The House on Sorority Row (1983)
A horrible prank on a sorority house mother leads to murder of the perpetrators by a mysterious assailant.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Dr. Beck - Christopher Lawrence
Freshman Girl 2 - Hilary Crowson
Freshman Girl 3 - Nanna Ingvarsson
Fraternity Guy 1 - Arthur Crockett
Fraternity Guy 2 - Tom Bothwell
Girl at Party - Kathryn Davidov
Sorority Girl 1 - Celeste Poirier
Sorority Girl 2 - Patti Chambers
Guy at Pool 2 - Karl B. Bromwell
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
At the Phi Theta sorority house Katherine is arguing with her Mother as she is packing up to leave after her graduation ceremony. Her Mother wants her to come and live back home, but Katherine is unsure of what she wants to do after graduation. Vicki, one of the sorority sisters, asks Katherine to stay a few days extra so she can help decorate the house for a party some of the seniors are going to have. Mrs. Slater, the sorority house mother, arrives at the medical office of Dr. Beck. She insists on spending the summer in the house against the advice of Dr. Beck, who gives her a medical alert bracelet. Vicki and Rick go into a barn and Rick lets Vicki shoot his gun. During the night the sorority sisters Katherine, Liz, Jeanie, Diane, Morgan, and Stevie are drinking and telling each other what they are thankful for. Mrs. Slater arrives and asks the sisters what they are doing. When they tell her they plan on having a party she tells them they cannot and insists they pack up and leave the house. Vicki arrives with Rick and they start to have sex in her bedroom when Mrs. Slater bursts into her room, punctures Vicki's waterbed with her cane and calls Vicki filth. The next day at the pool Vicki comes up with the idea to prank Mrs. Slater in revenge for what she did, Katherine doesn't want to, but the other sisters agree to do it. At Dr. Beck's office he is giving a medical description from an x-ray of a skull. He notes the decaying of the cortex which is can slowly lead to a psychotic break. Vicki shows the sisters Rick's gun which she plans on using during the prank which makes Katherine more worried.
As the sisters are decorating the house Mrs. Slater walks into the main room and orders them to take the decorations down and leave the house. Vicki asks where Mrs. Slater's cane is and then directs Mrs. Slater to look for it in the house pool. When Mrs. Slater gets to the pool she finds it sitting across a pool float. When Mrs. Slater refuses to retrieve the cane, Vicki pulls out Rick's gun and tells Mrs. Slater to get into the pool and reinforces the message by shooting a light in an outside pole. The sisters get nervous and as Liz goes to grab the gun Vicki accidentally shoots her in the leg. Mrs. Slater gets into the pool and Vicki lowers the gun at her and fires directly at her chest, however the bullets are blanks. As Vicki and Liz laugh Mrs. Slater strikes Vicki with her cane and Vicki fires at Mrs. Slater this time with a live round and Mrs. Slater collapses into the pool. Katherine and Stevie jump into the pool to retrieve Mrs. Slater and Stevie attempts CPR, however it doesn't work. Katherine thinks they should call 911 but the other sisters convince her not to and they agree to wrap up the body and stick it into the pool. Mrs. Slater's clothes and cane are pulled from the pool and as a drunk party goer is walking in the woods he is stabbed in the neck. Peter, Katherine's blind date goes to her room and introduces himself to her. There is a commotion out near the pool and the sisters race to the pool to find two guys about to toss a woman into the pool. Diane stops them, but is pushed into the pool.
