The
Sorority is Bodie Norton’s campy tale of an evil
sorority with mystical powers that performs human sacrifices
and covers up killings with their telekinetic, mind-control
powers. (Think The Faculty meets Army
of Darkness and you’ve got a good idea of the
overall effect.)
When
Isabel’s sister mysteriously commits suicide at college,
Isabel suspects foul play. To prove that her sister was
killed, she decides to enroll at the same school, stay in
the same dorm, take the same classes, and get the same guidance
counselor. She figures if she does all the things her sister
did, she’s bound to discover whatever led to her sister’s
death. As she takes up where her sister left off, she meets
a charming young man named Cal—who quickly makes her
think about more than just the mystery of her sister’s
death; her anxious-to-please roomate, Patty; her helpful
guidance counsellor, Ann; and her darkly mysterious Medieval
Studies’ professor, Dr. Drake.
Soon
after taking up residence in the dorm, she and her dorm-mates
are woken up by a late night raid from the masked members
of the local sorority. Forcing the girls from their beds
and taking them into the basement, the members of The
Sorority hold them captive until their spokesman, a
tall girl in a skull mask, shows up. The skull-masked girl
explains that they represent the coolest sorority and proceeds
to dismiss all girls who are too unattractive to be members.
Isabel and her roomate, Patty, survive the initial selection
process and then are told that, if they’re deemed
worthy, they will be contacted to join The Sorority.
Suspecting
that The Sorority has something to do with her sister’s
murder, Isabel does everything in her power to get admitted
into it. As she begins her investigation of its inner workings,
she soon discovers that there is more to it than she at
first suspected. Only with her wits, her fighting ability,
and her friends will she figure out who really runs The
Sorority and gain revenge on her sister’s killer!
Isabel
& Cal are out to discover
what really happened to Isabel's sis...
...but
the girls of The Sorority
will do anything to stop them.
Content
As I mentioned earlier, this is designed to be a campy horror
film in the mindset of “Army of Darkness”, and,
overall, I think it delivers well. The writing works pretty
well, although the acting is a little shaky in the first
half of the movie, which makes it harder to pull you completely
into the storyline. However, the acting of the main characters,
Isabel, Cal, and Dr. Drake is pretty solid for most of the
film, which helps out a lot.
This
film makes extensive use of ADR, which I go into in more
detail in the audio portion. The reason it gets touched
on in content is because there were a few scenes where the
overall acting of the characters was undermined by the redubbing
process. This is especially noticeable in the beginning
of the film, although there are a couple of other times
throughout where you can see that a scene was originally
delivered with more punch than the redubbed version. This
is a danger in ADR, especially when dealing with non-professional
actors and when it’s the first film that you’ve
redubbed. The only correction for it is to redub these portions
with a greater attention to delivery as it pertains to matching
the scene’s intensity.
The
film makes use of a lot of choreography, which was good
and bad. A fight scene that happens at the end of the film
(which is the part of the final battle between Isabel and
The Sorority) was awesome. It was perfectly tuned to a campy
horror film, complete with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
cartwheels, impalements on hat racks, and accelerated kung-fu
fights. Unfortunately, the choreography in other parts of
the film was not so fine-tuned and came off as too sluggish.
Most noticeably was a fight between Cal and a drunk guy
at a party, which looked a little bit like first-day karate
people trying to learn how to do a step-punch combination.
(If you’ve never seen this sight, it’s pretty
hysterical and involves people stepping on their own feet,
while angling their arms in strange ways to hit a target
that ends up being two feet to the left of their punch.)
The other scene that stuck out for struggling with choreography
was a scene where four girls from The Sorority are
stabbing a man to death with needles and scissors. Unfortunately,
they appear more like their bitch slapping him than stabbing
him. This is partially because many of their blows came
from two inches from the victim’s body, which was
probably chosen to disguise the fact that their needles
didn’t extend to the other side of the fists that
held them, but this is just too close to sell the concept
of damaging stabs. (Even Bruce Lee needed six inches to
deliver a blow!) For future films, a straight down shot
from above that shows a few decisive blows that are dealt
from a foot or two above the victim will allow you to sell
a stabbing, especially if the victim writhes with each strike.
