[Sorority Row]
Plot:Remake of the 1983 slasher movie "The House On Sorority Row" where after a seemingly innocent prank goes horribly wrong, a group of sorority sisters are stalked and murdered one by one in their sorority house while throwing a party to celebrate their graduation.

Cast:Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis, Carrie Fisher, Audrina Patridge, Jamie Chung, Julian Morris, Leah Pipes, Margo Harshman, Caroline D'Amore.

My Thoughts:Entertaining despite being slightly choppy.

Review:"Sorority Row" most of you may not know, is not actually a full-fledged remake of "The House On Sorority Row". The film is actually based on an original screenplay called "Seven Sisters", which fitted the "House On Sorority Row" mold so well in story and characters that the decision was made to simply call in "Sorority Row". Similar to how the screenplay for "Piranha 3-D" was born. At any rate, "Sorority Row" begins with a huge party at the Theta Pi house, where we meet the six sisters, Cassidy (Briana Evigan), Chugs (Margo Harshman), Ellie (Rumer Willis), Claire (Jamie Chung), Jessica (Leah Pipes), and Megan (Audrina Patridge).

After they do their Theta Pi toast upstairs, Jessica decides to check in on her prank, which involves Megan and Chugs brother Garrett. The gist is, Jessica gives Garrett some drugs to slip Megan to put her to sleep while he does his thing with her. The prank was originally supposed to teach Garrett who we learn from dialogue is a player-type, a lesson. The second part of the prank comes when Megan pretends to go into convulsions because of the drugs she was given. The prank however gets carried too far, and once Megan is taken out to a mine shaft in the dead of night by the other girls, and Garrett, Garrett stabs her through the throat with a tire iron to open up a hole where she can breathe, ala Agent Strahm in "Saw 6" in the waterbox trap.

But since Megan isn't really having a seizure, this just ends up causing her to gush blood, and eventually, she dies. Now, the panic begins, and the girls eventually fold to Jessica's demands to just dump Megan, and keep the whole thing a secret. Cassidy originally bucks the plan, but when Cassidy leaves to go call the cops, they snatch her jacket, and wrap Megan up inside it before dumping her body into a deep chasm. Now, Cassidy is tied up in the whole mess whether she likes it or not, and has to keep it a secret. Fast forward to graduation, the girls all receive a text which shows someone holding the blood-encrusted tire iron at the scene of the crime.

While the six sisters decide to ignore the text, and keep their secret, their hand soon is forced when a hoodie-draped serial killer emerges and begins to pick them off one by one. Using a heavily modified-with-blades version of the same tire iron which was used to kill Megan. "Sorority Row" wouldn't usually work because films like this, slasher films especially, don't know how to "work" this particular formula really well. They always end up dropping the ball somewhere. But this movie works for a number of reasons. One, the girls all have different personalities, and aren't really one-dimensional.

Their boyfriends however, are very one-dimensional, with the snobby rich son of a soon-to-be senator, the nice guy, and the slimeball who chases tail despite having a girlfriend already. But the girls themselves are very different from one-another. Chugs is the tomboy type, Jessica is the leader, Cassidy is the nice yet tormented one, Eillie is the chickenshit one who rarely stands up for herself, and Claire is the follower who always has Jessica's back for some reason, although it's not clear if this is because she's just a follower, or fears Jessica in some way.

Their different personalities really give the movie some great material to play off of when deaths aren't happening, or during those slow breather moments placed in between the kills. This is a necessity for any slasher film, because along with the deaths, you need something to hold everything else together, cinematic glue if you will. And if the characters suck or aren't interesting or fun to watch in any way, then it creates a scenario where you're just constantly waiting for the next person to get offed. Rather than allowing the film to ease into those moments.

The actresses who play the sisters also all do a good job, mostly Leah Pipes as Jessica who despite being somewhat evil, somewhat a bitch, and vicious in her own way, still manages to be a source of entertainment throughout the entire movie, and is a pleasure to watch perform on screen. Briana Evigan's character of Cassidy isn't really that interesting, but if you know this genre well, you know how she'll end up when all is said and done. So to overdo her character wasn't really necessary. Ellie and Claire are likeable, and Chugs, not so much.

And as far as the set pieces are concerned, they are pretty awesome. This movie uses some edgy visuals and very sleek locales for a lot of it's best moments. Even the shrinks office in this movie looks very stylish and swank, so it was obvious within the pic that there was a major effort to make the environment fit the Theta Pi vibe. There's even a great scene near the end which involves bubbles that I won't spoil here. The supporting cast isn't really that strong beyond the sisters, but there are two characters of the four supporting cast members who steal the show in Carrie Fisher as Mrs. Crenshaw, and Caroline D'Amore as Megan's sister Maggie.

Mrs. Crenshaw acts as a possible savior for the girls and a possible stopper of the killer, while Maggie plays the perfect rival to Jessica. So the supporting cast ladies deliver big time, the men? Not so much. The deaths in the film are great at the start, particularly the first one, but as the film moves on, they lose impact. Some of them seem too methodical, others don't really hit the right notes. But they're all bloody either way. Not super-bloody, but bloody none the less. The body count is modestly high, and the finale is very exciting where the big showdown is set to a sorority house which is literally in flames.

And of course added into all of this is the revelation of the killer's identity, which I felt was a bit weak. When you find out who the killer is, it's actually a letdown in some respects. But the movie still finishes on a really exciting and entertaining note, so that makes up for it somewhat. "Sorority Row' is a classic stalk-and-slash movie which delivers fun, laughs, high entertainment value, gory demises, and some great sceneries. It just might bring this genre back depending on how it opens this weekend.

Positives:The Theta Pi sisters were very entertaining and well-acted by Evigan, Pipes, Chung, Willis, etc. The first few kills are good, Fisher and D'Amore as Mrs. Crenshaw and Maggie respectively are excellent. Great set pieces, a fantastic ending, and a solid script. Very high entertainment value as well.

Negatives:The deaths seem to drop off in impact level as the bodies pile up. The revelation of who the killer is is disappointing, well, it was to me atleast.

Overall:Three and a half out of four stars.





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