Sorority House Massacre II (1990) Concorde/Horror-Comedy RT: 77 minutes No MPAA rating (bloody violence, nudity, language) Director: Jim Wynorski Screenplay: James B. Rogers and Bob Sheridan Music: Chuck Cirino Cinematography: J.E. Bash and Jurgen Baum Release date: October 5, 1990 (US) Cast: Robyn Harris, Melissa Moore, Dana Bentley, Stacia Zhivago, Michelle Verran, Jurgen Baum, Karen Chorak, Bridget Carney, Bob Sheridan, Mike Elliott, Peter Spellos (“Orville Ketchum as Himself”). Box Office: N/A Body Count: 5 (or 6?)
Rating: ** ½
CINEMA MATH EQUATION: Another sorority house + another massacre + another group of dumb bimbos = Sorority House Massacre II
It would be easy to let the above formula serve as a description of Sorority House Massacre II except for one minor glitch. The title is the ONLY connection to the original 1986 slasher flick. If it’s a sequel to anything, it’s The Slumber Party Massacre. I’ll explain as I go along.
It begins with five girls- Linda (Harris), Jessica (Moore), Kimberly (Zhivago), Suzanne (Verran) and Janey (Bentley)- moving into their new sorority house. They got it cheap because of the murders that took place there five years earlier. As they settle in for the night, they get a surprise visit from their new neighbor, a creepy fat guy named Orville Ketchum (Spellos). He was there the night the previous owner Hockstatter slaughtered his entire family. He tells the girls all about it. The movie flashes back to that night using scenes from The Slumber Party Massacre. It doesn’t stop there. A minor character, a stripper named Candy (Carney), is based on the little sister Courtney from Slumber Party. I guess a massacre is a massacre no matter where it takes place.
So we have five dim but attractive girls in an old house with no phone and no electricity while a storm rages outside. What do they do first? Explore the dark basement, what else? Then they take showers (BOOBIES!), change into skimpy underwear (MORE BOOBIES!) and play with the Ouija board they found in the basement. Naturally, something scary happens and they decide to call it a night. That’s when the killer shows up and bodies start dropping while frightened, scantily clad girls scream their heads off. One rhetorical question before I move on; is it any surprise that neighbor Orville is hanging around?
A minor subplot has two detectives, Lt. Block (Baum) and Sgt. Shawlee (Chorak), attempting to respond to a disturbance call at the sorority house. Never mind who called it in; the movie sure doesn’t. Block, one of the detectives on the scene the night of the original murders, is still haunted by the case. He has suspicions about Orville somehow being involved. This is why he stops by the strip club to talk to Candy (or is it Courtney?). He wants to pick her brain about what she remembers from that night. BTW, what a joint she works in. It caters to all types- bikers, fat slobs, Italian mobsters and hookah-smoking Arabs. Diversity is good, right?
We all know by now that the most important components of any slasher movie are creative kill scenes and lots of blood. Unfortunately, Sorority House Massacre II drops the ball in both areas. With a body count of only five or six (if you count the one who just won’t stay down), most of the killings occur just off-camera. We mostly see blood spray but it doesn’t matter since it’s too dark to make out much of anything. The killer’s weapon of choice is a hook, in case you’re interested. The only point of interest in this area is the person killed several times. What is the deal with this person? The movie never really explains. I’m afraid I can’t be more specific than that without giving away crucial plot points.
Sorority House Massacre II compensates for the lack of blood and kill creativity with a wicked, warped sense of humor, intentional and otherwise. Director Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall) takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to the material with his slightly twisted take on genre conventions like gratuitous nudity, consistently idiotic behavior and the too-obvious suspect. It makes perfect sense to go the attic with a killer running around. Why not dress provocatively when there aren’t any guys around? The killer has to be the creepy fat guy leering at the girls. If you were to add up the girls’ IQs, it would still be below average. The girls prove this several times over with the things they do and say. One of them says, “The movers aren’t coming till 6am in the morning.” Can we say “redundant”? On the other hand, I suppose idiots do require clarification on even simple concepts.
Sorority House Massacre II proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that acting is a subjective craft. Acting in a film like On the Waterfront is entirely different from acting in a cheapie slasher movie. In the case of the latter, it doesn’t take much, just a nice body and the ability to scream loudly. If measured by those standards, the acting in Sorority House Massacre II is very good. On a personal note, I like Melissa Moore who also starred in the martial arts flick Angelfist.
I’ll say this for Sorority House Massacre II, it’s an improvement over its predecessor. It’s a low budget job as only Concorde Pictures (owned by schlockmeister Roger Corman) can do it. Written in four days and shot in seven, Wynorski utilized sets from Slumber Party Massacre II and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School Forever. He did it with the help of Julie Corman; Roger didn’t even know it was happening until it was almost completed. All things considered, it didn’t come out too bad even if it’s not even remotely scary or suspenseful. It’s just a fun horror quickie that should amuse viewers, nothing more.
