Pranks (Beyond Terror) [DVD] [1981]

Anonymous

at 3:41 pm

Review by for Pranks (Beyond Terror) [DVD] [1981]
Rating: (1 / 5)
Considering that this 1981 feature was made fairly early in the 80’s slasher craze, one boggles at how inept it is. Over here in the States this dull time-waster is known as “The Dorm That Dripped Blood,” and the title is the best thing about the flick. It’s a pretty standard story. 5 college kids have been hired to close down a condemned dormitory over the Christmas break. Needless to say, it isn’t long before they start disappearing one by one. It is often said that the acting is awful, but you really can’t hold that against it since Oscar-calibur performances have never been the strong point of this genre. But everyone in the picture appears as if they would rather be doing something else. The script is completely mindless, especially in the opening scene in which a boy is killed for no reason at all. Co-directors/writers Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter seem to really enjoy showing sadistic murders. The film was shot in gloomy darkness and it is almost impossible to see the action in some of the scenes (having said this, I will admit that I have only seen two video copies on seperate labels, not this disc). The movie simply becomes repetitive after awhile, and you want to scream at the characters for their stupidity. How long before these morons learn that the quickest way to die is to go walking around the dark hallways by yourself? You also have to wonder how the film could be so bad considering all of the effort that Carpenter and Obrow put into it. In addition to writing and directing, they also did the editing, and Obrow was the producer. If you really want to see a slasher film, go watch “Halloween” again. Carpenter and Obrow would later go on to make the far superior fright flick “The Kindred.”