{"id":4548,"date":"2012-04-02T15:18:58","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T19:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4548"},"modified":"2012-04-04T01:12:05","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T05:12:05","slug":"dvd-frat-house-massacre-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4548","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Frat House Massacre (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>F<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: Synapse Films\/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: August 9, 2011<\/p>\n

Genre: Horror \/ Slasher<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Brotherly revenge is exercised upon a vicious fraternity, ending in a total bloodbath with one person standing.<\/p>\n

Special Features: Audio Commentary #1: with Director and Writer \/ Audio Commentary #2: with FIlm Crew \/ 14 Deleted Scenes (20:51) \/ Making-of Featurete (14:32)<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Alex Pucci\u2019s interest \/ obsession with eighties slasher films progresses to almost epic length in this Director Cut via Synapse\u2019s DVD, which features a nearly 2-hour long version, and while it does work at that length \u2013 mostly due to Draven Gonzalez\u2019 clean & lean characters \u2013 it\u2019s a weird fusion of slasher gore, primordial torture porn (somewhat akin to Blood Sucking Freaks<\/strong>), and borderline softcore, given there are several fairly graphic sex and rape scenes.<\/p>\n

Pucci\u2019s direction is fairly assured, and he gives the film important production values via authentic university locations, and sticking with a young cast, but the suffering and murder of the pledges do go on for quite a while before the film\u2019s revenge story really kicks in.<\/p>\n

After Bobby (Rane Jameson) is rendered comatose due to a drunk driver, older brother Sean (Chris Prangley) decides to continue with his life and return to college, but his objections to the fraternity\u2019s brutal hazing rituals headed by \u201cbi-polar\u201d monster Mark (Jon Fleming) get him killed\u2026 except in taking a supernatural turn (perhaps inspired by Italian slasher hybrids), Sean\u2019s spirit re-enters Bobby\u2019s sleeping body, and when he reawakens, Sean has a new vessel to wreak brutal revenge on the fraternity\u2019s boys and their sleazy girlfriends.<\/p>\n

Under cover as \u201cBobby,\u201d Sean infiltrates the fraternity and sets up his victims, culminating in a disco bloodbath that leaves only one person standing with an axe. The maiming is nasty, the blood-letting is over-the-top, and Frat House Massacre <\/strong>is a black comedy that has some tonal similarities with Chris Sivertson\u2019s The Lost<\/a> <\/strong>(2006), where a sociopathic gang leader similarly manipulates others into committing crimes until a finale bloodbath. Both films also share a strong streak of sadism, but Pucci\u2019s film is set in 1979.<\/p>\n

The costume design, set d\u00e9cor and music score by Claudio Simonetti (!) are very evocative, and Frat<\/strong> was shot on 35mm film to ensure an authentic grain texture. Synapse\u2019s DVD features a clean transfer, and the colours are very rich, with reds almost reaching into the vintage Eastmancolor red that dominated Herschel Gordon Lewis\u2019 Blood Trilogy.<\/p>\n

Like The Lost<\/strong>, the cast of relative newcomers (most stem from daytime soaps, while Niki Rubin appeared \/ debuted in Jesus Christ Serial Rapist<\/strong>) is quiet strong, and any weak bits tend to enhance the wide-eyed and lost nature of oversexed coeds surrounded by bloody peer pressure. Pucci may be riding the wave of retro slashers, but it\u2019s pretty surprising the plot and character arcs are neatly designed \u2013 more so than more vintage offerings like The Dorm That Dripped Blood<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1982), or more recent attempts to revisit the genre in meh efforts like Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (2009).<\/p>\n

Only qualms: at the rate pledges are killed, the fraternity is bound to run dry, and there\u2019s simply no way the steady stream of killings wouldn\u2019t alert the police, with families inundating the local sheriff with reams of missing persons reports.<\/p>\n

Synapse\u2019s DVD includes dual commentary tracks separating writer & writer from cast & crew, plus a making-of featurette where most of cast was wrestled into doing Q&As with each other. The deleted scenes include alternate sequences, but there\u2019s nothing missed.<\/p>\n

Draven and Pucci\u2019s prior collaboration, Camp<\/strong> Slaughter<\/strong> \/ Camp<\/strong> Daze<\/strong> (2005) is also available on home video.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Official Website<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amazon Links & KQEK.com’s Media Store:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a> —– Amazon.com<\/a> —– Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0F<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ F . Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Very Good Label: Synapse Films\/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: August 9, 2011 Genre: Horror \/ Slasher Synopsis: Brotherly revenge is exercised upon a vicious fraternity, ending in a total bloodbath with one person standing. Special Features: Audio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[1171,1172,466],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1bm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4548"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4562,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions\/4562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}