Video Nasty #25
WHEN THE KIDDING STOPS...THE KILLING STARTS!
Pranks
1981
A CRASH COURSE IN TERROR!
Original Title: Death Dorm
Alternate Title: The Dorm That Dripped Blood
Running time: 88:02 (Death Dorm Director's Cut)
Directed and Edited by Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter
Written by Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow, and Stacey Giachino
Produced by Jeffrey Obrow and Stacey Giachino
Cinematography by Stephen Carpenter
Starring: Laurie Lapinsky, Stephen Sachs, David Snow, Pamela Holland, Dennis Ely, Woody Roll, and Daphne Zuniga
Body Count: 10
Available on Region 1 BluRay/DVD from Synapse Films
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Gore murders.
What was cut: Never certified for cinema release before the Nasty panic, Pranks took 10 seconds of cuts to the drill murder for an 18 certificate for video release on July 1, 1992.
Current UK status: A DVD release on May 4, 2001 was also the cut 18-cert version.
Pranks was seized, but was not found to be obscene.
What is it about the 1980s? The hair is feathered, the clothes are awesome, and every single guy is a total pig. Gotta love that dated kitschyness.
A man ducks under a fence for unknown (but likely nefarious) purposes. We never find out, as he is murdered immediately in another great shock opener with no relation to the rest of the film.
Grad student Joanne (Laurie Lapinsky) is staying at school over Winter break with Patti (Pamela Holland), Craig (Stephen Sachs, who was also stunt coordinator for the picture), Brian (David Snow), and Debbie (Daphne Zuniga, in her film debut). Charged with selling off all of the furniture in the place, they have two weeks before the power goes off and the dorm is demolished. Brian and Joanne are flirty, and it looks to be a fun two weeks.
But then things stop going so swell: Debbie's grandmother has taken ill and she has to leave, a potential buyer comes on a little too strong, and there's this weird guy skulking around. What the others don't realize at first is a grisly sojourn for the audience: Debbie's father beaten with a nail-studded bat, her mother strangled, and Debbie herself has her head crushed like a melon. Their unknown assailant makes off with the bodies, and the saga of Death Dorm commences.
Directed by the tag-team of Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow (without monitors!), this is a good slasher flick, with effects by Matthew Mungle (The Midnight Meat Train, Edward Scissorhands) that do not disappoint. The film is too dark in places, and almost every male character is either crazy or a creep. On the plus side, the film is never boring and the denouement shocked me. This movie isn't "fun" exactly, but it's a decent slasher that delivers the goods.
This new release from Synapse is not the version released to theatres or video. Rather, it is a once-lost longer version with extended scenes. Most of these extensions consist of characters walking or talking, but there are also longer versions of the bat beating and drill murder, meaning that if this version had been released to video in the UK, it may not have escaped judicial punishment.
So the next time your boyfriend wants to go skiing, you should tag along, lest you find yourself trapped with a homicidal madman. I'm gonna start packing for that trip now. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
