*** Official SORORITY ROW Review Thread

I didn't really like it but I did say in another thread that I thought that some slasher fans will enjoy this movie.

On the plus side, I think it captured the slasher movie vibe alot more than, say, Hatchet (which was touted as the return of that subgenre). And I liked that I

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
On the neagtive side, except for the lead, the characters are almost hateful or hysterical (and not in the funny way) so it was tough to feel much sympathy for any of them.

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Sorority Row". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

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Crawdaddy

I am not the biggest remake fan. I outright skip many of them, though I'm not as vehemenent in my stance as I once was. In fact, a few have actually been catching my interest more and more as of late, the other most recent example being The Uninvited, a surprisingly well-done adaptation of a somewhat overrated Asian title. Then there is Sorority Row, which garnered my attention for two key reasons. A: I am an unapologetic slasher fan and B: Margo Harshman has a role in the film.

With that said, I really enjoyed Sorority Row. I did a double-bill with Whiteout, and thankfully I decided to watch this one second, as it washed away the foul taste of that nonsensical mess. For slasher fans like myself, Sorority Row had a feeling of "old school" to it. The storyline setup, the atmosphere, the wild sorority parties... it felt like old times. Old times that were witnessed via 80's slashers, of course. Some pretty inventive kills in here too, just like in the glory days of the slasher film. No repetitive Scream or IKWYDLS type kills. And really, if you're a slasher fan, the kills are half of the fun. I also have to say that I really enjoyed the dialogue in this film. It was always spot-on with the wit, always funny in a dark humor sorta way. I actually had the opposite reaction to the characters, as the girl playing Cassidy annoyed me. Her voice just grated on my nerves for some reason. The queen bitch was a joy to watch. I thought she was thoroughly amusing. As for Margo, she was stuck with the thankless role of the group slut, but she brought her own brand of deadpan humor to the part. Her lacking amount of screen time was my biggest disappointment with this movie.

All of that aside, the killer reveal was also disappointing. The motivation just wasn't resonating with me, and some of the theatrics seemed too in line with the Scream brand of villains. Still, the rest of the film was so much fun, I can't help but recommend this to other slasher fans. If you like this kind of film, give it a chance. If you don't, well, I doubt you'd be reading this thread anyway. It's a slasher film, plain and simple, and as such, I'd give it the ol' "slash of approval".

I'm glad I was able to see this for nothing and I'm also glad to see it because I don't have to vote Rob Zombie's horror film as the worst of the year like I did with the original HALLOWEEN (remake).  Posted with my Rume goof.

Sorority Row (2009)
 

Stewart Hendler
 

Remake of the 1983 slasher offers up very little in terms of originality but that didn't stop anything two decades ago.  This time out some sorority sisters play a prank, which goes wrong and one of their friends end up dead.  Eight months later, before leaving school, they decide to have a party and someone shows up and starts killing everyone off.  Even though this is a remake of THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW, it comes off more like I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.  The original movie featured a twist that anyone could see coming and while the mystery here is hidden a lot better there's still no way to recommend this film outside die-hard fans of the genre.  I must admit that I hated every single character in this movie and that's not good because even the most brutal horror films usually have at least one person for you to care for.  I thought the females here were all incredibly mean spirited and I personally think it's a bad thing when you want to see the victims get murdered because of how much you hate them.  Even Rumer Willis' character, the good girl who only wants to do what's right, came off rather bland and bad to me.  I could almost overlook the characters but the screenplay, as poorly written as it was, has one dumb moment after another and by the time the ending came I was rolling my eyes and really starting to lose my patience.  There wasn't one character that came off as a real human because of how badly written they were.  The stupid things they did just made them look even worse.  Some might be saying all horror films depend on characters doing stupid things, which is true but the ones here don't do a single thing right.  Willis, looking and sounding eerily 100% like her mom, doesn't come off too bad here but no one in the cast really stands out.  The violence doesn't contain too much blood but the kills themselves are rather brutal and mean.  The film at least tries to be a throw back to the real years of exploitation and we're even graced with a shower sequence, which certainly needs to make a comeback in the genre.  The direction is pretty much all over the place but there's one very effective scene where a character finds herself down a mine shaft.  More scenes like this one were needed and a lot less was needed of drunks playing it cool.