Sorority Row | |
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Directed by | Stewart Hendler |
Produced by | Darrin Holender Mike Karz |
Written by | Josh Stolberg Pete Goldfinger |
Based on | The House on Sorority Row by Mark Rosman |
Starring | Briana Evigan Leah Pipes Rumer Willis Jamie Chung Audrina Patridge Julian Morris Margo Harshman Matt Lanter Carrie Fisher |
Music by | Lucian Piane |
Cinematography | Ken Seng |
Edited by | Elliot Greenberg |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Summit Entertainment |
Release date | |
Running time | 101 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $12.5 million[1] |
Box office | $27.2 million |
Popular Celebs Best Picture Winners Top Rated Movies Top Rated Indian Movies Lowest Rated Movies Full Cast & Crew: Sorority Spy 2 (2004 Video). Sorority Row is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Stewart Hendler and starring Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis, and Carrie Fisher. Based on the script for the 1983 horror film The House on Sorority Row by Mark Rosman and Bobby Fine. Movies Games Audio Art Portal Community Your Feed.
Sorority Row is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Stewart Hendler and starring Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis, and Carrie Fisher. Based on the script for the 1983 horror film The House on Sorority Row by Mark Rosman, the film is a re-imagining that focuses on a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered on the night of their graduation after covering up the accidental death of a fellow sorority sister.
The film was released theatrically in the United States on September 11, 2009, by Summit Entertainment and grossed $27.2 million worldwide against a budget of $12.5 million.
After finding out that her boyfriend Garrett (Matt O'Leary) has cheated on her, Megan (Audrina Patridge) enlists the help of her friends and fellow Theta Pi sorority sisters Cassidy (Briana Evigan), Jessica (Leah Pipes), Ellie (Rumer Willis), Claire (Jamie Chung), and Chugs (Margo Harshman) to pull a prank on him. While having sex with Garrett, Megan fakes her own death. Garrett and the girls bring her to a lake, where they intend to dump her body. When Jessica mentions they need to release the air out of her lungs so that her body will not float to the surface, Garrett stabs Megan in the chest with a tire iron, resulting in her actual death. Garrett and the girls cover up the incident and dump Megan's body and the tire iron in a nearby mine shaft. Everyone swears to never mention the incident to anyone, much to Cassidy and Ellie's dismay.
Eight months later, the girls are graduating from college and have put the incident behind them, but Cassidy has grown apart from the rest of the group. During the party held after graduation, the girls all receive a text message on their cell phones with a picture of a robed person holding the bloody tire iron. Suspicion immediately falls on Garrett, but Chugs defends him, insisting that he's changed after killing Megan. Maggie (Caroline D'Amore), Megan's younger sister, arrives at the party, wanting to honor her sister's memory. Later that day, Chugs arrives for her appointment to visit her therapist. However, a cloaked figure wielding a tire iron murders both of them.
In the sorority's shower room, Claire and Jessica talk about the night Megan was murdered. After they leave, a sorority girl named Joanna, who overheard their conversation, is murdered. At the party that night, Claire's ex-boyfriend Mickey is attacked and murdered by the killer, which Ellie witnesses. Cassidy, Claire, Jessica, and Ellie regroup and all receive a text containing the video of Megan's death and a message telling them to be at the mine shaft in twenty minutes or the video will be sent to the police. The girls drive to the mine shaft and encounter Garrett, who has cut his wrists and begins threatening them.
Thinking Garrett is the one stalking them, Jessica runs over him with her vehicle. However, they discover afterward that Garrett has been receiving the same text messages they have. Ellie suspects that Megan is the killer, believing that she did not actually die and is seeking revenge. The girls lower Cassidy down the shaft to prove that Megan is dead. Instead of finding Megan's body, she finds a message written in blood which reads, 'Theta Pi must die'. Back at the now empty sorority house, the girls receive a text from Chugs' cell phone, telling them that she is dead. Afterward, Claire is murdered with a flare gun. Searching the house for Jessica's boyfriend, Kyle (Matt Lanter), the girls run into Maggie and their house mother, Mrs. Crenshaw (Carrie Fisher). Maggie claims that Kyle had been with her prior to Jessica's return.
