By Geno McGahee
This movie begins with a woman giving birth in the early sixties in her home, but the worst thing in the world happens when the Doctor apparently informs her that her child did not make it. She screams: “No,” over and over again, which was really amusing. I love when the eighties horror flicks really went overboard with the drama, and they do not fail to deliver here.
We fast forward twenty years, at a sorority house, where a bunch of young girls are planning a party, but the evil Mrs. Dorothy Slater (Lois Kelso Hunt), the owner of the house, will have none of it. She speaks loud and carries a big cane that has a sharpened edge on it that she uses to rip apart waterbeds when the girls in her home are having sex with the boys that they sneak in. She is a royal pain in the ass and the only obstacle standing in the way of the big party that the girls have planned.
In a prank gone wrong, the girls accidentally kill Mrs. Slater, and have to make a choice. They can either report it to the police and face the music, or they can hide the body and party, party, party. Well, they elect to go ahead with the party and a corpse at the bottom of their dirty and cloudy swimming pool. This happens often…you know, a family member dies at a party and instead of interrupting, a party hat is just placed upon their head and the festivities continue.
It is eventually revealed that the body is no longer at the bottom of the pool when the lights are turned on, and now girls are beginning to die…all falling victim to the sharp end of Slater’s cane. It is now assumed that she lived through the ordeal and is seeking revenge. Well, the body count adds up and some horrible rock band sings for about 30 minutes at this shindig, but the pace just seems to be one or two steps too slow. It is a reasonable slasher flick, but it just doesn’t deliver at the end.
What this movie has going for it is that the acting is top notch for a B horror movie and it has a pretty good storyline. When you finally get to see what the killer elects to wear, because all killers usually wear some sort of costume, you will be impressed. It is creepy and adds to the film, but unfortunately, you do not get to see it that long. Some times less is more, but not in this instance. I thought that there should have been more, but they were angling for a sequel and maybe that is the reason why I felt slightly robbed.
Whatever the case, this movie was a reasonable and watchable slasher flick with it’s scary moments, and an interesting story. I recommend it as a rental, but not as a purchase.
Scared Stiff Rating: 6/10 Watchable.
