House on Sorority Row (2022 Revisit)

It really sucks when you legit graduate and before even taking the chance to focus on some potential career, the sorority house mother croaks leaving her hidden son traumatized to a psychotic break and those responsible unknowingly provoking his wrath on them. The prank gone wrong, sorority students concealing a secret death, and those involved trying to ward off a guilty conscience until a killer gets revenge on them. Katie is the one disgusted with the coverup while Vicky is ringleader who swears them to secrecy, using their certain arrest and career in peril as reasons to not go to the police. The bird handle cane, a wrapped body in the dirty pool removed, a big sorority house party, the lively rock band, a doctor's own secret, and the sisters left rocked by tragedy until each is picked off one at a time.

Very much a template for so many similar slashers and Lifetime horror after. I love me some Eileen Davidson, the vamp of the sisters and McNeil (Monkey Shines) is very much her polar opposite as the more mature, guilt-stricken sister who really wanted to do the right thing. Vicky and her sex on the water bed disrupted by Slater's pointy handle cane stirs it all up, amplified by the attempted party pooper halt...then the use of a gun near a pool throws everything all topsy-turvy.

I wanted to watch this along with Prom Night and Graduation Day as part of a "graduate slasher triple feature" but never got around to it. My daughter asked why the quality wasn't so good. But I actually like how Rosman's film retains that particular 1980-1983 look. For whatever reason, this period just looks different from the remaining decade. That poster is divine and I thought that fanciful melody really starts as if one chapter closes with another about to begin for the girls ..and that doesn't happen. Another creepy jack-in-the-box, too!