After finding out about Megan's murder, Mrs. Crenshaw tells the girls to lock themselves in Jessica's bedroom and to call the police while she searches for the killer. Maggie is horrified when she learns what happened to Megan and, thinking she's the killer, leaves the room to find her and convince her to stop killing. After many failed attempts to shoot the killer in the kitchen, Mrs. Crenshaw attempts to reload her shotgun but is killed by the hooded figure. With no cell phones around, Cassidy and Jessica decide to find Mickey's body and use his cell, telling Ellie to run if she gets the chance. Downstairs, the killer confronts Maggie and after she begs for the killer to stop, throws a Molotov cocktail at her, setting the house on fire. Cassidy and Jessica run into Kyle, who injures Jessica after getting into an argument with her. Cassidy and Jessica flee to an under-renovation bathroom where they find Megan's decomposing corpse hanging in the shower.
Kyle wearing the same cloak as the killer finds then attacks them. As he does so, it is revealed that Kyle knew of what had happened with Megan as Jessica told him. He is killed with an axe by Andy (Julian Morris), Cassidy's boyfriend. Jessica regains consciousness after being knocked out and Cassidy realizes that Andy is the killer. Jessica tries to negotiate with Andy, but he stabs her in the mouth with a tire iron, killing her. Andy explains that he had hoped for a bright future with Cassidy, but because she was involved with Megan's death, he feared that she would be found out, so he decided to kill everyone who knew about it. Despite Cassidy's opposition, Andy tells her that they need to kill Ellie, the only person still alive who knows about the murder. Andy reveals that Ellie was the one who confided in him about Megan's murder and will likely report it the police. Cassidy plays along and tells Andy that Ellie is in the basement.
Just as Cassidy fetches Ellie from upstairs, they're discovered and attacked by Andy. Cassidy stuns Andy and escapes, but finds Maggie, who is trapped behind the flames. Andy attempts to kill Maggie, resulting in a fight between him and Cassidy. The floor then crumbles underneath Cassidy, and she is left hanging over the burning basement. As Andy recovers and is about to finish her off, Ellie appears and shoots him with Mrs. Crenshaw's shotgun. He falls backward onto the burning floor, which collapses under him and he falls to his death into the flames. After Maggie and Ellie save Cassidy, the three girls escape from the burning sorority house just as the fire department and other emergency personnel arrive.
18 months later, the Theta Pi building is being renovated from the fire and Maggie is now a Theta Pi sister. As the girls sing the Theta Pi song, a man comes into view, holding a garden trowel. The camera pans up to his wrist, revealing scars, implying that Garrett is still alive.
Sorority Row entered pre-production in January 2008. Principal photography began on October 16, 2008 in the Pittsburgh area. Although set in Anytown, USA, producers of the film wanted to take advantage of Pennsylvania state tax credits (much like the 2009 remake of My Bloody Valentine) and the strength of local film crews. The film was mostly shot at night in Munhall, one block from the Carnegie Library of Homestead, where about 10 houses were dressed to resemble a sorority row. The graduation scene for the film's school Rosman University, a fictional east coast school (named after the writer/director of The House on Sorority Row) was shot outside of Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. Interiors of the Theta Pi sorority were filmed on sets built in a warehouse near Crafton, Pennsylvania.[2] Filming ended on March 26, 2009. The film was officially completed on May 2, 2009.[3]
Sorority Row (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | |
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Soundtrack album by Various artists | |
Released | August 31, 2009 |
Genre | Soundtrack |
Length | 51:01 |
Label | E1 Music |
Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [4] |
The film's soundtrack was released by E1 Music on August 31, 2009, and featured music by musical artists such as Shwayze, Ladytron, Lykke Li, Aimee Allen, and Camera Obscura, among others. The album received 2.5 out of 5 stars from Allmusic, stating: 'Of the 15 tracks, only a few are even remotely memorable (Ladytron's 'Ghosts,' Camera Obscura's 'Tears for Affairs,' and Dragonette's 'booty' anthem 'I Get Around' come to mind), but there's hardly a dull moment.'[5]
