Review of Sorority Row (2009) by Chads — 11 Sep 2009

With all due apologies to Billy Joel, "Sorority Row" didn't start the fire. Filmmaker Tim Hunter lit the match in 1986 when he shocked Sundance audiences with his debut film "River's Edge", which told the story about a new breed of kids who lacked the moral compass to report the death of a fellow classmates.

As Jessica(Leah Pipes), the ice queen of Theta Pi, compartmentalizes the aftermath from the murder of a sister, the moviegoer may remember Layne(Crispin Glover), a speed addict, making the same quintessential disconnect which freed his stoner friends from culpability.

But that was then, and this is now. It's hotter. Whereas Samson(Daniel Roebuck) acted alone, Jessica and her privileged sorority sisters are accomplices to the crime. Eight months later, they're toasting with champagne on graduation day as if that fateful practical joke gone horribly wrong, never transpired.

A murdered friend, who's rotting away at the bottom of a well, puts no crimp in their house parties and f****. During the course of the killer's retribution, Jessica's ironic stance towards the corpses seem pitched somewhere between a parody on the horror genre itself, and social commentary about the real life horror of having no feelings.

Even though "Sorority Row" doesn't know when to stop and supplants the organic(to the story) killer with a far-fetched one, this superior slasher pic burns down the house with a toxic girls gone wild vibe that makes elitism look like fun.