Fraternity Massacre at Hell IslandDirector/Writer: Mark Jones
Rated: n/a (contains violence and nudity)
Cast: Tyler Farrell, Sarah Ewell, Anthony Flessas, and Corie Ventura

In 1984 a crazy gypsy puts a curse on a group of performers. Forward to present day, a group of pledges to Zeta Alpha Rho show up for Hell Night, their initiation. Hell Night, which takes place on an island, is well known to the college to cause all sorts of shenanigans and is frowned upon. From the very start, we seen hints that madness will ensue on this year’s Hell Night.

A crazy roommate, an obsessive girlfriend, and a schizophrenic dean of students are all among the probable suspects to the events that soon occur on the island. Pledge Jack, a homosexual, finds himself to be the only seemingly sane individual in the twisted and homophobic group. Meanwhile, the ghosts of the performers of 1984 begin to haunt the pledges. At the same time, a killer clown is on the loose picking off the ZAP members and pledges. Jack sure enough finds himself to be the only hope in getting any survivors off the island.

If the premise of this film sounds crazy, it is. The film makes fun of itself and the horror genre by using countless stereotypes, clichés, and completely obnoxious characters and jokes. The kill scenes are without effort or attention in the blood department, they’re just there. There really is no lead character aside from Jack, in fact it’s difficult to keep track of names because there were so many characters. Needless to say, this is not a film to be taken seriously and one should be well aware of this before watching it.

For a low budget horror movie, it’s surprisingly well put together. The lighting in the night shots is well done and there was some great editing. If you’re looking for more well executed portions of this film besides that, you’d be disappointed. The film features a cheesy 90s sounding alternative soundtrack that makes certain scenes seem like a music video. The acting is scattered across the board. We have one of those types of films where the characters are so ridiculous it’s hard to draw the line between bad acting and flat out goofy characters.

The bottom line is this film knows what it is. If goofy low-budget horror spoofs aren’t your thing, then don’t complain about how lousy the film is. I found much of this film to be amusing, but I’m a guy who enjoys nonsense humor. The story itself at least has enough going to throw in a few twists to keep one’s attention. The major downfalls for me were too many characters to keep track of, too many back stories, and the lack of some decent blood effects. With that said, it’s a fun watch for cheesy horror fans and is friendly to the gay community.

IMDb | Trailer (YouTube) | Official MySpace | Official Site

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