Blood Sisters (1987) by Roberta Findlay

Director: Roberta Findlay

Year: 1987

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Slasher

Plot:

Undergoing a sorority initiation, a group of pledges leave a special party to go over to a remote house for a scavenger hunt inside, but despite the pranks set up inside the house to distract them find the property home to ghosts of past inhabitants and a serial killer hiding in the house.

Review:

On the whole, this was a pretty solid and likable enough effort. Among the better elements of this one comes from the strong central setup that has quite a lot to like about getting the group to the location and bridging the inclusion of the creepy events into this one. The main point here involves the group getting brought into the location where they learn their grisly history with the house’s past featuring the brothel that was run on the premises before it was the site of a gruesome murder before sitting unused. The inclusion of a living killer being there also makes for a fun mixture of styles with the sorority pledges getting involved with these two variant sidestories that bring about some sleazy fun throughout here involving the spirits of the former brothel workers getting involved or the sisters hooking up with their boyfriends who are at the property to lay a series of pranks for them to outmaneuver during the trip.

This all sets up a somewhat disjointed if still immensely fun sequences involving the confrontations with the killer taking place around the house. Using the vehicle of the prank-filled house to roam around in which adds a bit more suspense to the proceedings than expected, the confrontations here are pretty decent with the main idea of the scenes coming off far better than the genuine encounter. From the ambush on the couple sleeping in the bedroom, the chase around the outer spaces of the property, and a dizzying chase along the stairs which includes some fine camera work to pull off. These might be bloodless and not all that creative overall but it’s still enough here to give this a series of likable factors. With them, or getting to see 

There are some fun elements here that hold this down. Outside of the aforementioned issues with the kills and stalking, the main drawback here is the absolutely dragging pace that doesn’t have much interest going on. This one takes nearly an hour before it starts dispatching the sorority students as the main session of the film revolves more around the group getting set up for the parry, undergoing the pranks from the fraternity group, or seeing the ghosts of the brothel members interacting with them so it has very little actual slashing during this part of the film. Far too much of this one’s series of genuine stalking action is kept until the final half where it’s fun but just too little too late, especially with the immensely obvious low-budget nature of this one making itself clear from the start by showing off the kind of presentation that makes it all clear it’s that kind of film, all of which are what end up bringing this down.

Overview: **.5/5

An intriguing enough if overall flawed sleazy genre effort, this one has enough to be worthwhile and watchable even with plenty of obvious issues that keep it on the lower end of that spectrum. Those who are fine with its issues or appreciate the style presented here will have the most to like while most others turned off by these factors should heed caution.