Tagline: Sisters for life… and death.
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.
Sorority Row is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Stewart Hendler and starring Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis, and Carrie Fisher. Based on the script for the 1983 horror film The House on Sorority Row by Mark Rosman and Bobby Fine, the film is a re-imagining that focuses on a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered on the night of their graduation after covering up the accidental death of a fellow sorority sister.
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.
About the Production
Just a year ago, all things were golden in the wild world of the Theta Pi sorority. Containing the most popular (and hardest partying) girls on campus, Theta Pi was the house to pledge for any self-respecting freshman.
Theta Pi, then, was a mix of the good, the bad and the beautiful: thoughtful Cassidy (Briana Evigan), who’s romance with boyfriend Andy (Julian Morris) took precedence over her activities at the house; ‘Queen Bee’ Jessica (Leah Pipes), leader of the sorority whose quest to be the best included her lassoing of a Senator’s son, Kyle (Matt Lanter); bookish Ellie (Rumer Willis), Cassidy’s closest friend and the sorority’s valedictorian; crazy/beautiful Claire (Jamie Chung), whose devotion to Jessica outstripped her foolhardy love for randy Mickey (Maxx Hennard), and party monster Chugs (Margo Harshman), who never met a beer or a boy she didn’t devour in one gulp.
But on one night, all their lives would change. During a freshmen pledge party at the foreboding Theta Pi mansion, the girls concocted a prank that would lead them down an unintentionally dangerous – and tragic – road. When the girls found out that Chugs’ brother Garret (Matt O’Leary) cheated on their housemate Megan (Audrina Patridge), they created a plan with Megan to punish him. After pushing Garret to slip Megan a date rape drug to aid in his conquest, the girls conspired with Megan to go into fake convulsions (foaming at the mouth with baking soda added a nice touch of realism) upon taking the ‘drug’ and then pretend to die.
The girls convinced a panicky Garret to pile into Jessica’s SUV with Megan’s ‘body’, ending up at a lonely quarry where the girls pretended to mull what they should do with the ‘corpse’. Convinced that Megan’s body could not float in the quarry’s lake if it had air in its lungs, Garret plunged a tire iron into her chest, killing her instantly – and horrifying her friends.
In a flash, the ill-conceived and deviously cruel lesson to Garret careened into a bloody nightmare no one wanted or imagined. Although Cassidy immediately ran for help, the rest of the women were convinced by Jessica to throw Megan’s lifeless body into a nearby mineshaft and vow never to mention the crime to anyone. Cassidy, who with Ellie never condoned Jessica’s actions, must go along with the plan because Megan’s body was wrapped in Cassidy’s bloodstained jacket.
Flashing forward after a solemn year of regret and paranoia, the girls now prepare for their graduation party at Theta Pi house. Housemother Mrs. Crenshaw (Carrie Fisher) leaves the premises, knowing that the oncoming party may damage a few lampshades if not reputations. New pledges are coming to Theta Pi, including Megan’s dead ringer of a younger sister, the plucky Maggie (Caroline D’Amore). The new girls will be attending their first college party while seniors will be saying goodbye to the life they so dearly loved.
But this will be a party no one will forget. A murderer clad in a black graduation robe will soon be ripping into the fabric that binds the sisters of Theta Pi, hunting down anyone with knowledge of Megan’s death. By the end of the night, only a few sisters will remain… begging for forgiveness as well as their lives.
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Sorority Row (2009)
Directed by: Stewart Hendler
Starring by: Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis, Audrina Patridge, Carrie Fisher, Julian Morris, Jamie Chung, Leah Pipes, Margo Harshman, Caroline D’Amore, Debra Gordon, Marie Blanchard, Deja Kreutzberg
Screenplay by: Josh Stolberg, Peter Goldfinger
Production Design by: Philip Toolin
Cinematography by: Ken Seng
Film Editing by: Elliot Greenberg
Costume Design by: Marian Toy
Set Decoration by: Diana Stoughton
Art Direction by: Elise G. Viola
Music by: Lucian Piane
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language, some sexuality / nudity and partying.
Distributed by: Summit Entertainment
Release Date: September 11, 2009
Visits: 75
