Sorority Row (15)

Review by Joyce Dundas

This is a predictable remake of The House on Sorority Row, the teen slasher movie from the 80s. In this one the story is changed slightly but not much. A bunch of dislikeable college juniors accidently cause the death of one of their sorority sisters, Megan (Partridge), when a prank goes wrong. In the spirit of sorority and self-preservation they agree to cover up the death and hide the corpse.

Flash forward one year to the girls' graduation when during the high jinks and alcohol-fuelled frolics they have to contend with a serial killer intent on picking them off one by one in ever more inventive ways. You won't be sorry to see them go. Their screaming and ‘biaatchy' style humour will have you sitting waiting for the next hammer to fall. It's exploitation of the highest order and it's depressing that no one seems to mind. What on earth Carrie Fisher is doing in there is anyone's guess.

Comparisons can be drawn to any or all of the slasher movies of the last few years — I Know What you did Last Summer, Black Christmas and Prom Night spring immediately to mind — and there is very little originality here, though some of the methods of killing are new, which is maybe what defines these films in the first place.

The girls themselves are all pretty, pneumatic, shiny-legged creatures who spend most of the film in lingerie or in the hot tub. And their attempts at being kick ass machines are laughable. You just know that they and their hapless boyfriends are cannon fodder.

There is a certain curiosity value in the young stars: Bruce Willis's daughter Rumer is one of the victims, as is Partridge, one of the stars of the MTV reality show The Hills, but their limited appeal won't guarantee great box office. The huge amount of lingerie on show might though.