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[Retro Nightmares] Revisiting Bloody Slasher ‘The House on Sorority Row’

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Kicking off the Halloween season, five HD digitally remastered cult horror classics--as voted online by fans–will be coming to the big screen as part of the “Bloody Disgusting Presents Retro Nightmares” Cinema Series this fall: The House on Sorority Row, Amityville: The Evil Escapes, Amityville: It’s About Time, Sweet Sixteen, and The Convent.

First up in the series is the underseen slasher The House on Sorority Row, playing in theaters on September 27, 2018.

At first glance, 1983’s The House on Sorority Row follows in the footsteps of slasher classic Black Christmas. Just before their college graduation blowout party is set to begin, a group of sorority sisters enact one final prank only for it to go horrifically awry. Their party turns nightmarish as they’re stalked and killed one by one. Though it does draw heavy influence from films that came before it, The House on Sorority Row offers a lot of fun surprises and is one of the more underappreciated slashers of the ‘80s.

Writer/director Mark Rosman spent time working as Brian de Palma’s assistant director on Home Movies prior to making his feature debut with The House on Sorority Row. His work with de Palma no doubt affecting his direction on this slasher, with a lot of camerawork bearing similarities to the auteur. Though there’s a lot of comparisons between Rosman’s film and Black Christmas, he also drew from films like Les Diaboliques when crafting the suspense. His love of black and white thrillers of the ‘60s is most obvious in the opening scene, a monochromatic flashback that plays a vital role in the character motivations of a few characters.

Moreover, Rosman didn’t care for the traditional slasher trope that the killer’s favored victim was the innocent female. Instead, he made this sorority sisters culpable. The way that most of the characters responded to the prank gone wrong that resulted in a death meant that the seven central characters deserved some level of punishment for their crime. They weren’t innocent bystanders by any stretch.

Yet, save for the requisite mean girl, these characters were still pretty likeable too.  Lead protagonist, Katey Rose (Katherine McNeil), is one of the more underrated final girls of the decade and clearly the one with the strongest moral compass of the bunch. Unlike Black Christmas, though, this group of sorority sisters spend a lot of time together with their friendships front and center and boys are an afterthought. The performances are all great, too, elevating this slasher above most released during this period.

The killer in this slasher is pretty creepy, made creepier by Richard Band’s atmospheric score. As for the kills, while most of them are fairly by the numbers, they deliver on the splatter. There’s no shortage of blood and gore, and one standout death is an all-timer.

It’s as the film barrels toward the third act that The House on Sorority Row departs from the seemingly standard slasher, delivering a fantastic final act that solidifies the film’s cult status. Rosman keeps the killer’s identity a mystery throughout, keeping the audience guessing as he spooks up effective stalking sequences. He plays with visuals in a unique way, too, with the story slowly growing from bright and cheerful to dark and disturbing as the body count piles up.

Between the inspired direction, a cast of talented ladies, fun kills, and one super creepy killer, The House on Sorority Row is a standout slasher released during the Golden Era of Slasher Films. It takes some surprising turns that you won’t see coming, and some you probably will, but it’s a fun slasher with a little more depth than most.

Tickets for The House on Sorority Row are on sale now at www.Retronightmares.com for theaters nationwide on September 27th, 2018. Special in-theater bonus content includes Attack Media’s comedic makeover of The House on Sorority Row (1983) in a five-minute rapid-fire remix presented as a classic ladies’ etiquette school recruitment video.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

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Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

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Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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