I love me some slashers, but the more obscure ones rarely score with me, for the bare minimum to make a slasher is very ...minimum, and loads of these got made back in the peak days of this genre. "The Dorm that Dripped Blood" a.k.a. "Death Dorm" is one of them, although not entirely without any charms. Picked it up purely because of the plot being set during the Christmas holidays, for 'tis the season.
With the estimated finances of under 100 thousand, "The Dorm that Dripped Blood" does what it can with what it has, and what it has are a few things. For the expenses, the kills are decent and low-key gnarly, the cast is sort of alright, the scream queen of "Death Dorm" played by Laurie Lapinski offers up a decent performance, the locations, and the eerie ambience commit to an offbeat atmosphere, and, I don't know how to put it, but it feels like a film about students made by students, therefore the whole thing acquires sort of extra authenticity. It does feel somewhat obscure, if you're scanning for such kind of oldie horrors. I will never understand why was this considered a "video nasty" and banned in the UK, it's quite tame, and not near the most extreme even in the old days.
Now, however, all those charms are fighting a prolonged losing battle against the void of the plot (it's there, even with a twist, but it's stretched supremely thin over the runtime), increasingly sluggish pacing culminating in a very lengthy chase sequence, and the atmosphere gradually wearing thin and flat as the runtime goes. I rarely experience movies that make me tired, and this one did.
The yuletide horror value too, unfortunately, is very little, and this goes out as a recommendation only to the hardcore fans of low-budget slashers, intriguing "video nasties", and enjoyers of obscure, forgotten 80's horror flicks.
With the estimated finances of under 100 thousand, "The Dorm that Dripped Blood" does what it can with what it has, and what it has are a few things. For the expenses, the kills are decent and low-key gnarly, the cast is sort of alright, the scream queen of "Death Dorm" played by Laurie Lapinski offers up a decent performance, the locations, and the eerie ambience commit to an offbeat atmosphere, and, I don't know how to put it, but it feels like a film about students made by students, therefore the whole thing acquires sort of extra authenticity. It does feel somewhat obscure, if you're scanning for such kind of oldie horrors. I will never understand why was this considered a "video nasty" and banned in the UK, it's quite tame, and not near the most extreme even in the old days.
Now, however, all those charms are fighting a prolonged losing battle against the void of the plot (it's there, even with a twist, but it's stretched supremely thin over the runtime), increasingly sluggish pacing culminating in a very lengthy chase sequence, and the atmosphere gradually wearing thin and flat as the runtime goes. I rarely experience movies that make me tired, and this one did.
The yuletide horror value too, unfortunately, is very little, and this goes out as a recommendation only to the hardcore fans of low-budget slashers, intriguing "video nasties", and enjoyers of obscure, forgotten 80's horror flicks.