Sorority Row

Plot

After finding out that her boyfriend Garrett (Matt O'Leary) has cheated on her, Theta Pi sorority sister Megan (Audrina Patridge) enlists the help of her friends and fellow sorority sisters Cassidy (Briana Evigan), Jessica (Leah Pipes), Ellie (Rumer Willis), Claire (Jamie Chung), and Garrett's sister Chugs (Margo Harshman) to pull a prank on him. While having sex with Garrett, Megan fakes her own death. Garrett and the girls bring her to a lake, where they intend to dump her body. When Jessica mentions they need to release the air out of her lungs so that her body will not float to the surface, Garrett stabs Megan in the chest with a tire iron, killing her for real. Realizing what they've done, the group dump Megan's body and the tire iron in a nearby mine shaft. Everyone swears to never mention the incident to anyone, much to Cassidy and Ellie's dismay.

Eight months later, the girls are graduating from college and have put the incident behind them, but Cassidy has grown apart from the rest of the group. During the party held after graduation, the girls all receive on their cell phones a photo of a robed person holding the bloody tire iron. Suspicion immediately falls on Garrett, but Chugs insists he's changed after killing Megan. Maggie (Caroline D'Amore), Megan's younger sister, arrives, wanting to honor her sister's memory by attending the party. Later that day, Chugs arrives for her appointment to visit her therapist. However, an unknown figure wielding a tire iron murders them.

In the sorority's shower room, Claire and Jessica talk about the night Megan was murdered. After they leave, a sorority girl named Joanna, who overheard their conversation, is murdered. At the party that night, Claire's ex-boyfriend Mickey is attacked and murdered by the killer, which Ellie witnesses. Cassidy, Claire, Jessica, and Ellie regroup and all receive a text containing the video of Megan's death and a message telling them to go to the mine shaft in twenty minutes or the video will be sent to the police. The girls drive to the mine shaft and encounter Garrett, who has cut his wrists and begins threatening them.

Thinking Garrett is the one stalking them, Jessica runs over him with her vehicle. However, they discover afterward that Garrett has been receiving the same text messages they have. Ellie suspects that Megan is the killer, believing that she did not actually die and is seeking revenge. The girls lower Cassidy down the shaft to make prove that Megan is dead. Instead of finding Megan's body, she finds a message written in blood which reads, "Theta Pi must die". Back at the now empty sorority house, the girls receive a text from Chugs' cell phone, telling them that she is dead. Afterward, Claire is murdered with a flare gun. Searching the house for Jessica's boyfriend, Kyle (Matt Lanter), the girls run into Maggie and their house mother, Mrs. Crenshaw (Carrie Fisher).

After finding out about Megan's murder, Mrs. Crenshaw tells the girls to lock themselves in Jessica's bedroom and to call the police while she searches for the killer. Maggie is horrified when she learns what happened to Megan and, thinking she's the killer, leaves the room to find her and convince her to stop killing. After many failed attempts to shoot the killer in the kitchen, Mrs. Crenshaw attempts to reload her shotgun but is killed by the hooded figure. With no cell phones around, Cassidy and Jessica decide to find Mickey's body and use his cell, telling Ellie to run if she gets the chance. Downstairs, the killer confronts Maggie and after she begs the killer to stop, throws a Molotov cocktail at her, setting the house on fire. Cassidy and Jessica run into Kyle, who injures Jessica after getting into an argument with her. Cassidy and Jessica flee to an under-renovation bathroom where they find Megan's decomposing corpse hanging in a closet.

Kyle finds and attacks them, but is killed with an axe by Andy (Julian Morris), Cassidy's boyfriend. Jessica regains consciousness and tries to negotiate with Andy, but Andy fatally stabs her. Revealing himself as the killer, Andy explains that he had hoped for a bright future with Cassidy, but because she was involved with Megan's death, he feared that she would be found out, so he decided to kill everyone who knew about it. Despite Cassidy's opposition, Andy tells her that they need to kill Ellie, the only other person who knew about the murder. Andy reveals that she was the one who confided in him about Megan's murder and will likely report it the police. Cassidy plays along and tells Andy that Ellie is in the basement.