A teaser trailer premiered at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International along with the main cast discussing the film's premise and how it felt working with the crew. Sorority Row was released on September 9, 2009 in the UK and September 11, 2009 in the USA.[6] The DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released on the 11th January 2010 in the UK[7] and the 23 February 2010 in the US.[8]
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator website, reports 23% of critics gave the film positive reviews based upon a sample of 78. The site's consensus reads; 'Though it's slick and stylish, Sorority Row offers nothing new to the slasher genre and misses the mark both in its attempts at humor and thrills.'[9]Metacritic rated it 24/100 based on 11 reviews.[10]
The film grossed $5,059,802 during its opening weekend, placing sixth in the process.[11] It then fell 49% during its second weekend of release, while finishing with $8,965,282 in total. Internationally, its performance was mixed compared to its domestic run. It did manage fourth place in its debut in the UK,[12] while it missed the top ten in both Australia and Mexico.[13]
Year | Ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result |
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2009 | 2010 Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie: Actress Horror / Thriller | Audrina Patridge | Nominated |
Rumer Willis | Nominated |
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The House on Sorority Row | |
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Directed by | Mark Rosman |
Produced by | John G. Clark |
Written by |
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Starring | |
Music by | Richard Band |
Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
Edited by |
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VAE Productions | |
Distributed by |
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91 minutes[2] | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $425,000[3] |
Box office | $10.6 million[4] |
The House on Sorority Row (alternately titled House of Evil and Seven Sisters)[5] is a 1983 American slasher film written and directed by Mark Rosman, produced by John G. Clark, and starring Eileen Davidson and Katherine McNeil. Set at a sorority house, the story follows a group of sorority sisters being murdered during a graduation party, after committing a prank gone horribly fatal.
Partly inspired by the 1955 French film Les Diaboliques, first-time writer-director Rosman wrote the screenplay for the film in 1980, then titled Seven Sisters. The film was shot on location in Pikesville, Maryland in the summer months of 1980. In November 1982, it received a limited regional theatrical release before expanding on January 21, 1983, eventually going on to gross $10.6 million. Despite a mixed critical response, The House on Sorority Row has attained a cult following among fans of the genre.[6] A remake, titled Sorority Row, was released in 2009.
Seven sorority sisters – Katey, Vicki, Liz, Jeanie, Diane, Morgan, and Stevie – celebrate their graduation ceremony at their sorority house, located at the far end of a sorority row. Their celebration is interrupted by their domineering house mother, Mrs. Slater, who denies the girls' plan to throw a graduation party. The girls then devise a prank: They steal her walking cane and place it in the house's unused outdoor pool and force her at gunpoint to retrieve it. The prank goes awry when Vicki inadvertently shoots Slater, who appears to be dead. The girls agree to hide the body in the pool until their party ends.
At the party, an unidentified figure stabs a man walking in the woods with Slater's cane. The girls realize that if the pool lights turn on, Slater's body will be revealed, so Stevie goes into the basement to disable the breaker. She is brutally stabbed to death by the killer. Later, the pool lights come on, but Slater's body is not there.
Deciding that Slater must be alive, the girls search for her. Morgan enters Slater's room where Slater's body falls on her. Vickie suggests hiding the body in the old cemetery. Morgan is later stabbed with Slater's cane. Katey discovers children's toys and a dead caged bird in the attic. Diane is murdered next, and Jeanie is decapitated with a butcher knife in the bathroom. At the house, Katey finds a medical alert tag on a necklace belonging to Slater. She calls the number and is put through to a Dr. Beck, who arrives. The two discover the bodies of Stevie, Morgan, and Diane in the pool. Vicki and Liz drive to the cemetery to bury Slater's body. However, both girls are killed by the assailant. At the cemetery, Katey finds the bodies of Vicki and Liz; and Slater's body in the back of the van.
