In 1983 the film The House on Sorority Row was released and soon became a cult classic among horror fans. Typical of the Hollywood movie industry, in 2009 a remake was made called simply ‘Sorority Row’ which received generally negative feedback from critics. Although, I personally love it when filmmakers decide to completely revamp the original in order to appeal to a contemporary audience – innovation is better than imitation! As proven with the hideously atrocious remake of Nikita (called Point of No Return or The Assassin, made by John Badham), a shot-for-shot remake is not really what audiences are interested in, which is why I believe credit should be given to Sorority Row for not being afraid of spicing the story up a little bit.
The director of the original claimed to dislike the American DVD cover for The House on Sorority Row – showing a near naked female looking distressed, which is not a trap that the remake fell into. However, Sorority Row has consistently been slated as being ‘misogynistic’ and having ‘gratuitous nudity’ but I must say that I disagree. Yes, the girls are scantily clad, but there’s only a few boobs displayed (none at all from the ‘main’ characters), so I hardly think this complaint is valid, especially considering that generally speaking, horror movies always like to throw in some boobs somewhere along the line. Speaking as a girl myself, I find it amusing to see such stereotypes of the ‘party girls’ with their tiny short shorts and incessant drinking. It’s funny, not offensive. And it’s funny because we all know at least one girl like that! It’s nice to have a bit of light relief every so often in the film, and I thought the darkly comedic character ‘Chugs’ (played by Margo Harshman) was very amusing to watch.
The main story of both of the films is not identical, but still remains quite similar. It follows a group of sorority girls who pull a prank which ends up backfiring, costing some of them their lives! The remake also has a touch of I Know What You Did Last Summer to it, what with a year passing between the prank and the ‘payback’, as well as a ‘whodunnit’ vibe, kind of reminiscent of the Scream movies. Part of the reason that I liked Sorority Row is because it’s a film that’s a bit light-hearted and not supposed to be taken too seriously. Even Carrie Fisher’s cameo was hilarious to watch, with her going after the killer with her big rifle saying, ‘come to momma’. This quirkiness is present in the original film too which makes it an endearing watch, though unfortunately it was horror movie that never really made it ‘big’, leaving the question of why the remake was even decided to be made in the first place really (though, I’m glad it was).
I felt like the remake had enough references back to the original film to show that it has not forgotten its roots, and that it isn’t trying to separate itself from it. Examples of this include the name of the university that the ‘sisters’ attend, which is called Rosman University – named after the director/writer of the original House on Sorority Row, Mark Rosman (he was even the executive producer of the remake too!). There’s also a bird-shaped cane that Cassidy (played by Briana Evigan) uses as a weapon which is almost identical to the cane that Mrs Slater carries in the original film, as well as a drunk boy declaring that he’s a ‘sea pig’ in both of the movies. It’s these little details which show the dedication to the original House on Sorority Row, which is something that only true fans will be acutely aware of.
Both films don’t really offer anything new to the horror genre, but they’re entertaining to watch without a doubt. I’m sure there must be some nostalgia involved for people watching the original who were around during the eighties, making it a fun experience – especially seeing the not-so-good way the ‘gore’ was handled, (though there isn’t too much blood, in all). I also think that Sorority Row is a perfect example of a horror film being correctly ‘modernised’ to suit the current times. I don’t care what all of the ‘critics’ say about this movie, I enjoyed it and that’s all that matters.