Just as Cassidy fetches Ellie from upstairs, they're discovered and attacked by Andy. Cassidy stuns Andy and escapes, but finds Maggie, who is trapped behind the flames. Andy attempts to kill Maggie, resulting in a fight between him and Cassidy. The floor then crumbles underneath Cassidy, and she is left hanging over the burning basement. As Andy recovers and is about to finish her off, Ellie appears and shoots him with Mrs. Crenshaw's shotgun. He falls backward onto the burning floor, which collapses under him and he falls to his death into the flames. After Maggie and Ellie save Cassidy, the three girls escape from the burning sorority house just as the fire department and other emergency personnel arrive.

Months later, the Theta Pi building is being renovated from the fire and Maggie is now a Theta Pi sister. As the girls sing the Theta Pi song, a man comes into view, holding a garden trowel. The camera pans up to his wrist, revealing scars, implying that Garrett is still alive.

Cast

Production

Sorority Row entered pre-production in January 2008. Principal photography began on October 16, 2008 in the Pittsburgh area. Although set in Anytown, USA, producers of the film wanted to take advantage of Pennsylvania state tax credits (much like the 2009 remake of My Bloody Valentine) and the strength of local film crews. The film was mostly shot at night in Munhall, one block from the Carnegie Library of Homestead, where about 10 houses were dressed to resemble a sorority row. The graduation scene for the film's school Rosman University, a fictional east coast school (named after the writer/director of The House on Sorority Row) was shot outside of Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. Interiors of the Theta Pi sorority were filmed on sets built in a warehouse near Crafton, Pennsylvania. Filming ended on March 26, 2009. The film was officially completed on May 2, 2009.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was released by E1 Music on August 31, 2009, and featured music by musical artists such as Shwayze, Ladytron, Lykke Li, Aimee Allen, and Camera Obscura, among others. The album received 2.5 out of 5 stars from Allmusic, stating: "Of the 15 tracks, only a few are even remotely memorable (Ladytron's "Ghosts," Camera Obscura's "Tears for Affairs," and Dragonette's "booty" anthem "I Get Around" come to mind), but there's hardly a dull moment."

Track listing

1. "Tear Me Up" — Stefy Rae
2. "Get U Home" (Paul Oakenfold Remix) — Shwayze
3. "Ghosts" — Ladytron
4. "I Get Around" — Dragonette
5. "42 West Avenue" — Cashier No 9
6. "Get Up" — A.D.
7. "Alcoholic" — Cash Crop
8. "Break It Down" — Alana D
9. "I Like Dem Girls" — Sizzle C
10. "This Night" — Ron Underwood
11. "Say What You Want" — The DeeKompressors
12. "Tears for Affairs" — Camera Obscura
13. "Doin' My Thing" — King Juju
14. "I'm Good, I'm Gone" (Black Kids Remix) — Lykke Li
15. "Emergency" — Aimee Allen

Release

A teaser trailer premiered at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International along with the main cast discussing the film's premise and how it felt working with the crew. Sorority Row was released on September 9, 2009 in the UK and September 11, 2009 in the USA. The DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released on the 11th January 2010 in the UK and the 23 February 2010 in the US.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator website, reports 22% of critics gave the film positive reviews based upon a sample of 68. The site's consensus reads; "Though it's slick and stylish, Sorority Row offers nothing new to the slasher genre and misses the mark both in its attempts at humor and thrills." Metacritic rated it 24/100 based on 11 reviews.

Box office

The film grossed $5,059,802 during its opening weekend, placing sixth in the process. It then fell more than 50% during its second weekend of release, while finishing with $8,965,282 in total. Internationally its performance was mixed compared to its domestic run. It did manage fourth place in its debut in the UK, while it missed the top ten in both Australia and Mexico.