The Dorm That Dripped Blood

Routine slasher about college kids working on boarding up a college dorm that is about to be demolished and being killed by an unknown, hiding in the shadows killer. Made on a budget of only $90,000 and featuring an unknown Daphne Zuniga at the time this is a lot better then I expected. Sure it is inept at times, but this film manages to be exciting, creepy and scary throughout. That's more then you can say about a lot of the other films in this genre.

Rated R; Extreme Violence & Profanity.

Must give Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow credit for having the guts to go against established slasher formulas to create something different. There's definitely an attempt to set atmosphere over numerous scenes of gore. There is attempt to develop the characters. The ending is what makes the film memorable. Maybe the motivations for the killings isn't original, but it doesn't have to be. Sometimes in life bad people win. It sucks. It's infuriating, but sometimes that's how it goes. I applaud the writers and directors for going against the grain with this one.

As story goes, The Dorm That Dripped Blood might not be anything memorable, but there's a rag tag low budget energy that radiates from every frame and it really makes you root for this little movie that could. None of the acting is that great, some of the lighting is impossibly dark, but the death scenes are all very brutal and crackle with a certain intensity that's very unnerving.

College girl Joanne Murray takes on the unenviable job of readying the student housing building to become apartments,which includes selling the unneeded furniture This takes place during a break,so a mysterious psycho is stalking the nearly-empty premises on campus."Dorm that Dripped Blood" is a low-budget slasher flick that is quite entertaining.The acting is pretty bad,the plot is predictable,but the gore effects are quite good.The film was made by UCLA film students Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow for next to nothing.Soon a dreamy ambiance kicks in,very similar to the enveloping forests of Jeff Leiberman's fantastic "Just Before Dawn".7 out of 10.It's great to see Daphne Zuniga of "The Initiation" fame run over few times by a car.

Well, that was a downer! And I mean that in the best sense. In fact, The Dorm That Dripped Blood has an ending so mean...so cruel...so nuts...that it actually elevates the entire film that came before it. Before that moment, The Dorm That Dripped Blood basically clips along as a decent enough college slash 'em up, but the ending really sends it over the top.

The film follows a group of college kids staying over the holiday break to take inventory and clean up an old deserted dorm. Soon enough, they find themselves sliced and diced by an unseen murderer. Why? Who knows. People handle the stress of college in their own unique ways.

The murders are mostly well staged and there's a handful of suspense here and there. Most of the actors are fine if nothing else. There's a fun cameo by Daphne Zuniga and a pretty cool music score by Christopher Young if that helps.

All in all, The Dorm That Dripped Blood is a decent little time waster. You could do much worse.