Monster Scholar

On the heels of my review of Sorority Row here on Monster Land, I was contacted by the director of SR, Stewart Hendler. After I recovered from the shock, I was given an exclusive interview with the director as he recounts what motivated him to film a horror remake with a positive message for women. As we’ve seen in the past with films like feminist Rita Mae Brown’s Slumber Party Massacre , it can be hard to make a horror film with a positive message for women. How did you set out to do just that? All horror movies are (or attempt to be) morality tales, so there’s a built in structure that allows you to use them to make a statement. I’m a big fan of the genre, but not particularly proud of how it treats women, so I wanted to do something different with Sorority Row. When I read the script, it appealed to me because it examined a very particular and very bizarre subset of American culture—the sorority. Built on the principles of sisterhood and service, I truly believe that sororit...

I went to a showing of Sorority Row at my local Movie Tavern expecting the usual from a modern remake of yet another 80s slasher. I leaned back in my seat and prepared for an hour and a half screaming bimbos being pursued by a masked killer with a pimped out tire iron. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by a film that critiques the sorority system as one that revolves around male stereotypes of women and argues that female solidarity can only exist outside such an oppressive system. To give a broad synopsis of the film, five sorority sisters are stalked by a vengeful killer after a prank ends in the death of their friend Megan. They are Cassidy, the hold-out; Ellie, the nerd; Chugs, the alcoholic; Jessica the queen bee and Claire. In on the secret is Garrett, the one technically responsible for killing Megan. Looking first at the hooded killer, it is obvious that he represents a patriarchal threat much like the psycho paterfamilias in the original Stepfather , the remake of which is ...