After forcibly giving Katey a sedative at the house, Dr. Beck reveals that Slater had a son named Eric who was deformed and mentally underdeveloped thanks to an illegal fertility treatment he had given her. Dr. Beck uses Katey as bait so he can capture Eric and cover up his crime. Eric arrives and hacks Dr. Beck to death while Katey searches for Vicki's gun, which does not fire. She flees to the bathroom to release the gun's safety catch and finds Jeanie's severed head in the toilet. She climbs to the attic, where she is attacked by Eric, now wearing a clown costume. She shoots him repeatedly, only to find the gun is loaded with blanks. She then uses a pin to stab Eric numerous times, and he falls through the attic to the floor below. Katey believes he is dead. However, Eric was only stunned, and opens his eyes, leaving Katey's fate unknown.
Writer-director Mark Rosman, who had attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and later graduated from New York University, got the idea for The House on Sorority Row after returning to his hometown in Los Angeles.[7] Rosman had been a fraternity member at UCLA, which he used as a partial basis for writing the screenplay, which focused on a group of sorority sisters who find their lives threatened after covering up a fatal prank.[8] Some elements of the film, primarily the usage of a pool to conceal their crime, were inspired by Les Diaboliques (1955), a French suspense film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.[9] He later stated he envisioned a suspense film in which 'the female characters would not just be victims–the whole idea of it was that they were culpable, and that they were sort of bringing this on themselves.'[10] The screenplay had several working titles, including Screamer and Seven Sisters.[11] Rosman initially accrued $125,000 as a starting budget, with the help of a friend who worked for VAE Productions, an independent studio that specialized in documentaries, based in Washington, D.C.[12]
The majority of the casting for The House on Sorority Row took place in New York City, though Eileen Davidson and Janis Zido were cast out of the Los Angeles area.[13] Davidson recalled auditioning at Rosman's house in Beverly Hills.[14] Kate McNeil, who was cast in the role of Katey, won the part while still attending graduate courses in New York City.[15]
Harley Jane Kozak recalled attending a casting call in a 'warehouse in Manhattan' and receiving a phone call several weeks later with the news that she had won the part.[16] Lois Kelso Hunt, who portrays the cantankerous housemother, was a local stage actress cast out of Washington, D.C.[17]
The House on Sorority Row was the directorial debut of director Rosman as well as the first feature film of cinematographer Tim Suhrstedt; both had met while working as assistant directors on Brian De Palma's Home Movies (1980).[18] Filming took place on location in Pikesville, Maryland,[16] with establishing campus shots at the University of Maryland,[19] in the summer of 1981.[16][20] The production had originally been slated to shoot in Washington, D.C., where the production company was located; however, Rosman found the house location featured in the film in Pikesville, which was in foreclosure, allowing the crew to film for a low cost.[21] Upon arriving at the house to shoot, the crew found two squatters living in the house, whom they allowed to work as video assistants.[22] Vincent Perronio, a frequent collaborator with John Waters, agreed to serve as the film's production designer, and dressed the entire house to appear as a sorority.[23]
The budget for the film was $300,000.[24] However, the production ran out of funds midway through filming, and Rosman had to secure a loan from a cousin in Los Angeles in order to complete the film.[25] Throughout principal photography, the cast stayed at Koinonia, a farm retreat in Pikesville where they lived together in 'dorm-like' conditions.[16] The film was a non-Screen Actors Guild production,[26] and Kozak and McNeil both recall receiving $50 per diem compensation for their days on set.[16][27]
While principal photography occurred exclusively in Maryland, additional transitional shots and pickups were completed in Los Angeles.[28] Among these included the shot of Davidson's character being impaled through the eye with the cane.[29]
Film Ventures International, an independent distributor, purchased the film for distribution after principal photography was complete, and also gave the filmmakers an additional $125,000 to complete post-production (the majority of which went toward scoring and mixing the film).[30] In an interview with director Mark Rosman, it was revealed that Lois Kelso Hunt's performance is entirely dubbed, as her voice was deemed not 'scary' enough for the role.[3] While her demeanor and performance were apt, Rosman found her voice not as husky as he had envisioned.[31]
According to Rosman, Film Ventures requested two changes to the final cut of the film:[32] The first was that the opening flashback scene, which was shot in black and white, be colorized; the sequence was then color-tinted to be black and blue.[33] The second change was in regards to the original ending. In the director's original ending, Katherine is discovered floating dead in the pool, apparently Eric's final victim. Film Ventures felt the ending too downbeat, so as a result Katherine survives in the finished version.[3]
The film's music score was written by Richard Band and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra,[21] recorded at Wembley Studios.[34] The Washington, D.C.-based powerpop band 4 Out of 5 Doctors appears in the movie, performing several of their songs.[citation needed]
La-La Land Records issued a disc of Band's score in 2015.[citation needed]
The one-sheet poster and advertising were created by Film Ventures International's regular advertising agency, Design Projects Incorporated. Design Project's owner, Rick Albert art directed the key art and title treatment design. The key art was illustrated by Jack Lynwood, who painted illustrations for many motion picture campaigns during the late 1970s and '80s. The copylines were written by distributor Film Ventures International's Edward L. Montoro.
