Frat House Massacre
Starring: Rane Jameson, Chris Prangley, Jon Fleming, Lisa DiCicco
Written By: Draven Gonzalez
Directed By: Alex Pucci
Grade: B

Fraternities are merely glorified and accepted cults. From the cruelty of hazing to the desperation of the meaningless acceptance of “brotherhood” the subject is completely suited for a horror film. Frat House Massacre portrays the evil that lies within the frat as well as giving us a tale of revenge that becomes completely satisfying by the end of the film.

Sean (Prangley) and Bobby (Jameson) lost their parents years ago and they are really the only family they have left. Off at school, Sean has been part of one of the most popular fraternities on campus for his fourth year now. However, his brothers are extremely vicious, no act is too severe for their hazing rituals even when it leads to death. Most of these deaths are actually planned ahead of time by the leader, Mark (Fleming). As the body count begins stacking up Sean doesn’t want any part of this anymore, which he tells his girlfriend, Erica (DiCicco). Word gets out on this and Mark claiming that he has to show Sean what they do to traitors, physically and mentally torments this person who they are supposed to have this close bond, equal to that of a brother. After that night, Sean wasn’t seen again.

Bobby knows what happened to him though and he goes to the same school that Sean went to after he graduated from high school. His roommate ends up being Mark’s younger brother, who seems to nearly be a clone of him. Both Bobby and his roommate end up pledging for the same fraternity of their older brothers. Bobby is thought to be a great potential fit for their fraternity. In the process of proving himself, he gets a taste of the cruelty and evil that he will have to inject to be a part of this frat, which just surfaces the real reason he is there; to get revenge on the people who slaughtered his brother and the last shred of family he had left.

The acting was better than I expected. Both Rane Jameson and Chris Prangley had a somewhat innocent quality to them that set them apart from nearly every character who didn’t seem to have any decent part of them. They both give us good protagonists that we can feel with in the situation they have fallen in to. Especially through Rane Jameson as Bobby we share his plight for revenge and cheer for him as the frat does begin to die themselves. Lisa DiCicco was the one weak link in the cast. At first her performance wasn’t noticeably bad, but as we get away from Sean’s storyline and enter Bobby’s, her overacting is really distracting and we can’t really take her character seriously. Jon Fleming gave the best performance as the leader of the fraternity. He really shows how he gets off on having control and demeaning others especially by inflicting pain and suffering on them. When some of the frat brothers begin to die he is furious, not because they have died, but because he wasn’t the one to authorize the deaths and he can’t stand something going on with his frat that he doesn’t have complete control over. He really arranged for most of the pledges to get killed. Only those that manage to survive have a chance to be one of his brothers. Even then they are still at constant risk. Fleming really gave us a completely worthless human that you can feel nothing but for hate towards, making you anxious for his death.

The one thing that really hurt the film was how it over-complicated itself. I was completely engaged in the movie and the twists just made it confusing. Our protagonists seem to be constantly changing between Sean and Bobby. It really isn’t clear, which one of them we are seeing and which one is alive during many moments of the film, but there is the suggestion that it is not what we think. Even at the end when things are cleared up, it doesn’t make complete sense. There is enough motivation and either Bobby or Sean could have found ways to get close to their enemy to seek their revenge. This twist really does nothing for the film. We do get two different perspectives on the reasoning for the bloodshed of the brotherhood, both that display how awful these guys have been to everyone around them. Frat House Massacre refers to itself as a throwback to the 70s film, which I really didn’t get at all while watching it. It is actually set in this time, but you would never know it. The clothes, sets, and language are all very contemporary. The one moment where there is actually a representation of the era is during one of the parties, which actually seems more like a disco themed party since this is the only time this wardrobe is shown.

The film starts out showing a room full of bodies covered in blood, automatically letting us know that this is a film that will have plenty of gore. There are constant kills throughout the movie from the very beginning and obviously as the film goes on, they grow and these are the most satisfying ones as the characters really had this coming. Some of the kills that are done by the frat brothers are actually pretty dark and disturbing, which was a very appropriate tone to hit on through them. Seeing the joy they get and how they are able to just walk away and move on with their lives paints them as completely inhuman. The deaths of the frat brothers are creative and a lot of fun. Frat House Massacre is a low budgeted film, but the production quality is pretty decent. Some of the over complication held it back, but what the film does right it does really well. It has intense feel and at the same time is a lot of fun. Frat House Massacre both depicted the frat brothers as evil and inflicted pain on them as well, exploring both sides of the horror.