| Sorority Row | |
| Director: | Stewart Hendler |
| Producer: |
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| Screenplay: |
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| Starring: | |
| Music: | Lucian Piane |
| Cinematography: | Ken Seng |
| Editing: | Elliot Greenberg |
| Studio: |
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| Distributor: | Summit Entertainment |
| Runtime: | 101 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $12.5 million[1] |
| Gross: | $27.2 million[2] |
Sorority Row is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Stewart Hendler and written by Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger. A remake of the 1982 film The House on Sorority Row, the film stars Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis, Jamie Chung, Margo Harshman, Audrina Patridge, and Carrie Fisher. It follows a group of sorority sisters who cover up the accidental death of a fellow sister after a prank goes horribly wrong. Eight months later, a masked killer begins stalking and murdering the girls on the night of their graduation for their role in the cover up.
Sorority Row was theatrically released in the United States on September 11, 2009, and grossed $27.2 million worldwide on a budget of $12.5 million. The film received negative reviews from critics, though the performances of the cast were praised.
Rosman University students and Theta Pi sorority sisters Cassidy, Jessica, Ellie, Claire, Chugs, and Megan attend a party to celebrate their senior year, during which they pull a prank on Garrett, Chugs' brother and Megan's boyfriend, as revenge for his infidelity. As part of the prank, Megan fakes her death, leading to Garrett and the girls leaving for the steel mine to dump her body. However, he stabs her with a tire iron, inadvertently killing her. The group throw Megan's body and the tire iron down a mine shaft before vowing to never discuss the incident again, though Cassidy and Ellie are reluctant.
Eight months later, with graduation approaching, the girls all receive a text message from an anonymous person containing an image of a robed arm holding a bloodied tire iron. They initially suspect Garrett, but Chugs insists he has changed following the incident and is not mentally competent. Amidst this, Megan's younger sister Maggie arrives at the university to honor her sister's memory. Later, a hooded individual murders Chugs, Joanna - a sorority sister who overheard Claire and Jessica discussing Megan's death - and Claire's boyfriend Mickey, the last of which Ellie witnesses.
As Cassidy, Claire, Jessica, and Ellie regroup, they receive a text containing video of Megan's death and a message demanding they return to the steel mine or else the video will be sent to the police. When the girls arrive, they encounter a guilt-ridden Garrett, who had cut his wrists. Still believing he is sending the texts, Jessica runs him over with her car, only to learn he also received the texts. Ellie fears Megan is still alive and seeking revenge. The girls lower Cassidy down the mine shaft they threw Megan's body into to confirm that she is still dead, but she finds a message written in blood saying "Theta Pi must die" instead of Megan's body.
Upon returning to their sorority house, the girls receive a text from Chugs' phone saying she is dead before the killer murders Claire. While searching for Jessica's boyfriend, Kyle, the girls encounter Maggie and their housemother, Mrs. Crenshaw. They reveal what they did to the latter, who tells them to lock themselves in a bedroom and call the police while she searches the house. Thinking Megan is alive, Maggie leaves to find her while Cassidy and Jessica look for Mickey's body to retrieve his cellphone. The killer murders Mrs. Crenshaw and attempts to kill Maggie with a Molotov cocktail, setting the house ablaze. Cassidy and Jessica eventually find Kyle, who fights and injures the latter. The pair flee to a bathroom, but find Megan's corpse in the shower before Kyle catches up to them and knocks out Jessica before Andy, Cassidy's boyfriend, kills him, revealing he is the killer.
Having learned of Megan's death from Ellie and believing his future with Cassidy is in danger if the girls are ever caught, he set about killing everyone who knew of Megan's death. He subsequently kills Jessica, but Cassidy tricks him into thinking Ellie is in the basement. As he leaves to find her, Cassidy finds Ellie upstairs and they attempt to escape, but Andy finds them. Hurt by Cassidy's betrayal, he fights her while Ellie escapes. Upon hearing Maggie's cries for help, Cassidy breaks off to save her, but is attacked by Andy. He nearly kills her, but Ellie grabs Mrs. Crenshaw's shotgun and shoots him. As the floor gives way and sends him falling to his death, the three girls escape the burning house as emergency personnel arrive.
A further fifteen months later, Maggie, who's a sophomore, is inducted into Theta Pi while a man with slashed wrists (presumably Garrett) watches from afar.
