‘Sorority Row' still pledges after 15 years 🧑‍🎓, FrightFest round-up 😱, Jamie Brandel's 'Make Whole' seeks funding 🎥, & more!

Here in New York, summer’s officially over after Labor Day weekend. Now that the city won’t be so quiet and children are back in school, we’ll begin to trade our shorts and t-shirts in for a light wardrobe and early evenings. All of this is just preparation for Spooky Season.

For the newsletter, Bee and I are always trying to find different ways to keep things both different and interesting, which is why this is going to be our first, in some ways, themed issue, focusing on horror films that take place in a school-like setting. You’ll see these films pop up in a few sections below.

I mentioned in a previous issue that I was a teacher. I hold two degrees related to education/teaching. Many years ago (2003 to be exact), when I was a science teacher, and before social media was a thing, every student in one of my classes had passed their latest exam. To celebrate during our 42 minutes together, I played Army of Darkness for them. Mind you, these were 11-12-year-olds who only cared about video games or shopping. For that entire time, those students were glued to the screen. While a true classic, they laughed at the film, calling it one of the worst things they’ve ever seen, and my smile quickly disappeared. Because of their Bruce Campbell bashing, my immediate response was to give them a take home exam that had been sitting in my desk. In the end, I won.

Issue 014’s Letterboxd list can be found here

Secrecy & Solidarity: Sorority Row Turns 15

The bonds of sisterhood are unbreakable. In the world of Sorority Row, the five tenets of Theta Pi are trust, honor, respect, secrecy, and solidarity. When you throw a dead body into the mix, those vows become indestructible - shackling the perpetrators together for life. There’s absolutely nothing that can wash away the blood on their hands. What started as an innocent, albeit distasteful, prank turns into a night the sorority girls won’t soon forget. Their lives will never be the same - and soon enough, they’ll have to pay for what they’ve done.

Sorority Row, turning 15 this month, fits snuggly between I Know What You Did Last Summer and Valentine. For years after its initial release, I never found myself gravitating toward its soapy CW-dipped melodrama. As recently as three years ago, a group of awful sorority sisters doing awful things never quite clicked for me - until this week. When I pushed play on my copy of this late ‘00s slasher, I found the story washing over me in a new way. It was like seeing it for the very first time. The characters – including girl-next-door Cassidy (Briana Evigan), “the spell check with the nice rack” Ellie (Rumer Willis), and queen bee Jessica (Leah Pipes) – popped off the screen in a way I don’t remember. It’s now become an essential slasher that feels beholden to time and place - it’s totally 2009, and that’s its allure.

I suppose it’s never too late for a proper reassessment. The film, fully embracing its campiness in every sense of the word, poked into my eyeballs with a sharp intensity. Even as the girls prove exactly how terrible they are, there’s a charm to the overly committed performances that connects you to the story. Part of me wants them to survive and expose the killer. But then again, we wouldn’t get some of the best deaths ever if they did.

It’s the night of a big rager when Jessica and Chugs (Margo Harshman) decide to play a prank on Garrett (Matt O’Leary). After giving him “roofies” (actually vitamin B12) to drug his date Megan (Audrina Patridge), Megan pretends to suffer a fatal overdose that sends Garrett off the deep end. The group keeps the prank going an uncomfortably long time - and even drives out to a secluded mineshaft where they plot what to do with Megan’s body.

While deliberating, Ellie makes an offhand comment about Megan’s lungs needing to be deflated so she won’t float to the surface of the water - leading Garrett to make a deadly rash decision. When the girls turn their backs, Garrett grabs the tire iron out of the back of the car and punctures a cavernous wound into Megan’s chest, leaving a throbbing, bloody gusher where her heart should be. Her screams fill the cool night air until only a whimper escapes her lips, her body now lifeless and cold. The group panics, believing there is still time to save their dear friend. Jessica, somehow now the voice of reason, reminds them that she’s “never been more dead.” Tears staining her cheeks, she makes a death-dealing proposal to save them all from a life behind bars.

They have a decision to make, suggests Jessica: go to the cops and face the consequences, or dispose of the body and pretend it never happened. Given they’re a group of privileged elites, there’s really only one option. Their lives would be forever ruined otherwise. Once they drag Megan’s body over to a boarded-up well, they slide her down into the swallowing abyss and let gravity do the rest. Thump! goes Megan’s body, hitting rock and mud. Her bones crack, and her flesh tears to ribbons. Their lives, it appears, have been spared the skin-irritating shackles and an existence surrounded by cold, hard concrete.

But death isn't done with them. A cloaked killer emerges eight months later with a diabolical plan to teach the girls a life lesson. He’s a real sleeper, that one. As the group attends their college graduation, where they pop champagne and laugh about the last four years, an unknown figure circles from the fringes and slowly unravels a murderous plot of pure, unadulterated retribution.

