The Firelight Shocks DVD Review Section

The House on Sorority Row Distributor: Elite Entertainment Region: 0 NTSC Ratio: 1:85:1 Sound: Dolby Digital Mono

A group of college friends decide to stay in their sorority house for a few days longer following graduation and celebrate, believing it to be empty. Unfortunately the housemother, Mrs Slater, turns up and throws a spanner in the works. The girls decide to play a prank on her that goes horribly wrong and they end up unintentionally killing her. In a panic they wrap the body up in several towels and dump it in the weed-infested swimming pool. With that out of the way, the girls forge ahead with their party plans, even though they're a little uneasy about the whole situation. With the party in full swing the girls relax a little, until they discover that the body has gone and that someone is bumping them off one by one until only one girl is left to fight for her survival. Is it the return of Mrs Slater or something worse? More to the point is whether by the end of the film you'll even care! The main problem with the film is that the opening scene immediately gives away the supposed twist ending. Those of you who are familiar with the slasher genre will have figured out how it all ends before the opening credits even roll across the screen! Also, the acting is dire, the plot is predictable and the violence is unshocking. The casual viewer may find it mildly entertaining, but horror fans will be hugely disappointed. One reason to view it, though, is for the fact that it's plot seems to have been an obvious inspiration for I Know What You Did Last Summer. Did Kevin Williamson draw on this when he wrote I Know What You Did Last Summer? I suspect that he did. But (and I hate to say this) Williamson's effort is far superior to this rather lame effort. Elite have done a reasonable job of presenting this on DVD, a sharp image with strong vibrant colours and a passable audio track, though it's nothing special. It's also 16x9 enhanced. Unless you're an obsessive collector of early eighties slasher movies you're better off buying something better, like Anchor Bay's superb release of Halloween, which is the ultimate American slasher flick.

EXTRAS: Elite are not known for their generosity with extras and this disc is no exception. You get one dire looking trailer, which curiously had a voice-over that told a different synopsis to the film I had just watched! Very odd... Be warned, there's no inlay card either. They really are mean those boys at Elite! Chris Otter