Mark Rosman wrote a screenplay titled Seven Sisters, which he would then make into the 1982 slasher film The House on Sorority Row. Producer Mike Karz and Darrin Holender acquired the rights to the film and hired writers Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger to update it. In creating a new story based on the original screenplay, the producers largely kept to the same story, "a morality tale about young women who make bad choices that come back to haunt them", but insisted that more humor be injected into the script. The finished script impressed Rosman, who came on board the film as an executive producer.
Principal photography began on October 2008 in the Pittsburgh area. Although the setting for the film is not specified, producers wanted to take advantage of Pennsylvania state tax credits and the strength of local film crews. The film was mostly shot at night in Homestead, one block from the Carnegie Library of Homestead, where about 10 houses were dressed to resemble a sorority row.[3] The graduation scene for the fictional Rosman University (named after Rosman) was shot outside of Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. Interior scenes of the Theta Pi sorority house were filmed on built sets at a warehouse near Crafton, Pennsylvania.[4] The film's makeup effects were done by Gino Crognale.[5]
| Sorority Row (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | |
| Type: | Soundtrack |
| Artist: | Various artists |
| Released: | August 31, 2009 |
| Genre: | Soundtrack |
| Length: | 51:01 |
| Label: | E1 Music |
The film's soundtrack was released by E1 Music on August 31, 2009, and featured music by 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, with the review 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".[6]
Songs featured but not included on soundtrack:
A teaser trailer premiered at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con along with the main cast discussing the film's premise and how it felt working with the crew.[7] Sorority Row was released on September 9 in the US and September 11 in the UK.[8] [9]
The film grossed $5,059,802 during its opening weekend, placing sixth in the process.[10] It then fell 50% during its second weekend of release, and it ultimately grossed $11,965,282 domestically.[2] Internationally, its performance was mixed compared to its domestic run. It managed fourth place in its debut in the UK,[2] while it missed the top ten in both Australia and Mexico.[11]
The DVD and Blu-ray were released on January 11, 2010, in the UK[12] and later on February 23, 2010 in the US.[13]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 26% based on 82 reviews, with an average rating of 4.20/10. 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".[14] On Metacritic, it has a score of 24 out of 100 based on reviews from 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[15]
Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "There's little to distinguish this from the rest of the entries coming down the horror film assembly line, though the presence of Carrie Fisher as a shotgun-toting housemother who taunts the killer by shouting 'Come to mama!' offers some camp value."[16] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote the film "is an interminable mess...that juggles more characters and undeveloped subplots than it can handle and even manages to bungle the setup. But it does have two memorable camp moments...In [one], Theta Pi’s ferocious house mother, Mrs. Crenshaw (Carrie Fisher, too briefly seen), hauls out a rifle to go after the hooded fiend and announces in a deep, booming voice: 'Don’t think I’m afraid of you. I run a house with 50 crazy bitches.' That’s putting it mildly."[17]
Russell Edwards of Variety called it "an average slasher picture that meanders indecisively between gore and gags", with the script never finding a successful balancing of horror with comedy.[18] Kim Newman of Empire wrote: "Even the gratuitous nudity can't quite save a Heathers-goes-to-college horror that's undermined by a silly plot and clunky dialogue".[19] Michelle Orange of The Village Voice commented, "A very thin feminist subtext about the meaning of sisterhood only highlights how badly this film botches its attempt to have it both ways: naked, bleeding cuties combined with 'final girl'-ish, butt-whipping empowerment. Call me the sarcastic sister, but the only thing screaming in any convincing way here are the cheap look, epileptic direction, and off-key, 'edgy' humor. It’s all so ‘80s I could die."[20]
In retrospective reviews, Trace Thurman of Bloody Disgusting argued Sorority Row "manages to subvert any and all expectations by being a hilarious little slasher that knows exactly what type of film it is", and praised the film's camp humor.[21] [22]
Audrina Patridge and Rumer Willis were each nominated for 2009 Teen Choice Awards in the category Choice Movie: Actress Horror / Thriller.[23]
Nearly 16 years later, on January 22, 2024, it was announced a sequel was in the works. Josh Stolberg will serve as screenwriter, with the plot including returning characters. The creatives involved expressed hopes that Evigan and Willis reprise their roles from the first installment as Cassidy and Ellie, respectively.[24]