THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD

(A.k.a. DEATH DORM; PRANKS)

Joanne (Laurie Lapinski) needs time off from her relationship with needy Tim (Robert Frederick), and so decides to hang back at their college dorm while others leave for the Christmas holidays. Her aim, along with four friends, is to clean up the building in preparation for its impending destruction.

But the kids are not alone, as young Debbie (Daphne Zuniga) discovers when she finds her parents murdered, only moments before she also bites the bullet.

Alas, Joanne was expecting Debbie to leave early for the holidays, so is none the wiser for her abrupt disappearance. Instead, she continues to merrily go about her business with goofy Brian (David Snow), practical joker Craig (Stephen Sachs) and bubbly brunette Patti (Pamela Holland).

They seem to be enjoying themselves for the most part, despite the constant threat of the power being cut off by an over-zealous local council – and weirdo John (Woody Roll), who has been spotted searching the campus’s bins for food.

A sequence of unsettling events – telephone lines being cut; a dinner table being trashed; faces at the window – lead the group to believe they should fear John’s reportedly volatile temper. They even call the police in. They search the place, turn up nothing and promptly leave.

This of course leaves the kids alone in their remote locale, wary of the prowling John but unaware of the true extent of the danger they’re in. How long will it be before they realise there is a killer on campus?

And, who is it most likely to be? Creepy John? Horny passer-by Bobby Lee (Dennis Ely)? The unhelpful cop? The local hardware store owner? Or someone totally different?

This film will be best-known to folk on British shores as PRANKS, under which title it was removed from the shelves of video rental stores during the "nasties" scare of the mid-80s. No matter that it was acquitted of obscenity charges a short while later in a hearing at Snaresbrook court, along with the likes of INFERNO, DEEP RIVER SAVAGES and – most famously – THE EVIL DEAD.

It’s often argued that a great deal of the films which courted controversy during that era would have faded into obscurity now, were it not for their attachment to the cries of a naive Government hoping to use the banning of horror films as a vote-scoring tool. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine the likes of REVENGE OF THE BOGEYMAN ever being remembered these days without such a claim to infamy.

So, what of PRANKS/DORM? Should it, by rights, have been consigned to the land that taste forgot a long time ago?

I can understand those who’d answer in the affirmative. The plot, as exampled above, is strictly by-the-numbers fare, cribbing from FRIDAY THE 13TH, BLACK CHRISTMAS, HALLOWEEN – anything it can, basically.

Performances are a little unsure at the best of times, and clearly were not bolstered along much by the inexperienced co-direction of Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow. Carpenter also doubles as director of photography and frequently shames at the task in hand: often overly dark and without much hint of cinematic flair, the style is rudimentary to say the least.

Christopher Young’s score, meanwhile, pilfers indiscriminately from FRIDAY THE 13TH and PSYCHO. The result is so overwrought that many may find it laughable.

Those are the arguments I imagine naysayers would vault in this film’s direction. And, truth be told, they all stick.

But I have to come out and speak in the film’s defence because all of the above perversely work towards lending this macro-budget student effort a tawdry charm akin to other early 80s fare such as NIGHTBEAST and THE DEADLY SPAWN.

On top of that, I enjoy the unlikely finesse of Obrow’s editing; the pace of the film is consistently agreeable; the shocks and red herrings, though signalled very obviously, are competently staged; the finale is subversive; the kill scenes are proper old-school (drill through the cranium; twatted to death with a spiked baton etc); Snow bears an unfortunate resemblance to Krist Novoselic ... what’s not to love?

So, yeah, DORM has its shortcomings and perhaps wouldn’t be remembered nowadays were it not for its flirtation with video nasties in another era. But I’m glad it is, because it’s an enjoyable slice of hokum that benefits from repeat viewings and delivers slasher ingredients with gusto.

Synapse’s special edition proffers the film on two discs, in a blu-ray/DVD combo pack.

Disc one is a 50GB dual layer blu-ray affair, which presents THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD in an impressive new 1080p AVC coded transfer struck from the only known existing 35mm negative (the film was shot on 16mm and later blown up onto 35mm). Not only that, this is the ultra-rare original director’s cut boasting the onscreen working title of DEATH DORM, and featuring more footage (including gore) than all previous versions.

The film itself still looks fairly grainy and dark, but is a marked improvement on video and DVD versions. Colours are brighter, blacks are remarkably stable and images solid throughout. It’s not the type of presentation that will set your eyes afire, such are the no-budget origins of the film in question, but it’s the best you’ll ever see it looking. Another noteworthy treat is that the film is finally presented in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio and enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

Likewise, the English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track is a very consistent, reliable and clean proposition. An isolated music-only track is also provided.

The blu-ray opens with a nice animated main menu, which leads into a static scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with a good, generally informative and relaxed commentary track from the co-directors.

Next up are a new 8–minute interview with Young, who speaks rather earnestly about his first ever film score, and a 9-minute featurette wherein FX artist Matthew Mungle (great name) discusses his fledgling work on the film. Both are interspersed with clips from the film.

Two bloodless trailers follow, each clocking in at under two minutes in length and bearing the titles THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD and PRANKS respectively. The latter is the longer, and the better, of the two.

The DVD presents the film in 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen with English 2.0 audio. Again it’s a strong presentation for such a small film of 30 years in age, but the blu-ray is undeniably brighter and cleaner in terms of audio and visuals.

Extras and menus are the same on the DVD. Both discs are playable worldwide.

Of all the 80s horror films to make it onto blu-ray in a special edition, I never expected PRANKS to be one of them. But here it is, looking and sounding its best and ripe for rediscovery by all those who either dismissed it or, like me, had seen it many moons ago but couldn’t remember whether I had or not, until the opening hand-slashing murder confirmed it for me.

Another fine job from Synapse.

Review by Stuart Willis