Initially, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer expressed interest in distributing the film, but ultimately backed out, after which Film Ventures International bought it for distribution.[35]The House on Sorority Row was released on November 25, 1982 in the United States, screening regionally in New Mexico.[1][36] The theatrical release expanded on January 21, 1983,[37] and took in $617,661 in its opening weekend on 153 screens, ranking a low No. 14 at the box office. By February 21, 1983, exactly one month after its expansion, the film had grossed $4,330,028. Its ultimate gross totaled $10,604,986.[4]
During a 1982 theatrical run of the film, critic Anthony DellaFlora of the Albuquerque Journal wrote of the film: '[Horror films] are supposed to put you in a state of unmitigated terror. This one does neither. The House on Sorority Row may have brought new meaning to the term 'Greek tragedy,' but it certainly didn't scare anyone. Mark Rosman, who produced, directed and wrote the alleged thriller must take most of the blame for this.'[1]
Rotten Tomatoes reports that 56% of 8 sampled critics gave the film mixed reviews, with an average score of 5 out of 10. Film scholar Scott Aaron Stine notes that the film has 'competent production values, but this in no way compensates for the rote proceedings.'[2]John Kenneth Muir refers to the film as 'a textbook example of the 1980s slasher film' that 'boasts a devilish sense of humor.'[38] Critic Jim Harper notes the film as a moralistic slasher film and probable influence on films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997).[39]
In 2017, Complex included the film in a retrospective of the best slasher films of all time.[40] In a May 2018 retrospective published by Inquisitr, the film was deemed 'a disturbing tale of revenge that plays as timely social commentary' and noted as a horror film that 'has stood the test of time.'[41]
Elite Entertainment released The House on Sorority Row on DVD on November 14, 2000.[42] The disc featured the film's original theatrical trailer as a supplementary feature. The DVD was re-printed and released again on November 18, 2003.[43] It was again re-released on January 12, 2010 to commemorate the film's 25th anniversary.[44]
On January 24, 2011, Scorpion Releasing and Katarina Waters's Nightmare Theater released a 2-disc remastered edition on DVD and Blu-ray.[45] Scorpion Releasing and Code Red released a new Blu-ray edition on May 11, 2018, featuring a new 2K scan of the original master negative.[46] This edition, sold exclusively online and limited to 1,600 units,[47] features a slipcover and newly commissioned artwork.[46]
On September 11, 2009, a remake titled Sorority Row was released by Summit Entertainment. The film was directed by Stewart Hendler, with Mark Rosman, the director of the original, serving as an executive producer. It stars Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis, Jamie Chung, Audrina Patridge, Margo Harshman, and Carrie Fisher.[48] The script was rewritten by Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger.[49]
In 2017, Complex named The House on Sorority Row the 21st-best slasher film of all time, writing: 'The House on Sorority Row is, fortunately, more than just a puberty motivator for young boys. Director Mark Rosman does his best to stage prolonged moments of suspense, approaching the film’s kill scenes with his Hitchcock influences intact.'[50]
Scream 2 makes references to the movie with references to four other college-themed slasher films: The Dorm That Dripped Blood, Splatter University, Graduation Day, and Final Exam.
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