotal scene. The editing choices --- no, not inventive camera angles and perspectives --- of on screen and in the cutting room floor allow bodies to start piling up, but we’re not sure why they were designated for vengeance.
Otherwise, the better than your average ten little coeds bleeding out on campus premise has inventiveness and restraint. Both qualities allow the production filled with drinking, bra and panties races, and out of control bubbling Jacuzzi to beget chills and thrills without a need to cover your eyes and predict the outcomes after five minutes.
Grab a quick session of mean girls jabbering sculpted true and dares in and out of flashy party dresses, laugh at an occasional bulls eye one ups-woman one liner (“you can’t afford silicon?”), and draw straws for survivors and killer.
Final warning: These are “Legally Blonde” / “90210” college co-eds, who fix their hair, check their make up, and add lip gloss just before decapitation. And, they run excellently in imitation Jimmy Choo’s.
out of
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