Sick Product of a Sick System

Admirable film.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Five sexy coeds buy the old Hockstedter place dirt cheap as their new sorority house. After holding an ill-advised séance, the spirit of crazed psycho Hockstedter returns to wreak murderous havoc on the ladies during their first night in the spooky abode. Director Jim Wynorski maintains a zippy pace throughout, brings a blithely campy'n'schlocky sensibility to the tacky material, delivers oodles of deliciously gratuitous female nudity and a handy helping of over-the-top splashy bloodshed, and tosses in neat nods to such grindhouse gems as "Hollywood Boulevard" and "The Slumber Party Massacre" for good measure. Tall buxom blonde Melissa Moore, busty Brit Gail Harris (whose posh English accent is never explained, but does it really matter?), foxy honey Stacia Zhivago, diminutive doll Michelle Verran, and fetching brunette Dana Bentley aren't exactly the most adept actresses on the planet, but boy do they look absolutely smokin' in skimpy lingerie and, of course, they all bare their scrumptious wares in the name of leering exploitation. Jurgen Baum and Toni Naples do decent work as a pair of hard-nosed detectives. As a yummy plus, the luscious Bridget Carney struts her sizzling stuff as aptly named stripper Candy and even ill-fated porn starlet Savannah pops up (and out) in a small part. Peter Spellos easily steals the whole show with his hilarious portrayal of tubby creep neighbor Orville Ketchum. The tongue-in-cheek script by Mark Thomas McGee, J.B. Rogers, and Bob Sheridan pokes merry fun at various tried'n'true horror clichés that include the inevitable dark'n'stormy night, hokey flashbacks, and the obvious red herring secondary character. The acceptable cinematography by Baum and J.E. Bash makes nice use of shadowy lighting. Chuck Cirino's sprightly cornball score hits the silly spot. A delightfully rubbishy blast.

Sorority House Massacre 2 (1990) *** (out of 4) Five college girls (played by older actresses of course) move into a new sorority house where they are stalked by a maniac. This is one of my favorite direct to VHS titles that were all over during the 1980's and 90's. This film from director Jim Wynorski (Big Bad Mama 2, Chopping Mall) has everything a good horror film should have from big breasted women, non-stop nudity, strip clubs, girls in their underwear, a good maniac, bad special effects and of course, more nudity. The film never takes itself too serious and goes for plenty of laughs in its over the top spoof of the genre. Footage from The Slumber Party Massacre is used as well. This is in no way connected to Sorority House Massacre. Porn star Savannah has a small role. Peter Spellos is great as the mysterious neighbor.

Sorority House Massacre 2 is an excellent example of how you can recycle the scenes from another film, in the hope that others haven't seen that other film, and use them to create a mythology that your story centers itself upon. In this case, several scenes are pilfered from the much superior "Slumber Party Massacre," except the teacher becomes the driller killer's wife, the girls that survive are his daughters, and the driller killer isn't "Russ Thorn," but is named something else completely.A sorority purchases a abandoned home, and while setting themselves up in it, they find a Ouija board and decide to invoke the sinister spirit of the maniac. And they succeed.One of the girls is possessed by the maniac, and goes on a killing spree, while the girls are convinced that its actually the big oaf of a next door neighbor that looks like he hasn't bathed in a year, and seems rather immortal in the number of times he's butchered and abused but still comes roaring back.I will say this for this film: it has a really clever trailer- cheap, but definitely one that invokes the interest of the viewer. And there are also a couple of scenes that are really surprisingly scary.

In-name only sequel that was filmed under a different title. Not too bad. Not alotta blood, plenty of nudity. Good setting and has an '80's slasher feel to it. I just get so annoyed with the Slumber Party Massacre footage. Hard To Die did that and so did the later-day Cheerleader Massacre. The possessed girl at the end was a little bit disappointing. The humorous touches did not help either. Orville was fun though, but was better in Hard To Die. I would rather watch this than I Know What You Did Last Summer or anything else in that big-studio vein. Campy exploitation trash all the way.Two and a half stars.