Film Review: HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW (1983)

I’m a big fan of the remake of this film Sorority Row (2009) from last year as it was more akin to Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer and not the remakes of Prom Night or When A Stranger Calls. That was a down and dirty remake like last year’s hit My Bloody Valentine in 3-D, so when I finally got to view the original film The House on Sorority Row (1983) I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the film.

Although the film is obviously a product of its time as it deals with a group of Sorority sisters who prank on their den mother goes horrible wrong and they end up killing her. Unable to dispose of the body quickly the sisters hide the body in the pool hoping to be able to dispose of the body later. When later comes the body is gone and they soon believe that maybe their den mother wasn’t truly dead so now they are on a desperate search to find her before she can tell the truth. The only problem that the Sorority sisters now have to contend with is that maybe their den mother is trying to kill them for what they did to her.

The film is a cat & mouse game that works very well even by today’s standards despite the timid gore, in fact, there is very little gore to be had in this film (especially compared to the remake). This being said, the reason why I enjoyed this film so much were the blatant homage to the French film Les Diaboliques, which is one of my favorite thrillers. The sisters disposing of the body in a pool and then realizing that the body is no longer in there, among other things, demonstrates how much the filmmakers were influenced by that film. HOSR may not be cinematic gold but all it takes is that little something extra to set itself apart from the rest of the ‘80s horror pack and this is one of those things.