House on Sorority Row/The Ugly Truth

124. House on Sorority Row
125. The Ugly Truth


The House on Sorority Row is a 1983 slasher flick from Mark Rosman who later went on to helm quite a few Lizzie McGuire episodes. Rather odd career turn.

Story takes place at the Theta Pi sorority house. Graduation is upon. The girls were planning a party off-campus but a lack of funds has led them to use the sorority house in its stead. The housemother is completely against this and forbids the girls from throwing their party. The girls are quite upset about this and decide to play a prank on her. The prank doesn't go according to plan and the housemother winds up dead. Later that evening, the sorority girls and their guests start turning up dead. Is the housemother still alive or is someone seeking retribution for her?

This is a decent, if extremely typical, 80s slasher. You've got good looking gals, some sex, some boobs, a few cool kills and some extremely cheesy effects. There's not much in the way of story. If you've seen any of the Friday the 13th movies, you've pretty much seen this one. The cast is decent with Kate McNeil, soap actress Eileen Davidson and Harley Jane Kozak leading the way. All three are pretty foxy, by the way. Just thought I should throw that out there. Anyway, Lois Kelso Hunt is solid as the crabby old housemother. Her brief time on-screen made me want to kill her so she did something right. In an interesting bit of trivia, it turns out that her voice wasn't considered scary enough for the role, so her entire performance was dubbed.

Overall, The House on Sorority Row is a fairly decent slasher. If you're a fan of the genre, it's worth watching. Maybe pair it up with the remake for a goofy double feature.




The Ugly Truth is a romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler.

It tells the story of Abby, a television producer for a morning news program in Sacramento. One night, she stumbles upon a public access show called The Ugly Truth hosted by Mike Chadway. This is a guy who tells it like it is about relationships. He pulls absolutely no punches. She's repulsed by the show and by Mike. Imagine her surprise when she finds out that her boss has decided to bring Mike in to host an Ugly Truth segment twice a week on her show.

Honestly, I really didn't want to like this movie. Romantic comedies aren't my cup of tea to start with. Secondly, a few girls I know had seen this and they loved it. That also steered me away from it. Now, to paraphrase a line from that last paragraph...imagine MY surprise when I actually liked it. It took about 35 minutes for it to actually happen, but it sure did.

The story is nothing new, as with most romantic comedies in general. Also, like most movies of this genre, I predicted the ending within 15 seconds of popping the disc into the player. What really made me enjoy this one was the cast. Heigl and Butler just go together really well. Heigl is something of a two-face. Meaning she can be gorgeous sometimes and a bit on the fugly side in other pictures. She's on the unscarred side of the coin this time, just looking absolutely great. Butler has a certain charm and charisma that just make him likable. The supporting cast here is solid as well with performances from Bree Turner, Eric Winter, John Michael Higgins and Cheryl Hines.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by this one and recommend checking it out.