I don’t quibble with endings as much as some viewers do; if the buildup is excellent, I’m lenient. But wow does “The House on Sorority Row” (1982) fail to stick the landing. More on that after a spoiler warning, but first: Director/co-writer Mark Rosman builds things up nicely.
“Prom Night” (1980) has a plot where youths do a horrible thing then are punished for it by a slasher killer, and “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (1997) is probably the most famous slasher to use this theme.
Although the gap between the bad act and the vengeance killings is less than a day in “The House on Sorority Row,” Rosman does a good job of letting us know the personalities of the seven sorority sisters and where they stand. When the party must go on as scheduled that night, an effective shot shows the six young women scattered around the dance floor, all with less happy expressions – from mild concern to panic — than the rest of the revelers.
“The House on Sorority Row” (1982)
Director: Mark Rosman
Writers: Mark Rosman, Bobby Fine
Stars: Kate McNeil, Eileen Davidson, Janis Ward
The acting is a cut above the slasher average from this septet, with Kate McNeil (as Final Girl Katey) unable to move on and Eileen Davidson (as ringleader Vicki) projecting a “devil may care” attitude, with the others in between. It’s also notable that eight women have center stage in this slasher movie and the main point is not to sexualize them. (Note that I said main point. There are a couple titillating scenes; this is an Eighties slasher, after all.)
It’s interesting to note that all seven young women engage in drunken revelry – and they’re planning a full-blown party — in the house after house mother Mrs. Slater (Lois Kelso Hunt) instructs them that it’s closed for the summer. The film gets close to a “girls can behave as badly as guys” breakthrough. The titular house is a character of sorts, too. There’s a great slasher sense of intimacy to everything (inciting event, following event, answers) all being in one location. But now I must go into the flaws.
(SPOILERS FOLLOW.)
Pretty maids all in a row (Spoilers)
The septet decides to play a prank on house mother Mrs. Slater, but Vicki – a poster child for improper gun safety – accidentally kills the woman. When the pool where they stash the body later turns out to be empty, and then the first victim is found, the girls figure Slater is still alive. None come to the more likely conclusion that someone else moved the body and is embarking on revenge killings. That’s OK because it encourages the viewer to play along and try to be a notch smarter than the panicked girls.
To be fair, we know more than they do. The film had opened with a gauzy flashback to Mrs. Slater giving birth and Dr. Beck (Christopher Lawrence) telling her “I’m sorry,” followed by a scream going decades forward to 1982.
In the slasher-mystery tradition, there’s not much to go on here, but our brains help Rosman out. Maybe Slater is crazy and she dresses up like a theoretical offspring, in a reverse of Norma and Norman Bates. Maybe the kid was born healthy, but for some reason Dr. Beck hid this from her; maybe in present day, he or she is one of the partying students. My guess for a potential secret offspring was Peter (Michael Kuhn), a nice guy who is the blind date for Katey.
The resolution could’ve been so much better (Spoilers)
Bottom line: We’re hungry for answers. And in the end, we don’t get them! At least not as clear as we should have. This isn’t a situation like “Alice, Sweet Alice” where the lack of clarity is purposeful and it leads to intelligent post-film debates about whodunit.
In the first attack where we sort of see the killer, it’s a guy with long hair. Then the identity of the corpse wrapped in the towels – who we suspect isn’t Mrs. Slater anymore, but for some reason the girls don’t think of this – is finally revealed and it’s unclear. Verbally we’re told it is Stevie (Ellen Dorsher), although it looks like a guy.
At the end, Katey is attacked by a man in a jester outfit. The mask is pointless because we saw him sans mask briefly – and after Dr. Beck’s explanation to Katey, we know this is Slater’s secret deformed son, Eric. The movie ends without the jester mask being removed, but I guess it’s simply Eric. A different plot construction could’ve made the jester someone other than Eric. Or maybe it’s Eric, but Eric is someone we know by a different name.
(END OF SPOILERS.)
I give “The House on Sorority Row” a mild recommendation. The stakes remain serious and suspenseful enough that even when the moving of the corpse comes very close to “Weekend at Bernie’s” territory – they even smash a Dumpster into a police car during one transport! — we aren’t tempted to laugh.
But man, this movie misses out by underplaying potential “It’s not that guy after all” red herrings plus the big (non-)reveal. Maybe Rosman and co-writer Bobby Fine had more of a story here than they realized. Maybe the remake “Sorority Row” (2009) corrects some of these issues; I’ll try to check it out someday.