READ PART 1

On a cold and windy night last October, I arrived on the set of Summit’s Sorority Row – a remake of the 1983 slasher flick, The House On Sorority Row – in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both nights I spent on set took place in a rock quarry on the outskirts of town, complete with a small pond/lake, a small clearing and a mine shaft of sorts. In other words, the perfect place for a murder to be covered up.

When I arrived on set the first night, along with several other guests, we were taken down to the small clearing at the base of the quarry where we watched the cast and crew get ready for their next scene, which director Stewart Hendler was almost ready to start shooting. It was 9 PM by the time the first scene got underway and the temperature was a warm and toasty 30 degrees, which made watching all the late evening takes all the more interesting. Although this is the 12th night of principal photography, it is only the second at this location, according to producer Mark Karz. And if you thought it couldn’t get any colder at the location, he explained that by the time they called it quits the night before, at a sunrise-inducing 5 AM, everything was covered in frost.

The first scene I bore witness, involving the Theta Pi sisters driving Megan (Audrina Patridge) to the quarry to play a prank on her cheating boyfriend Garrett (Matt O’Leary), can be seen in the theatrical trailer that debuted online two weeks ago. These characters drove straight from a lingerie party of sorts, so they’re all dressed rather seductively – save for O’Leary, who is wearing a fairly standard pair of pajamas. Keeping in mind that almost the entire principal cast has barely anything on, it’s extremely commendable that nobody broke character or started uncontrollably shaking because of the temperature – a feat made even more impressive since their uninterrupted takes lasted around 7 minutes apiece. Patridge’s character is the least dressed of them all but she felt that helped her get into character. “It’s just being in lingerie when you’re laying on the cold dirt going into scene. I mean, for my death scene, I need to convulse and shake anyways so it kind of helps.”

Co-star Rumer Willis adds, “I have so much respect for Audrina because she has been out there the past two nights and she has the least amount of clothing on out of all of us and she has not complained once. She totally cowboyed up man and she’s just laying out there.”

Her death scene – which is also shown in the trailer so I’m spoiling anything here – was actually the first one I’ve ever gotten to see play out entirely on set. After the cast finished their dialogues and O’Leary had raised the tire-iron, Patridge’s prosthetic torso was dragged on set, complete with tubing and pumps. The first take was kind of weak, with a disappointing amount of the red sticky stuff following the tire-iron being driven into Megan’s chest. Hendler immediately shouts “More blood!” afterwards, bringing a giant smile to my face. The next take is infinitely better, with a veritable geyser of blood erupting from the body. From what I saw that night, I can assure everyone that nobody seems to making any sort of effort to tone down the script for a PG-13 rating. If the whole film plays out like what I saw on set, it’ll definitely receive an R-rating.

Briana Evigan, who plays Cassidy, describes her character as “a little bit of the 'Debbie Downer" because all the other girls are always so funny and joking around and kind of silly about everything. But she is very strong and confident and kind of wants to step away from the whole sorority thing and wants to spend more time with her boyfriend and isn't really into the whole “I'm a girl, let me dance around in my little lingerie outfit” and all that. I think she joins the sorority because she kind of wants to have a little of that side, rather than the tomboy she kind of is at heart, and tries to open up and make all these friends with girls that aren't the nicest in the world but she finds a way to love them."

Much like Kate McNeil’s Katey from the original film, Evigan’s Cassidy is the odd duck of the group and the only one who is completely outspoken against the prank. “I think clearly, she stands out by the way she dressed, by the way she looks and her tone with everything. My number one thing is to try and not be whiny, because it can come off very annoying because everyone is being so funny. I'm trying to approach it from that whole “I'm the only one who has it together here and I can't believe these girls can even speak like this. This is why I didn't want to be in a sorority to begin with." So I keep trying to go back to that so it doesn't turn out whiny and that I'm a complainer, because she's not really. She's really the only one that has some sense and knows everything they're doing is wrong."

