In skinticipation of our skinterview with Synapse Films' own Jerry Chandler, we’re rubbing down two of the DVD label’s newest releases, college slasher flicks Frat House Massacre (2008) and The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982).
Like the Satanic throwback House of the Devil (2010), Frat House Massacre (2008) lovingly re-creates the look and style of classic ‘80s slasher flicks, down to the grain of the film (or the After Effects filter, as the case may be). Bursting at the seams with disco, coke, and boobs, Frat House Massacre is the story of the Delta Iota Epsilon (DIE- get, it? don’t worry, if you don’t, the movie will drill it into your head about a hundred times) fraternity, whose leaders have gone mad with testosterone-fueled power. The DIE brothers start killing pledges in brutal skinitation rituals, then expand their murderous reach to include anyone perceived disloyal to the brotherhood. The whole film is very, for want of a better word, bromantic, and we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the directors were frat boys themselves. If not, kudos on your research, fellas!
Randy redhead Tiffany Arnold appears in her underwear 44 minutes in, but it’s Niki Rubin, as the DIE village bicycle, who will really flip your Solo cup. Nikki brings a skintillating sense of orgasmic abandon to her villianous role, particularly when she bares FFN being orally serviced 19 minutes in. Yowza! But Frat House Massacre ultimately gets a little too caught up in its own mythology; we’re big believers in the “90-minute rule” for genre movies, so by the time the twist is revealed around the 1 hour, 50 minute mark, you’re not shocked, just relieved the damn thing is finally ending.
Frat House Massacre could learn a thing or three from The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982) (content coming soon!), a classic slasher that is exactly the kind of movie FHM is trying to imitate. It’s probably an accidental lesson, driven more by budget limitations than aesthetic choices, but the lesson of The Dorm That Dripped Blood is less is more. It has less blood, less boobs, and less plot than FHM, but in the end it’s more satisfying. In TDTDB, you only kind of know why the killer went on a rampage and how he (or she) became a killer in the first place. And that’s a good thing! The killer kills because that’s what killers in movies do, leaving the movie free to focus on atmospherics and suspense, two counts on which it succeeds.
The aforementioned atmospherics are totally classic, like the Psycho-inspired score, which we found delightful (skincidentally FHM’s score, composed by Goblin’s Claudio Simonetti, is also totally spot-on). Also expected, but effective, is TDTDB’s extremely shadowy cinematography; during kill scenes, you can only tell what the hell is going on during the slashing itself. (Naturally, a very dark movie like this is best watched with the lights off.) The deaths are less bloody but more imaginative than those in FHM. Like the violence, there’s less nudity in TDTDB, but what is there is more gratuitous. Voluptuous vixen Chandre bares her breasts trying to lure her boyfriend back to bed 40 minutes in; unfortunately, she hasn’t been in another film before or since. Tit’s a crying shame, too, because her mashed potato boobs are to die for!
TDTDB’s plot, such as it is, concerns a group of students who stay behind to clean up a condemned dorm while their compatriots are away on Christmas vacation. A prowler is seen hanging around the property, and before long students start to disappear. Laurie Lapinski really ties the whole thing together as Joanne, the leader of the group; she’s obviously a bit too old to be playing a college student, but as the leader whose job it is to stay calm as all Hell breaks loose, she gives a very controlled and believable performance. The inevitable plot twist is a bit of a stumble, but by the end of the film, which defied our expectations for a slasher film, we were registering for next semester.
Made by UCLA film students Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow for practically nothing, TDTDB was only available in a horribly mangled edit (with almost all the violence removed) called Pranks for many years. Synapse discovered an uncut print in one of the directors’ attic, and has done an incredible job restoring the movie, offering it as both Blu-Ray and DVD in the same package.
Objectively, there isn’t much to separate The Dorm That Dripped Blood from other slasher flicks of the early 1980’s. Frat House Massacre tries to put a new spin on that genre, but ultimately, we’re recommending you check out The Dorm That Dripped Blood instead. Why? Because Frat House Massacre reaches for something that it doesn't quite achieve, and The Dorm That Dripped Blood isn’t trying to be anything more than bloody, suspenseful, sometimes goofy fun. And isn’t that what you really want in a horror flick?
