Another ‘Empire pictures’ production thats been fully absorbed into the ‘Full Moon’ branding, ‘Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama’ is often championed as a rock solid 80s campy horror flick. But after 3 watches of this thing now, I still honestly just…dont get what all the fuss is about.

The basic plot? 2 soroity inductees are challenged to steal a bowling trophy from a nearby mall in order to pass initiation, while being briefed it transpires that their initial hazing was being watched by a bunch of nerdy pervy guys, so the sorority sisters suggest as pennance the guys help the girls steal the trophy.

When they arrive at the bowling ally they find a woman named ‘Spider’ attempting to rob the place, but before anything can be done about that, one of the guys knocks a trophy over revealing an imp, who promises the group 1 wish each for freeing him. Unfortunately, as all these wish based horror movies go, what they wish for, and the reality thats given to them are two very different things. Hilarity ensues when the Imp then possesses the Sorority sisters, who’ve tagged along to see how well the girls do at the task at hand, and they slowly begin picking off the group.

And I think my biggest beef with this thing is simply that its inconsistent script wise and really kind of ‘falls between the chairs’ for me in terms of presenting a strong and clear vision.

Its not gory or well written enough to rival the likes of ‘Night of the Demons’ or ‘Return of the living dead’, Its not silly or campy enough to give films like ‘Ghoulies’ or ‘Nightmare Sisters’ any kind of challenge.

Whats ultimately here is a script that HAS got a 3 act structure (just about) but is constantly in a state of ‘yawning’ the opening is a slow burn and takes time to really establish much of anything, the 2nd act is repetative and equally hard going, and the 3rd act is around the time the film actually starts to get a bit more fun. But it’s blink or you’ll miss it because the 2nd act invades the first half of the 3rd acts runtime.

The tones all over the place, theres some overly aggressive streaks in this, but then it’ll swap to being mildly silly for a time. The characters are all playing comedic stereotypes, they dont get much development and the vast majority of the film is spent with our characters just finding every possible way to say ‘WHATS GOING ON!?’ until they’re killed.

The ending is kind of dissatisfying too, I didnt much care for the pacing which was honestly pretty pedestrian. I just think this whole thing needed at least a couple more drafts to really get it in shape.

The directions pretty solid all things considered, we have an early entry here by David Decoteau, who doesnt dissapoint in creating a neon soaked 80s fever dream of a movie. the script may not be up to much par, but the direction has a clear and consistent vision that really shines, and it’s clear a lot of time was put into trying to get specific reactions out of the cast, who deliver on the brief, even if the brief was a little on the thin side.

The cine is mixed to poor, when its good, its great really leaning into the heavy 80s vibe with lots of soft focus shots and contrasting neon to help sell the decade. But compositions can be a bit on the wobbly side and some of the film is shot so dark, its damn near impossible to see whats actually going on.

Add to this, an edit that could have been 10 minutes shorter with no real issues that feels a little bit plodding at times and has rigid cuts that dont help the flow or vibe of the overall edit. Its just kind of dull.

Casting is fun enough! we have the holy trinity back again (Michelle Baur, Linnea Quigley and Brinc Stevens) all of which are a delight to have on screen, bringing what their known for best to the forefront of this production (honestly, a whole star of the rating for this thing is purely at the female casts feet. They absolutely do there best to sell the film, and I feel they did a really good job.) The guys are a little on the 2 dimensional side which is a shame, but; it’s 1988, sex sells and I imagine the average male cinema go-er wasnt taking in this film for its subtle portrayal of the ‘Be careful what you wish for’ narrative.

throw in a killer score that reeks of mid 80s synth based pop rock and alltogether, its ‘okay’ to me. Its a film that has some fun performances and a solid visual style, married up to a TOTAL clunker of a script that barely hobbles over the finishing line. Can I say this is an out and out classic? I personally dont think so. But horror fans seem to remember this one with fondness, so im happy to be in the minority on this one. Not an essential watch, not as much fun as people would have you believe. it’s passably entertaining and reasonably well executed…and thats about it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/sorority-babes-in-the-slimeball-bowl-o-rama/