Admittedly I wasn’t the biggest fan of Alex Pucci’s “Camp Daze.” While it was an original concept for the camp slasher it was a bit too reliant on throwbacks to the slasher sub-genre to be the perfect horror film. Pucci bounces back though with “Frat House Massacre” an excellent horror slasher that sets down in the late seventies revolving around familiar themes of revenge, karma, and the inevitable twist. It’s surprising that with such a small budget Pucci is able to accomplish what Ti West did in “House of the Devil,” hearkening back to the decade of the seventies so adamantly and making this feel successfully like a capsule of the time with fashions, hairstyles, and a killer soundtrack and synth score that makes this seem utterly genuine.
The overall theme of “Frat House Massacre” is homosexuality and the repressed sexual preference that manages to elicit such carnage and mayhem from a fraternity intent on punishing their brothers and the people inside the brotherhood who go in to a sheer state of arousal from abusing, torturing and sexually degrading these young men. There’s the heavy themes of masculinity called in to question and guys who get off on watching naked men be humiliated and punished for practicing sex that doesn’t involve other men, in the end. Main character Sean’s brother Bobby even seems to be punished for choosing the allure of his friends and a hot girl over him, and this carries on through most of the film. Director Pucci is definitely at his top here presenting a tonal gloss and atmosphere that makes this feel as if it’s a lost classic neither of us have ever heard of until now.
Nothing about this feels like an indie, and it’s astonishing to watch the ambiance become ever more grim and dreary as it progresses while everyone in the cast gives such a great performance. What begins as a simple series of torture sequences involving a local fraternity who takes great pleasure in trapping and maliciously torturing and killing their brothers they suspect will betray or question their secret code, continues on as a quest for vengeance with protagonist Sean goes to college without his brother Bobby. Bobby suffered a near fatal car crash and lays in a coma in his room while Sean goes off to seek independence and sexual freedom. Sean inevitably comes in contact with his frat after second guessing the frat leader Mark’s spineless sidekick (who also happens to secretly have a crush on him) and suffers a horrible fate by their hands.
Managing to perfectly explore the bond between Sean and Bobby without any words, Sean endures a slow and painful death at their hands and–guess what–Bobby has just come back from his coma psychically aware of what has just occurred with his brother at the hands of these monsters. Now Bobby is back and is intent on corrupting this frat and getting back at everyone who killed his well intentioned brother. What’s left ambiguous by Pucci is what has occurred here. Did Bobby and Sean bond psyches in the middle of his stressful death? Or did something from beyond call to Bobby to seek justice for his brother?
Rane Jameson gives an especially strong performance here as Bobby, a man who starts off as selfish and independent and then completely dives in to darkness when revived from his coma witnessing his brother’s fate. As he ventures deeper in to college, there are many a twists to be had and Pucci sells them very well. Not only is this whole journey about violence and payback, but Bobby learns a lot about himself and his brother he bonded so closely with. Sadly, some of the film is hampered by choppy editing that keeps some of the action sequences incoherent, especially in the climactic confrontation between Bobby and Mark.
Nevertheless, there are particular shades of “Carrie” (Head brother Mark sexually manipulates his girlfriend to lure Sean), and “Prom Night” that Pucci recollects but thankfully does not rely on that make this a rather grim and intense revenge picture that really shows what grindhouse can be when it’s done by someone who knows how to handle a concept such as this. Save for the sloppy editing in some instances, “Frat House Massacre” is an excellent slasher/grindhouse throwback with strong performances, a unique take on the college slasher sub-genre, a twisted surprise ending, and some rather grotesque gross out scenes that ensure director Alex Pucci and writer Draven Gonzalez are talents to keep watching for. They do us slasher fans proud.