Sorority House Massacre

An authentic whack job (John C. Russell) wants out of the mental asylum he is in. Once he escapes he goes to a sorority house where he seems to have a certain connection to a college girl named Beth (Angela O'Neill).

In the end this movie is better than it should have really been. Does have some good imagery during the dream sequences, but takes too much from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and way too much from HALLOWEEN. I thought a big thing that would have worked for the movie was adding some back story to the characters. We do get Beth's, but none of the other characters seem to have much of a back story. None of the male college students have any. Because of this the only characters I really cared about were Beth and John (Vinnie Bilancio). John just seemed to be a nice guy, but man I wanted to get deeper into his character than what I got. You may say that's what you get for watching a slasher. Maybe, but I am not going to lower my bar just because I am watching a slasher flick. They too can have well-developed characters. I also think by doing this it may have extended the running time a little as it comes in at only 74 minutes.

Anyways, on a side note they end up watching SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, which I do recommend watching and writer/director Carol Frank worked as assistant to the director in that film. As well when some of the college girls decide to go through Cindy's clothes who has gone away for the weekend you are welcomed to Shoulder Pad City. Ahhh the 80s.

Sorority House Massacre could be forgiven for shamelessly aping other horror films such as Halloween (and it's first sequel) and The Eyes of Laura Mars, but it has the audacity to bring absolutely nothing original to the plate at all which makes the whole film feel like watching paint dry.

In the film, we have a young sorority girl plagued with visions of her insane brother who killed her family and, now, wants to come after her and her sorority friends after breaking out of an asylum. Clearly, not the most original plot in the world, but if Sorority House Massacre had at least attempted to bring in some fresh characterizations, interesting dialogue, or maybe an inspired sequence of suspense or two, it wouldn't have felt so stale.

one night when i came across this movie in blockbuster i picked it up knowing that i would probably get a bad horror film. but i thought it would be bad in a good way. i should have known not too rent this, horror films were great from 74-84, but anything after that for the most part sucked. there are so many things that made this movie bad, too many too name, but i'll name one. this is the biggest Halloween rip off i ever saw. killer breaks out of a Psycho ward, and goes after this girl and what we find out is that her familly was killed by her brother and now he's coming for her. if that's not a Halloween rip off i don't know what is, if you wanna rip off Halloween that's fine it was a great movie, but atleast do a good job. i almost past out so many times durring the movie, it's so boring i can't think of one thing good to say about this movie at all i give it 1/10, and i give it a one only cause they riped off a classic horror film so atleast the makers of the film have taste

Mad killer escapes from an insane asylum and goes after his sister (does this remind you of anything?), with whom he shares an unexplained telepathic link. This film is not too bad of its type, but it's just too derivative of both "Halloween" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" (there are many ominous dream sequences). The main heroine is fairly engaging, but the rest of the characters are almost indistinguishable from one another (and the men are badly acted, too). (**)

Sorority House Massacre isn't too bad at all, but there is nothing original or fresh about it either. The basic plot is the same as Halloween (killer from an asylum escapes in search of his sister) and borrows a little from Nightmare On Elm Street (lots of weird nightmares about the killer). The nightmares don't really add much to the film, so I think it would have been better if they had been left out. The build up to the climax is a little slow, but once the action kicks in there are surprisingly a few tense moments, such as when the killer tries to climb in through the window.

Overall, Sorority House Massacre is just an average slasher flick. Watchable, but not very original. Also not very gory, so gore-hounds should look elsewhere.