The House on Sorority Row

Tonight’s movie is The House on Sorority Row.  I’ve been watching the tv show “Scream Queens” and it’s more than inspired by the 1983 movie.

So if I’m going to properly appreciate the derivative work, I should be familiar with the original.  

Just after graduation, a group of sorority girls kills their housemother in a prank gone wrong.  Because they’re horrible people, they’re throwing a graduation for themselves while her corpse sits weighted at the bottom of their dirty, algae filled swimming pool.  When they’re killed off, one by one, the killer using the woman’s spike tipped walking stick, it’s not really a surprise.

They do a pretty good job obscuring the killer, several kills from the killers point of view, almost giallo style, while some of the deaths take place with a cut-away, one of the earlier ones is even done in silhouette, but there’s no shortage of red paint.

Because I’m doing this usually around 2 am, I miss some ideas until late in the game- like how this movie was influenced by the original 1974 Black Christmas,  with the sorority house setting and the attic based killer.  Which would mean Black Christmas would be an influence on Scream Queens as well.

I’m going to give Scream Queens a couple of more episodes to convince me, but I think the Glee + Slasher film mashup isn’t really working.  In the concept of humorous slasher stories, the genre savvy cast of Scream- both cinematic and television- is a better mix versus Mean Girls with a bodycount. 

Of course, both Scream Queens and Scream (the Series) don’t quite measure up when compared to Harper’s Island, a much more effective presentation of the slasher genre on television.  While all three have the structure of ensemble cast and kill of the week, Harper’s Island ups the ante by containing the cast in a limited range, an island(!), while honestly, someone from the other shows always has the option to leave town (yes, I know that NEVER works out, but they’ve got the option, still).

I may give the remake a try, just to see how badly they butcher it- I looked on IMDB and didn’t recognize any of the cast.  On the other hand, I’m probably going to give the remake of Black Christmas a view on the strength of the cast, including Kristen Cloke, Michelle Trachtenberg, Andrea Martin, and Oliver Hudson (who has a role on Scream Queens, so that brings this full circle for me.  Time for bed.)