Customer Reviews

Sisters of Death

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While far from perfect, Sisters of Death (1978) does have a few things going for it that a plethora of 70s low-budget thrillers do not. First and foremost, there is former Playboy Playmate Claudia Jennings, a beautiful and really quite talented actress whose life would come to a tragic, premature end in a traffic accident the following year. The other actors and actresses are certainly competent and play their roles fairly well, but there is nothing really special or memorable about them. The plot itself manages to hold up pretty well, making its way through a decent set of twists and turns to keep the viewer constantly unsure about his/her own theories until the very end. The ending, by the way, is especially nice. I was just thinking how cool it would be if a certain last twist took place in the final seconds, when lo and behold, my wish was granted. Sisters of Death begins with a sorority initiation in which Russian roulette serves as the final test for initiates; the gun isn't really supposed to go off with a live bullet, but try telling that to the young blonde who soon collapses with a couple of fresh, nasty holes in her head. The Sisters, as they call themselves, are all veiled so that it is not possible to go back and determine who did what in the ceremony. We then move to seven years later, when the Sisters find themselves invited back for a reunion. The five former friends find themselves out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by an electrical fence, aided only by two men who were supposed to leave after dropping the girls off, trying to avoid the type of final justice the young dead initiate's father plans on exacting from them all. This film is by no means gory or bloody, it can be a little annoying at times, and its low-budget nature is clearly evident at all times (you can actually see the boom mike above the actors' heads during one whole scene), but it proved just unpredictable enough to keep me from knowing just how things would play out in the end. I found Sisters of Death to be quite an enjoyable movie experience.

During an college sorority initiation ceremony, a pledge in the Secret Society of Sisters is accidentally shot and killed. Seven years later the six remaining members receive invitations (and $500) to attend a reunion. Only one of the Sisters knows the invitation was sent by the dead girl's father.
From the Farrah Fawcett hairdos to the Starsky & Hutch clones, the low-budget SISTERS OF DEATH looks like a made-for-tv movie. This 1978 movie stars 1970 Playboy Playmate of the Year Claudia Jennings (Sorry, no nudity in this one.) The girls, driven to a remote desert estate by Starsky & Hutch, soon find themselves prisoners behind a powerful electric fence. Papa's hidden somewhere inside, packing gunpowder into some nasty looking bullets when not roaming through hidden passages.
The plot of SISTERS OF DEATH is tried and true and a little tired, and a few too many twists are thrown in at the end, but the movie is pleasant enough.

During an all girl secret society initiation, one of the new members is killed playing russian rulette. many years later, the survivors are invited to a reunion at a lavish estate, which turns out to be owned my the crazed father of the girl who died. CREEPY, but very good story!

The film begins with a Sorority initiation of two prospective members attired in virginal veils who kneel before a Council with obscured faces, who play a game of Russian Roulette with the initiates until one is shot - yet this was supposed to be a test of trust, no bullets were to be in those guns. A few years go by and the girls receive mysterious invites containing a sizable amount of cash to a reunion at some unknown location, as if they were bribed. They all gather and are all collected by a Starchky & Hutch-looking twosome, and driven to a mansion deep in the isolated countryside where they find their accommodations. They all begin to wonder who their host is, eventually making an appearance - it turns out to be the murdered girl's father! Here is where the real fun begins as he carefully orchestrates each girl's demise in various suspenseful ways. At some point, the drivers who had dropped the girls off decide to "crash the party", as it were, propelled by their libidos in hopes the girls desire male company. So all enter, but none can exit, primarily because of the electrified fence {which would be a marvelous implementation for the nation's borders, in My opinion}; there is a touching scene in which the father undergoes his sad ritual at a shrine he erected to the memory of his daughter in which he plays a recording of her performing the flute, which he so compassionately replicates. Personally, I felt he had every right to avenge his daughter's death - and when loopholes in the legal system yield no justice, he took it in his own capable hands, and thus initiated his own version of "The Most Dangerous Game" of sorts, although the prey here are rather weak overall, and his vigilantism is actual justice, eye for eye and kind for kind. A distraught father seeking justice for his precious little girl - quite a noble endeavor.

Towards the finale, the last living girl fires what probably has to be the luckiest shot in all of cinematic history, and she dos reveal her true colors in a very surprising twist at the very end.

Quite entertaining in a Death Wish sort of way, I grant this film a 4/5 for the Lex Talionis perspective.

At the beginning of this movie, we see a sorority initiation involving handguns. As a part of the final initiation rite, each pledge must take a gun and put the gun to her head. Of course, the guns are not supposed to be loaded. After all, we are talking about an initiation ritual, not real Russian roulette. Sadly, one of the two pledges makes a mess in the initiation room with her blood - and her brains.

We fast-forward to seven years later. The six remaining sisters receive invitations to a reunion, which is to take place at an isolated house surrounded by a barbed wire and electrified fence. I guess the owner must like privacy. Either that or the owner wants to trap a group of young women in his house to get revenge for his daughter's death. If I were to guess, I would say the latter.

A couple of guys invite themselves to the reunion. Sadly, the guys become part of the plot when the fence becomes electrified. Now there are eight people and the owner within the fence. Let the mayhem begin.

There is a lot of skulking about and soon women, and one guy, start dropping like flies. Some of the scenes make you wonder about the IQ of college graduates. You go down a set of dark stairs and hear rattlesnakes. You would think that an intelligent person would stop, and very slowly, and very quietly, go back up the stairs. Unless you wore a red shirt and it was your turn in the blender. I was kidding about the red shirt, but you get the idea. I also have to wonder about ability to read and use a bit of caution. After all, that fence does have a label that says "warning."

