The Haunting of Sorority Row

When I stumbled upon this 2007 horror mystery titled "The Haunting of Sorority Row", of course I opted to sit down and watch it, as I never had heard about it. And given my fascination and love of the horror genre, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch the movie.

Now, I had no idea what I was in for, as I had never heard about the movie. So I only knew whatever little I could discern from the movie's synopsis, and the fact that it was a horror mystery of sorts.

The script in the movie was straightforward, but at the same time also very simplistic, almost to the point where it was dumb. Writers Jed Seidel and Michael Vickerman didn't exactly concoct a particularly terrifying or innovating haunted mystery narrative here. It made for semi-adequate entertainment, sure, but you're not in for anything thrilling, new or particularly scary.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but I will say that the actresses and actors actually put on good enough performances, despite of the limitations imposed upon them by an inferior script and storyline.

Visually then "The Haunting of Sorority Row" certainly looked and felt like a TV movie, for better or worse.

All in all, not a particularly outstanding or memorable horror mystery. It came and went without leaving any lasting impression. And I will not return to watch the movie a second time, simply as there isn't enough contents to the narrative.

My rating of director Bert Kish's 2007 horror mystery "The Haunting of Sorority Row" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

I feel that the current rating of 4.x is not really indicative of how good this film is. Sure, it is not a masterpiece or anything and the CG is cringe-worthy in places, but overall it is an entertaining addition to the College Horror Sub-Genre. Especially for a Telefilm.

It is competently done and well presented, but it's not gonna win any Oscars (I don't think it did : ) Not terribly original but well put together; so, I give it a 7 to balance out the somewhat low 4.x that it now has. It probably falls around a 6 or so. If you are not expecting too much more than the genre normally delivers, than you should have a reasonable amount of fun watching it.

Samantha Willows (Leighton Meester) is a college freshman pledging a prestigious sorority. However something supernatural is killing its members. There was a mysterious girl missing from the previous year's pledges. Meanwhile, Sam's high school boyfriend has come along to college but is jealous of her new life.

This is a low budget weak production horror. The supernatural is revealed right off the bat. The big mystery is revealed before it even asks the questions. The CG is poorly done. The only good thing here is Leighton Meester. She takes this weak material and makes a little something. However, the production is so low that there isn't even enough members in this sorority. It's just weak overall.

Attending a new sorority, a new pledge discovers her terrifying visions and hallucinations are brought about by the return of a hazing ritual that killed a former initiate who is now haunting and killing them one- by-one.

This one turned out to be quite a decent Lifetime thriller. One of its better attributes is its engrossing mystery, which is far creepier than it has any right to be and is given plenty to work with. This one has some great parts during the beginning focusing on their visions of the coffin and the secretive nature of the previous ceremony, and when brought about with the nature of sorority and it's got a pretty decent time through the first half. This is really aided along by several really freaky moments where the ghost goes into action with it's death scenes, including a pretty harrowing sequence that's rarely seen in this kind of entries on the channel as well as a pretty chilling revelation of the ruse through the back-story and some wicked haunting scenes which give this a nice horror feel. There's still a few flaws here, mainly in the opening introductions to sorority life with the different rituals and traditions as well as the hazing portions coming off as really tame and traditional due to their being featuring in many different films, and when it focuses on the strained high-school romance is when the film's pacing lags considerably during these sections. In addition, the rather overblown CGI in the finale is out-of-place with the more naturalistic efforts of the rest of the film. These are the film's true flaws.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and Language.

Wow I think 4 is way harsh for this film. Yes, it is a made for TV film so it is going to have certain flaws that a big budgeted movie wouldn't have, but I have to say that this film really surprised me. I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. The storyline was original; I have never seen a story like this in another film and in my opinion, the plot deserves a 9 out of 10. However, I need to deduct a point for some of the actors, deduct a point for production, half a point for pace and half a point for the quickie climax at the end. So my overall mark is seven, but if they had changed the ending slightly, made the duration of the film more intense, had more money to cast better actors and incorporate better effects, then this would have been a nine, maybe ten.