DVD Reviews

Sorority Row

• Rating:
• Director: Stewart Hendler
• Starring: Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis, Matt O'Leary, Audrina Patridge
• Details: US/101mins (16)

There's something to be said for a good old fashioned slasher flick for bringing the brainless entertainment. Almost always utterly ridiculous, with a conclusion that Helen Keller could see coming, there is still a certain watchabilty with even the dumbest of the genre. Sorority Row fits right into that category, as in it's completely disposable and you'll forget about it the first time you blink after the credits roll; but it's also an entertaining hour and a half in the dark. Often funny, with some effective kills, this will please gore hounds, whilst giving most others a laugh. A remake of the 1983 thriller, The House On Sorority Row, story centres of a group of ridiculously attractive sorority sisters, who play a prank on an unsuspecting college-goer after he cheats on one of their brethren. They make him believe that the roofies he slipped a girl he was attempting to have relations with, have prematurely caused said young-one to buy the farm. The sisters play along, and go to "bury" the body; but when the young man impales a tire iron into her inflated chest, things start to get messy. After disposing of the body, they agree to move on with their lives and pretend the night never happened - until they start getting picked off by a hooded wrong sort, claiming to be the murdered girl. It's probably best not to think too much about Sorority Row; you'll just end up wondering how the hell the whole thing is supposed to make sense. But it has a sense of humour, and that's one crucial element in what makes this film enjoyable. Queen Bee, Jessica, is selfish, manipulative, dismissive and quite probably a sociopath; but she's also very funny, as her dead-pan matter-of-fact statements at inappropriate times rarely fail to raise a laugh. The slicing and dicing, too, is well done for the most part, as director Hendler manages to stamp a crisp visual style on proceedings, and ups the kill ratio after little procrastinating. All of the cast are in on the joke also, which makes such a production noticeably easier to sit through. Grab the biggest bucket of popcorn you can find, switch your brain completely off and go enjoy yourself. Just don't try and think about it afterwards - you'll ruin it.

Review by Mike Sheridan