The best acting in this film is from the late Arthur Franz as Edmund Clybourn, the father of the poor, dead girl. His abilities should hardly be surprising given that he was an actor for more than three decades. Clybourn has relatively few lines, but the tortured expressions on his face speak volumes. The late Claudia Jennings also is a joy to watch in her role as Judy. Sadly, the former Playmate of the Year died in a fatal car crash at age 29, two years after making this movie.

This movie has a surprising amount of tension. It is slow in a lot of places, but you keep wondering who is going to get it next and how. Very reminiscent of Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians," this movie is hardly original, but is still watchable. The ending has a suitable twist, making the entire experience worthwhile. I would hardly rush out to buy this movie, but if you are a fan of movies where the victims drop off one-by-one while everyone is trying to figure out how, why, and who's next, this one is worth a watch.

As a side note, I read the editorial blurb on Amazon for this movie, which lists Cheri Howell, who had four film roles, as an icon. I guess I have a different definition of icon.

Good luck!

During a sorority initiation ceremony, something goes horribly wrong when one of the new members is accidentally killed. Seven years later, the remaining sisters receive invitations to attend a reunion at an isolated mountain estate. Little do they know, the resort is owned by the father of the deceased sorority member, and he is looking for revenge.

Sisters of Death, is a 70s horror film. Only the monsters in the film, aren't creatures. They're humans, with twisted ulterior motives, and intentions of brutal vengeance.

The plot revolves around a reunion of the 'Sisters', a group of young women who formed the Sisters Sorority at their school. Several years before their reunion, one of the Sisters was killed during an initiation rite, which involved a game of Russian Roulette.

After this tragedy, the other Sisters get on with their lives, without really keeping in close contact with one another. A few years pass. Then the surviving Sisters, all get written invitations to participate in a reunion. None of them can figure out who sent these invitations, or why.

The invitations instruct them to meet-up at a central location. Once there, the Sisters are approached by two men. The men explain to the Sisters, that they are there to take them to the exact location of the reunion. They claim that they're doing this, because it's a job that they were paid by someone else to do.

Once there, the Sisters all see a welcoming banner, and a huge buffet of food and wine. The place is a seemingly empty, gorgeous mansion. Just one thing seems really weird-the place is closed off from the outside, by a tall electric fence.

The Sisters all enjoy the food and drinks the first day, and catch-up on old times. They do have an underlying unease, about the deserted old mansion though. And whoever sent the reunion invitations leaves them all bewildered, trying to figure out who it was.

Soon, the Sisters go into high-alert-mode, after they start getting killed-off, one-by-one. Turns out that they were invited to the mansion, by the father of the Sister who got killed during the initiation. And he's hell-bent, on avenging what he believes to be his daughter's murder.

The film seethes with a spine-tingling tension, as each Sister tries to avoid becoming the next murder victim. The movie does get bogged-down, in excessive melodrama. But over-the-top theatrics, was the signature of 70s B movies, like this one. And this is just what made these films, such a guilty pleasure to watch.

The performances were mainly mediocre. Except for the riveting performance by Paul Franz, as the deranged, vengeful father. Claudia Jennings as Judy, also stood-out amongst the rest of the cast. In this film, Claudia was only a supporting character. But, she manages to steal every scene she's in.

Nail-biting suspense and surprising plot-twists, make Sisters of Death an above-average slice of 70s film-cheese. I've seen better horror dramas, and I've seen worse. But this movie will do just fine, for fans of low-budget, 70s damsels-in-distress films.

An initiation into the sorority of The Sisters goes horribly wrong and one young woman is killed. Seven years later the survivors of the tragic night are summoned to a reunion. Whoever has put it together has provided travel expenses. When the ladies arrive at their destination, they discover it is just a departure point to get to the real destination, a large villa in the desert. The drivers decide to crash the party and join the women at the villa. There they part into the night unaware that someone is watching them. But the next morning the watcher is revealed. It is the dead girl's father and he wants to find out which of the ladies murdered his daughter.

Suddenly the villa becomes a prison surrounded by an electrified fence. They know there was no murder, just an accident. But how do they convince the vengeful father? Soon it changes to a game of survival as the ladies begin to be murdered one by one. There is supposedly a witness that proves the tragedy was really murder and things step up a notch. Desperation reigns as the survivors begin to dwindle in number while trying to escape the villa and the madman who is after them. A few more revelations and plenty more action bring the story to a surprising conclusion. You will have to watch to find out who dies and who survives.

An interesting little film although I never quite understood the purpose of the initiation rite that went wrong. Why the two bullets, etc. After the stylish opening with the blue-draped sisters the visuals return to pretty standard fare for the era. I never felt any real menace except right near the end. Mostly I felt the characters were rather stupid. Why didn't the guys just drive a couch or other heavy object through the fence? Still the film is true to its era but nothing really distinguishes it outside of the opening scene. Worth watching for a little drama but nothing that really stands out.

A secret sorority inatiation rite ends tragically when a pledge is shot in the head. The gun was supposed to contain a blank cartridge, but fires real ammo instead! Seven years later, the five remaining "sisters" receive invitations to a reunion. Now, I'm aware that this movie was made in the swingin' 70s, but good lord, these women are some dopey dingalings! They decide to go to the mysterious home of a mysterious man via a car with two men they've never met! Yikes! The house is surrounded by a ten foot electrified fence. Who would walk gleefully into such circumstances by choice? Our five heroines, that's who! They soon find themselves trapped (duh!) by a madman with evil intentions. It is explained that he is the dead girl's father, swearing revenge on the dizzy gals, who are now at his mercy. The two guys who drove them to this place try to protect them to little effect. One by one the girly-girls bite the dust. We get death by strangulation, electrocution, and rattlesnake! I like this one just fine. Sure, it's silly! Still, it's fun and watchable...