Movies
[Review] ‘Sorority Row’ (2009)
When Glen Morgan remade Black Christmas in 2006, he was burned at the stake. Bob Clark’s original is a classic, and it didn’t deserve to be part of the remake machine (I am curious how it would fare had it come along AFTER Rob Zombie’s Halloween). I, however, liked his film. It wasn’t better but any means, but I liked the approach: putting a bunch of cute girls in a house, deriving humor from the characters instead of referencing horror movies, and dishing up a lot of over-the-top and gory kills. Fine by me. Well, now we have Sorority Row, which takes the same approach, except the original House On Sorority Row isn’t quite as lauded as Christmas, so hopefully this time folks will go easy on it.
What I most appreciated was that it offers up traditional slasher fun without any of the excessive brutality that a lot of modern slasher films have. The kills are bloody, yes, but not viciously so. After seeing H2’s overkill (“Why stab someone once when you can stab them 34 times?” Rob Zombie seems to be thinking), it’s nice to see a simple impaling every now and then.
It’s also refreshingly fast-paced. The prank that sets up the I Know What You Did Last Summer-esque plot occurs in the first 5 minutes, with the slasher claiming his/her first kill a few scenes later. The original took FOREVER to get to this point, and there was a lot of dilly-dally after that (then again, it had a slightly more complicated plot). And at first I was afraid that the compact main cast (six girls) would mean a low body count, but it’s actually about double that.
I do have one major issue. My biggest problem with the original was that the killer had this really creepy Jester costume that you never saw until the end of the film. I was hoping that the remake would make up for this and put him in a few scenes at least. But no! The costume isn’t used at all, and worse – now it’s just a big hooded coat like in Urban Legend. I don’t know why so many modern slashers are so reluctant to even try to make an interesting, costume-worthy killer, but that seems to be the case. Then again, I guess it makes the occasional memorable killer (like Chromeskull from Laid To Rest, or Babyface from The Hills Run Red) look even more badass in comparison.
As for the surprising R rating (I thought for sure this would be a PG-13 deal), it’s well-earned, though if you’re hoping for lots of nudity you’re shit out of luck. None of the main girls disrobe, instead only a couple of the random house girls are seen topless. More importantly, some of the deaths are pretty splattery, and follow Happy Birthday To Me’s template of being somewhat goofy (there are at least two deaths via something being forced in someone’s mouth). And (and this is what really won me over), the girls swear like sailors. Hell, even Carrie Fisher has a potty mouth. But unlike Zombie’s Halloween, the girls (particularly Margo Harshman) sound natural when they swear, and don’t get excessive with it. Plus, some of them ARE bitches, so when one calls another a bitch, it actually makes sense.
I know this won’t be a favorite among anyone, because it’s so by the numbers, but dammit, I miss this sort of “nothing special” slasher movie. So many of them nowadays are fixed on gimmicks, or 3D, or trying to outdo one of the other films – it’s nice to see one that’s simply a traditional slasher movie. It even has a nonsensical sequel setup, another tradition that’s been somewhat phased out. Well played.
Exclusives
‘The Space Between’ Exclusive Teaser Trailer – Damian Maffei Stars in Indie Liminal Horror Movie
Liminal horror is all the rage right now in the wake of A24’s Backrooms dominating the box office, and up next from the sub-genre is the indie film The Space Between.
We recently told you that The Space Between had wrapped production inside an operational Midwestern mall, and now we’re exclusively debuting the teaser trailer today.
Damian Maffei (The Strangers: Prey At Night, Wrong Turn, Haunt) stars in The Space Between. Watch the teaser trailer below, and also find the official poster underneath.
Maffei plays Rick, an overnight security guard working inside a once-bustling shopping mall after closing. While quietly carrying the grief of losing his daughter, Rick clings to the structure of his nightly routine as a form of stability. Over the course of a single shift, that routine begins to fracture as something unseen retraces his every step.
Kate Kiddo (Black Eyed Susan, The Events Surrounding a Peeping Tom) co-stars in the liminal horror movie as Dispatch, Rick’s only point of contact during the night. She is a calm and steady voice guiding him through his rounds as the system he relies on begins to break down.
Production took place inside an operational Midwestern mall, utilizing real locations after hours to ground the film’s surveillance-driven psychological horror and liminal atmosphere. Built through a lean independent model, the production focused on performance, practical environments, and atmosphere.
Filmmakers were granted unlimited access to more than 96,000 square feet of retail, corridor, and back-of-house space for critical sequences, allowing the production to capture the scale, emptiness, and unsettling realism of a functioning mall after dark.
Writer/director Joshua Garity tells Bloody Disgusting, “The original image that helped define the internet’s idea of liminal horror was traced back to Wisconsin, and that matters because those are the kinds of spaces I grew up in. They were once the heartbeat of a community, but many of them have slowly eroded into something more unnerving. Half-empty malls that still echo with laughter, if you listen closely and strip away the fresh coats of paint. The Space Between comes from that same Midwestern familiarity. It’s not about recreating Backrooms, but about exploring why these spaces stay with you: the absence, the repetition, and the feeling that a place you know is somehow watching you back.”
The Space Between is targeting a Fall 2026 release. Stay tuned for updates.
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