Sorority Row kicks into high gear once the killer begins their onslaught of passionate slayings. From death by wine bottle down the throat (RIP, Chugs!) to flair gun to the mouth, the film offers up many of horror’s best kills. Each as terribly graphic as the last. You almost feel sorry for the girls… almost. Cassidy, the least awful of an awful bunch, emerges as the Final Girl and must prove she’s worth saving. With her boyfriend Andy (Julian Morris) 83 miles away, she must put the pieces together on the killer’s identity and save the lives of her remaining sorority sisters.

The film, featuring some decent cinematography from Ken Seng, twists and turns just when you need it most. With bodies piling up, the suspect list shrinks exponentially. It’s not Megan’s younger sister Maggie (Caroline D'Amore) who’s behind the murderous rampage. And it’s not Cassidy herself – although, no one would blame her if she did it. And it’s not Garrett, who is last seen with slit wrists and left for dead after Jessica runs him over. As the stakes reach a fevered pitch, Andy saunters out of the shadows and exposes himself as the killer – confessing that he put his phone on a Greyhound bus out of town. Nice alibi, bro!

After its fiery climax, Sorority Row ends with an easy set-up for a sequel: Maggie is seen in the doorway of Theta Pi as a man with slit wrists looks on from across the street. Cut to black! Despite the promise of a follow-up, it wasn’t until earlier this year that a sequel was finally announced with Josh Stolberg co-writing and plans to bring back Cassidy and Ellie in some form. Let me guess: their daughters will be attending the same school and rushing to the same sorority. Or will a new killer seek to expose the truth behind Megan’s death all these years later? Will Garrett make a return? And how does Maggie play into the bigger picture? So many questions!

It’s never too late to hop aboard the Sorority Row bandwagon. It took me 15 years to finally get it. From its gruesome, relentless set pieces to an appearance by the always incredible Carrie Fisher (as the sorority house mother), the film remains a product of its time. It’s salacious and politically incorrect and delivers on its promise to teach its central protagonists deadly lessons about accountability and complicity. What’s not to love!

If you’re still not convinced, why not give it another go – and then come back and let me know what you think. You just might see it in a different light this time.

To close out summer, I had the chance of covering a slew of titles screening at FrightFest. I've virtually attended the festival before, but this go 'round felt special. The filmmakers presenting their work understood the assignment and largely delivered some of the best horror you'll find anywhere in 2024. From spooky ghost stories to psychological thrillers, there was something for any kind of horror fan to sink their teeth into. To say I'm blown away is an understatement. While we wait for wide release dates for many of the festival's offerings, I figured it would be a good time to give a quick rundown of my favorites out of FrightFest. Below, you'll find the best of the best - the real cream of the crop. Expert filmmaking has never looked so good on the indie circuit, and you'll surely agree. Bring on the countdown!

3. An Taibhse (The Ghost)
As the first Irish language horror film ever made, John Farrelly’s An Taibhse (also known as The Ghost) boldly arrives as an impressive outing that’ll leave you breathless. The feature emerges as a visual masterpiece, adorned with magnificent brushstrokes that prove Farrelly and his creative team understand exactly what it takes to deliver something special. [Full review]

2. Broken Bird
With Broken Bird, director Joanne Mitchell sculpts a powerful and unsettling character study about one young woman’s inability to understand death. On script co-written with Dominic Brunt, Mitchell lifts from Tracey Sheals’ original story and delivers a film that twists the knife and forces the audience to question their own relationship with death. [Full review]

1. Fright
Fright makes you scan the corners for figures lurking in the corners. The darkest recesses overflow with chilling possibilities. Warren Dudley packs in such heart-pounding suspense that you get the sense that Emily’s monster could very well pop out of the screen. There’s always the anticipation, that guttural feeling that something could be watching you from the fringes of each frame. It’s a real old-school fright-fest that will surely delight classic horror fans. [Full review]

Another Stephen king book - I know I know but a book that’s been turned into two films is worth the recommendation! 

I love this story, turning of age becomes turning evil, or is it just an extreme version of teen rebellion. Carrie is burdened with an overbearing religious extremist mother and is relentlessly bullied by her peers. She thinks things start turning around for her but it’s just another ruse to humiliate her, her rage manifests into telekinesis and, let’s just say, everyone regrets pissing her off….

FreeForm announced their 31 Nights of Halloween schedule. which provides a great chance to see a number of films not available as a physical release or on a streaming service.

The long-awaited Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, frightens theatergoers this Friday, September 6th.

Terrifier 3 may butcher its way into theaters on October 11th, but Cinemark has a few goodies for Art the Clown fans available this September.

The 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days Challenge is back! The event runs from August 1st through October 31st, allowing participants to watch (at least) 100 horror films during this time (and all must be a first-time watch!). Read the guidelines here.

Silver Scream Con, the horror convention that brought 5,000 blood-thirsty movie fans to Boston's North Shore in each of its first two iterations, brings the Three-quel everyone's been dying for to Worcester’s DCU Center on September 13-15, 2024. Tickets and information are available now at silverscreamcon.com.