Stevie goes into the basement in order to flip the pool light breaker switch so they wont be able to be switched on. As she is walking around the basement a small ball rolls around and she is stabbed to death with Mrs. Slater's cane. The graduating sorority sisters are brought in front of the crowd and another sister asks where Stevie is. During the couples dance, Rick asks Vicki where his gun is and how the prank went. Peterson, Pig and Gottfried go to the sorority house pool. The lights come on and the sisters run to the pool to find Pig treading water in the pool but no body of Mrs. Slater. The sisters have a meeting in the kitchen, Katherine again wants to call the cops, however Vicki over rules her. Vicki has Morgan go to Mrs. Slater's closet to pack some of her clothes so it looks like Mrs. Slater left somewhere while the other sisters look for Mrs. Slater. While Morgan is grabbing some of Mrs. Slater's clothes from her closet the attic ladder door falls open and the body of Mrs. Slater tumbles out. Vicki decides to get rid of the body by disposing of it in the old cemetery. Morgan goes to her room and takes a shot of I. W. Harper Bourbon Whiskey. A noise captures her attention and she is killed when she opens a jack in the box on her porch and is stabbed through the chest with Mrs. Slater's cane. Katherine goes to look for Morgan and finds the jack in the box. The other sisters drag Mrs. Slater's body outside. Diane is given Liz' van keys by Vicki and told to meet the rest of the sisters at the garage. Vicki, Liz and Jeanie stuff Mrs. Slater's body into a dumpster. Katherine goes to Mrs. Slater's closet and up into the attic where she finds it full of toys and a child's bed. She also finds a birthday card to Eric from Mrs. Slater and a full size jester suit that matches the one worn by the jack in the box. Peter surprises Katherine in the attic and she tells him to go back downstairs after they find a recently killed caged bird. Diane is waiting outside the garage when she hears a noise. She gets into the van and is attacked and killed when she is stabbed through the sunroof with the cane. Vicki, Liz and Jeanie accidentally push the dumpster with Mrs. Slater's body into a campus police car. Jeanie runs away while Vicki and Liz try and explain themselves. The policeman calls into dispatch and is waiting for backup when he is called away. Jeanie runs to the garage and is attacked but manages to run back to the sorority house. Katherine finds Jeanie and then runs back into the party to get help. The killer breaks through the back door of the house and Jeanie grabs a knife and runs up the stairs. She runs into the restrooms and hides in a toilet stall. The killer walks into the bathroom and starts opening all of the stall doors. When they get to her stall Jeanie charges the killer with her knife. She is killed when the killer takes her knife away and stabs her in the neck with it. Katherine tells Peter her friends are missing and she calls the police, but hangs up when Peter mentions telling Mrs. Slater. She tells him it is late and he should leave. Vicki and Liz arrive at the garage and find the van but not Diane. Katherine walks outside and finds the medical alert bracelet Dr. Beck gave Mrs. Slater which has a phone number engraved on it. Katherine calls Dr. Beck and tells him one of the sisters was attacked and she found Mrs. Slater's bracelet near the area where she was attacked. He tells her he is on his way and to stay in the house. Vicki and Liz arrive at an open grave and start digging a few feet deeper to bury Mrs. Slater.
Dr. Beck arrives at the house and Katherine takes Dr. Beck into the attic and he insists they find Mrs. Slater. When Katherine asks why she wore the bracelet Dr. Beck explains how she had come to him to receive experimental fertility treatments and after the tough delivery she had been in a world of her own making. Katherine asks who Eric is and Dr. Beck explains that Eric was the child Mrs. Slater was supposed to have. Katherine runs to the pool and turns the lights on and finds her dead friends floating in the pool. Dr. Beck calls the police and reports the dead sorority sisters. Katherine remembers Vicki and Liz were going to Parkview Cemetery and might have been followed by Mrs. Slater. A the cemetery, Vicki tells Liz to pull the van around after they finish digging. Liz is killed when she gets into the van and the killer slasher her throat with the claw of a hammer. Vicki goes to the van and Liz' body falls out when she opens the driver door. Vicki is killed when the killer repeatedly strikes her with the cane killing her with a strike to the eyeball. In Dr. Beck's car Katherine admits to what happened to Mrs. Slater. They arrive at the cemetery and find the van empty and Liz and Vicki's bodies in the unfilled cemetery hole. Dr. Beck unwraps the body in the van and find Mrs. Slater's body. They drive back to the house and Dr. Beck gives Katherine a sedative shot and forces her out of the car. He sits Katherine in a chair and explains the drugs he used for fertility caused certain abnormalities. He tells her Eric normally spent his time in a hospital but every summer Mrs. Slater would take him to the sorority house to live with her even though Eric's condition was worsening. Dr. Beck then explains she is to be the bait for Eric. Peter walks into the house and is shot in the arm with a dart by Dr. Beck who loads another dart. Katherine runs away to her room and loads a handgun. Dr. Beck runs after Katherine and as Dr. Beck opens a door he is stabbed in the throat by the killer using the cane. Katherine leaves the room and sees Eric standing over Dr. Beck's body. She pulls the trigger but there are no bullets in the magazine feeding the gun. She runs to the restroom and finds Jeanie's head in the toilet. She climbs into the attic and tries to make Eric come up the stairs by playing the jack in the box, but is attacked by Eric wearing the jester costume. Katherine shoots at Eric but round after round is a blank. She finally grabs a doll and rips off its head and repeatedly stabs Eric with the wooden neck peg until he falls down the attic ladder. Katherine lies on the ground exhausted as Eric opens his eyes again.