The House on Sorority Row | |
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Theatrical film poster
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Directed by | Mark Rosman |
Produced by | John G. Clark |
Written by | Bobby Fine Mark Rosman |
Starring | |
Music by | Richard Band |
Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
Edited by | Paul Trejo Jean-Marc Vasseur |
Production
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VAE Productions
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Distributed by | Artists Releasing Corporation Film Ventures International |
Release date
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Running time
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91 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $425,000 |
Box office | $10.6 million |
The House on Sorority Row is a 1983 American slasher film directed by Mark Rosman, produced by John G. Clark, and starring Eileen Davidson and Katherine McNeil in their early appearances. 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.
The film was released in January 21, 1983 in the United States, where it grossed $10 million. Despite the mixed reception, The House on Sorority Row has since become a cult classic among fans of the genre. A remake, titled Sorority Row, was released in 2009.
Seven sorority sisters pull a prank on their strict house mother, Mrs. Slater, who is known for carrying a sharp walking cane. Their plan is to put her cane out in their dirty pool and force her at gunpoint to retrieve it. The prank goes awry when Vicki, believing the gun to be loaded with blanks, shoots Slater who collapses and appears to be dead. The girls agree to hide the body in the pool until their graduation party is finished.
As the party begins, a guest wanders around the pool and an unidentified figure stabs him through the throat with Slater's cane. When other guests attempt to throw Jeanie in the pool, they are stopped by the sorority sisters. The girls realize that if the pool lights get switched on they will reveal Slater's body, so Stevie goes into the power room to disable them. While doing so, she is brutally stabbed to death by the same cane-wielding figure. Later, the pool lights do come on, but Slater's body is no longer in the pool. The girls speculate about what could have happened to both Stevie and the body.
Deciding that Slater must still be alive, Vicki orders the girls to search for her. Morgan enters Slater's room where Slater's trussed-up body falls on her from the attic. She is joined by the sisters, and Vickie suggests hiding the body in the old cemetery. Morgan runs crying to her room where she is stabbed to death by the killer with Slater's cane. Meanwhile, Katey goes into the attic and discovers children's toys, a clown statue, and a dead bloodied bird lying in its cage. Diane is waiting in her van for the other girls, but the murderer stabs her to death through the sunroof. Jeanie, the most nervous member of the group, is attacked while running back to the house, but manages to escape. After informing Katey about the attack, Jeanie arms herself with a chef's knife and is chased into the upstairs bathroom. As she hides in a stall, the killer enters the bathroom and looks in each stall. As the killer reaches the last stall, Jeanie bursts out of the stall to attack but the killer gains the upper hand and decapitates Jeanie with her own knife