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Parents' Guide to

Sorority Row

By Charles Cassady Jr., Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Satirical shadings can't save sorority slasher schlock.

Movie R 2009 101 minutes
Sorority Row Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 16+

Based on 7 parent reviews

Mike M.
Mike M. Adult
July 28, 2014
age 15+

Bad acting and cheap thrills take over Sorority Row.

The only scary part about Sorority Row is the acting. When Audrina Patridge from MTV's The Hills is cast in the movie, you just know it will be horrible. Scenes in the film are expectedly violent, with the sorority girls being killed off in terrifying and gory ways. For instance, an entire wine cooler bottle is shoved down a sorority girl's throat, causing her to choke on the liquid and die. Girls are called "bitches" and "whores." There is sexual content galore, from a woman's bare torso being shown in the shower, to constant innuendo, suggestive dancing and clothing, boyfriend-girlfriend dynamics, and a particularly disturbing scene involving an older man preparing for sex with one of the sorority girls. Since this is a sorority themed movie, there are shots of raunchy parties and underage drinking. This film provides nothing of value to the slasher genre. My advice to you: skip this one.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
Americanplaya217
Americanplaya217 Adult
April 29, 2012
age 16+

Lots of violence and sex

the movie has one character who is willing to put herself in jail for a dumb prank. Overall the movie was fine. Has some talks of sex. Has nudity throughout the movie. Has some sexuality. The killings were gruesome. The girls acted like high school mean girls looking for drama. A lot of cursing throughout movie.

This title has:

Great role models
Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much consumerism
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
See all 7 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In a setup that echoes I Know What You Did Last Summer (and makes that horror cheese look masterful by comparison), a group of seniors in the Theta Pi sorority pulls a prank on an unfaithful boyfriend during a drunken party, making him think that his lover, Megan (Audrina Patridge), has fatally overdosed during sex. But the stunt goes sickeningly wrong when Megan gets killed for real with a tire iron. The women who were in on the prank are pressured by their haughty, conniving ringleader, Jessica (Leah Pipes), to dispose of the body and keep what happened a secret. Eight months later, at graduation, the guilty girls start receiving ominous phone messages and images, and a figure in a hooded graduation robe starts stalking and killing them, wielding a tire iron tricked-out with blades and sharp points. Is a vengeful Megan back from the dead?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (7 ):
Kids say (23 ):

The bulk of this movie is just cruel sadism and violent death, not comedy, and it seems to take forever to get to the uninteresting revelation of the slasher's true identity. The usual clichés of violent attacks and characters wandering in darkened basements aren't made any easier by wobbly, dim, hand-held camerawork -- it's as though the onscreen binge-drunkenness spilled over onto the cinematography crew.

A remake of the obscure 1983 horror film House on Sorority Row, SORORITY ROW stands out mainly for the cynicism involved -- and not just that of filmmakers who are commercially peddling unoriginal gore-horror leftovers and party-hearty school imagery to impressionable young moviegoers. The movie's campus-bound characters are particularly nasty and practically deserve to be slain (the murderer basically says so at the end), and what little entertainment value to be found here lies in the film's satirical touches -- tongue-in-cheek dialogue (especially from Jessica) that emphasizes what awful people these are and actresses willing to take their bitchy sorority personas way over the top.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the appeal of horror movies like this. What's the allure of watching young people die in such gory fashion? Many of the victims here are quite despicable -- does that make the material more "entertaining" than "splatter" movies in which relatively innocent people are terrorized?

  • Why do you think movies set in college focus almost exclusively on partying, having sex, being stalked, and plotting revenge? Why is that? Parents, ask your teens what they expect of college.

  • Some of the movie's grim humor concerns the callous attitudes and cruelties of the cliquish Theta Pi girls. Does the movie send an anti-sorority message? Is the Greek system really like this?

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