Back to the Sorority Again

 Except this time, there are no tasks to carry out for pledges or any big party. This is very much closer in spirit to The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) where a few young ladies at a sorority (no high school girls like in Slumber) spend the night at their sorority house, eventually under attack by a knife-wielding crazy who escaped from a lunatic asylum (of course). Sorority House Massacre (1986) features its Laurie Strode virgin as a traumatized Angela O'Neill, having lost her family (when she was a little five year old girl) to the very sicko looking to stab as many young people as he can, including the lead heroine of the film. Trapped inside the sorority house while John C Russell startles the college boyfriends with knife stabs, the remaining ladies try to fend him off and escape. Russell, though, seems to always be one step ahead of them each and every way, stabbing one body at a time as the number of victims adds to his tally. The past trauma resurfacing in dreams has been done before in the slasher genre. I just seen that put to use in the previous slasher film, The Initiation (1984). I like it a lot as a plot device as it can add dimension to the main character and even the killer. That O'Neill and Russell are brother and sister screams Halloween II (1982), I get that, but I personally didn't think it took too much away from my enjoyment of it. My problem with Russell is that the film makes him ridiculously impervious to a significant amount of shovel shots and, for whatever reason, Linda (Wendy Martel) just had to die. I'm not sure why slasher film directors and screenwriters refuse to allow the best friends of heroines to survive hardly ever. Considering how heroic and brave (and such a fighter) Linda is, you'd think the filmmakers would have a heart for a change and let the poor girl live! O'Neill's Beth is very much of that rich vein of final survivors of the slasher genre that is sweet, understated, and innocent to a fault. She's never hysterical, even when plagued by horrible nightmares regarding Russell. You know, the ladies of the film aren't of the overwrought variety, which I always appreciate unless the slasher film calls for such theatrics. This slasher, though, is very serious. It is directed sincerely, except for the nudity where boobs come and go as the ladies change out of clothes. I think that might be why a lot of slasher fans rejected it. You know, I don't mind this little slasher movie. It is VERY low budget and not particularly distinguishable from anything else of this genre. That can be a problem when you have a lot of fucking slashers in the decade. I think this is about a 2.5/5 for me.