Evigan is also quite the rascal, unleashing over 300 rats and mice into her high school gym for her senior prank. Another memorable moment of mischief she had deals with a haunted marine base and a shower. “I came back from school early that day and there were four of us living in this house. It was an old marine base and everyone was talking about how it was haunted. We all believed in it but we had never seen it or anything, anywhere before that. Now we all believe it because crazy stuff started happening there right after I did this to my friend,” she says. “I got home early and no one was home and she had been freaking out over everybody. I heard the shower on upstairs and I was like “It’s on!” I go upstairs and I'm lying down on the side of the bathtub and she has her hand on the shower curtain. You know when you hear the water on somebody and then you hear it hit the floor? So I took my fingers and put them right up to hers and pulled back and I could feel her stop and then dead silence. You could hear the water hitting the floor. I was still laying there and trying so hard not to laugh and she put her hand back. So I put it back up against hers and she fell and ripped the curtain open, freaked out and jumped out of the tub. I'm lying on the floor and she hit me so hard. She was like “I hate you!” It was really awesome, she was scared. Then afterwards, that stuff really started happening so I left."

Willis plays Ellie, who feels guilty because of what happened to Megan but, unlike Cassidy, is easily swayed by the rest of the sisters and just goes with the flow. “Ellie is definitely smart. She would have been valedictorian if the unfortunate incident with Megan hadn't happened. She definitely has a little bit of sarcasm too,” says Willis. “She is one of those girls you won't really expect it from but, all of a sudden, she'll come out with a line and you'll be like “Oh, alright." She has a little spunk to her. I really like that she has such a transformation throughout the script because there are a lot of people who have the confidence but don't necessary want to use it, especially if you have someone like Jessica, who is the queen bee and leader of the group. I think it's a really cool thing to be able to play a character that you really get to see grow and change. Ellie is definitely a screamer. I've had a lot of fun."

She also mentioned how much fun it was playing someone who is the exact opposite of her. “It's something different and it’s nothing like I've ever been able to do before. It's hard because I'm such the opposite. I'm usually outspoken and quite spontaneous so it’s been interesting to play and work with a character who is more quiet and keeps to herself but she has her moments of calling people out. It's been really cool and I'm excited to see what else we get to do later."

When talking with Hendler earlier in the evening (the highlights of which can be read here), he talked a bit about the entire cast, specifically mentioning that "Leah Pipes is [Cassidy’s] counterpart in the movie, they're always at each other's throats."

Pipes describes her character as “a Sophist,” which is thoroughly conveyed in one of the scenes I saw being filmed, as Jessica attempts to coerce her sisters into hiding Megan’s body. “We’ll have to live with this decision for the rest of our lives. Every party, every job, every relationship we ever have, people will know." She plays the “queen bee” of the film, and is threatened by the prospect of having that taken away from her, even if it means covering up her friend’s death.

"Jessica is a bitch, through and through," she confesses. “The way she thinks is so different from the way a normal person thinks […] it's very black and white; either she's benefited by a situation or she's not benefited by a situation, and if she's not benefited then she's not bothering. There's a certain element of intelligence to that philosophy if you think about it. Deep down we all have a little bit of Jessica in us, she's just honest about it!"

The following night we saw the next scene, which had the sisters and Garrett dropping Megan’s body down into a mine shaft. It was a bit difficult to see, as the lighting crew was set up directly in front of me and the actors were placed at the top of a hill, so I can’t really comment on what I saw but, rest assured, there were a few last minute pleas and words of reasons spoken by Cassidy before the body was ceremoniously hidden.

O’Leary, who plays the accidental murderer of the film, commented on his character’s mental state and what we see later on in the film. “I feel like a year later, it doesn’t matter how young you are, you’re going to mature with something like this. It’s a fucked up way to grow up, but I think that speaks volumes for this character. I think it’s like ten years almost in his head; he just goes over and over it. I don’t know if he would be crying… So you just try to feel like ‘What would you do in this situation even though it’s written, how would you feel?’… I’m actually very interested to see how like the suspension of belief and how the audience reacts to the mixture of like, it’s not one sided. It’s definitely that it plays with you then it grabs you by the balls."

From what I saw on set, Sorority Row has the potential to be a fun horror film. There’s a few other things I learned that would help me better state my case but mentioning any of them would ruin the better comedic moments and over-the-top death scenes. Leah Pipes, however, gave us a really great hint about the latter, “Let’s just say the writers have a real oral fixation; they haven’t moved on to the anal stage."