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Rewinding back
a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of re-visiting
“House
on Sorority Row”, with its recent
restored version released on DVDS. (Sorry,
I wanted to see how many words I could use
that start with ‘re’ in one
sentence.) This classic slasher film from
the 80’s isn’t as well remembered
as some, but in many ways was one of the
best of its time, with little pretense,
a decent story, and lots of interesting
demises.
Being that it wasn’t as well known,
I wondered how a remake would fare considering
how many have been made lately for better
known classics. Most of these weren’t
very good to begin with, but the stigma
of being a remake just made them all the
more ignored.
I have to say that “Sorority Row”,
while still not as good as the original,
really did attempt to recapture a lot of
what made the original so interesting.
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It made a few improvements in pacing, getting
to the ‘point’ of the movie much quicker
than “House on…”, turned in
some fascinating kills without going too much
over the top, and actually hired some decent actresses
to portray the killer’s victims. Where a
lot of the new remakes try to be extremely stylish
in their execution, you know… in order to
make them ‘hip’, “Sorority Row”
harkens back the basics.
It was very refreshing to see a slasher film
that didn’t want to go the way of ‘torture
porn’ either. I very quickly tired of the
“Hostel” type movie that weren’t
so much horror films as they were an opportunity
to make audiences squirm as much as possible.
I’m sorry, making me squirm is not the same
as scaring me. I wanna jump, not grimace. “Sorority
Row” is a straightforward slasher film,
with a high body count. Kills are fairly quick
and brutal, and the jump factor is well in place.
The acting is also a lot better than average,
considering several of the girls have to portray
major bitches. Their profanity laden dialogue
does not feel forced, like in the recent remakes
of “Halloween”, where there are only
12 actual words in the whole script. The ‘F’
word is used like 1,203,583 times and every time
it’s like the character needs to think about
using it.
Summit Entertainment’s Bluray release of
“Sorority Row” actually has quite
a few special features, which I didn’t expect.
The main course features a picture-in-picture
commentary which unites director Stewart Hendler
with his ‘Scream Queens’ Briana Evigan,
Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis and Margo Harshman in
an on camera discussion about the film. While
the idea behind this feature is a bit clever,
it wears thin pretty quickly. Even on a big screen
TV, it’s kind of hard to make everyone out
in the tiny picture. Making matters worse, while
Hendler is trying to offer some interesting information
about the movie, the girls keep interrupting him
to say whatever pops into their heads. Several
times I just wanted to tell them to shut the hell
up and let the man talk.
There is also a ‘making of’ feature
with Hendler who is joined by screenwriters Josh
Stohlberg and Pete Goldfinger. It is a fairly
short feature, but it offers some interesting
background on the movie. The girls also get another
chance to ‘entertain’ you in a feature
where they discuss their characters. Additionally
you’ll find a collection of all the kills
strung together as well as a selection of deleted
scenes and outtakes.
I was very pleased to see that they also offered
an above average transfer for this film. The audio
and video were both perfectly clear, making the
viewing all the more enjoyable. Even the extra
features are all in High Definition, which is
a definite plus in my book.
“Sorority Row” is one of the better
horror remakes to come out in recent years. I’ll
be interested to see how well it fares in the
home entertainment market.
Directed by: Stewart Hendler
Starring: Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis,
Jamie Chung, Audrina Partridge, Julinan Morris,
Margo Harshman, Matt Lanter, Carrie Fisher
Extras: Secrets from the Set; Killer 101; Kill
Switch; Deleted Scenes; Outtakes; PIP Video Commentary
with Director & Cast
Specification: Widescreen (2.40:1) 1080p High
Def; DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: 2/23/2010
MPAA Rating: R
http://www.summit-ent.com/
We'll give a Sorority Row a B.
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