Sisters of Death (1977)

Death Trap

Cast:

Claudia Jennings is Judy
Arthur Franz is Edmond Clybourn
Cheri Howellis is Sylvia
Sherry Boucher is Diana
Paul Carr is Mark

What the box says:

Seven years ago after a tragic accident involving six high school girls, the survivors are invited to a reunion where a deadly struggle ensues.

Plot:

A sorority is about to induct 2 new members. The membership necklaces and bullets are ready. Bullets? One girl loads a bullet in a gun and points it at Judy’s head. It clicks. Judy is given her necklace. When going through the same process for Elizabeth, her bullet is blown off.

When teabagging really gets out of hand
As the opening credits roll, several photos show the shock of the girls.

In Los Angeles 7 years later, Judy, a model, reads through the society pages that announce how she’ll soon marry the governor’s son. Checking her mail, she finds an invitation to a sorority reunion with several hundred dollars in traveling money.

Judy calls Sylvia, the gun-wielding girl. Sylvia got an invitation but though Judy was behind the reunion being the only member of the group with money. The raven haired Sylvia earns her money the old fashioned way on her back. They’ll meet later.

Penny, another of the girls, is in a hippie commune realizing the internal truth is deeper than external reality when actualizing the Great Spirit. Well, she gets her invitation.

I didn't mean to be a dirty hippie

Diane is hitching down the road and gets picked up by a skuzzy guy.

A policeman pulls over Francie who is speeding. She is able to talk her way out of a ticket by claiming to need to get to the can real quick.

Judy, Sylvia, and Penny arrive at the meeting place where Joey and Mark, the 2 guys hired to give them a ride to the reunion are. Diane and Francie pull up. High pitched greetings ensue.

The dudes drive them out into the desert. Travel montage ensues. As the girls catch up, Penny senses a disturbance in the force. They reach a mansion in the middle of nowhere. Creepy guy watches them from inside.

The girls find a letter greeting them to the party. Joey and Mark drive off.

A banner welcomes the sisters. The gate closes and the fence can be electrified.

All the girls toast their reunion save Penny the hippie.

The dudes decide to go back and crash the party when they see the fence isn’t electrocuted.

The girls check out the place and split up.

Joe and Mark sneak back into the mansion.

The girls save Sylvia check out their rooms. However, Joe and Mark aren’t impressing Sylvia with their virile manliness.

Mystery Guy is creeping around the mansion.

Judy is changing into other clothes unaware of Mystery Guy spying on her from a nearby vent.

The bikinied girls run into Joe and Mark.

Mystery guy is watching the pool party from a window and activates the electric fence.

Judy hands some blankets to the guys who have to sleep outside.

Mystery guy is hand preparing some bullets.

In the morning, Mystery guy spots Joe and Mark.

Judy awakens from a nightmare and discovers a picture of Elizabeth in her room.

As the other girls meet in the morning. Sylvia chews everyone out before storming out of the room. Mystery guy reveals himself to his guests and lets the guests see a large painting of his daughter, Elizabeth. Father wants discover which of the girls killed his daughter. All claim it was an accident. However, Father knows someone used a real bullet.

This understandably freaks out Penny who runs outside towards the fence. Mark shows the fence is live.

Father is angry with the guys for disobeying his orders.

Judy tries convincing Father that his daughter died in an accident. He knows one of the girls was behind it. Tomorrow the truth will be revealed. One girl saw who changed the bullets.

Mark and Joe decide the best way to escape is to cut the power off for the fence. They split up to search for the cellar where the fuse box should be.

Searching, Judy looks for Penny who is chanting.

Joe finds the cellar and turns off the fuse box.

Penny is strangled from behind.

I've never seen one so crooked.

The group runs to the fence, but it is still electrified. Judy finds Penny’s body and is suitably freaked out by it. Mark thinks the witness is working with Father.

That night, Joe tries putting the moves on one of the girls to no avail.

Father is preparing more bullets. Firing up his phonograph, he starts playing his flute and thinks about his daughter.

Mark expects Father to come down the stairs where they can get him.

Sylvia is undressing and unaware of the tarantula crawling around the room.

Diane and Francie are talking. Francie decides to take a shower since Diane will be nearby. Diane thinks that is a very bad idea.

Sylvia is having a nightmare as the tarantula crawls on the bed near her.

Francie is showering.

Father keeps loading more and more bullets.

Sylvia awakens with the tarantula on her chest and starts screaming bloody murder. Running down the hallway, the guys take care of the tarantula. Diane runs up to see what is going on.

Father is skulking nearby.

Diane goes back and finds the very showered and very dead Francie.

Next day, Joe, Mark, Judy, Sylvia, and Diane are trying to figure out how to escape. Mark thinks they can dig under the fence. Joe and Diane run off with an idea of their own.

Mark heads to the cellar and discovers a rattlesnake. Grabbing something, he hightails it out of there.

Joe and Diane take part of the welcome banner and scrap it to use for an SOS banner.

Sylvia trips and hurts her foot.

Father is loading another clip.

Mark and Judy are digging under the fence.

As Joe and Diane set up the SOS banner, Joe discovers the buried power supply for the fence. Diane is sent to get Mark.

Mark discovers under the electrified fence is an underground cinderblock fence. Sylvia mysteriously vanishes. Judy looks for her as Diane tells them about the power supply.

A German Shepard is let loose and chases Joe who runs into the electric fence. Diane chases after the other girls. She winds up in the cellar. A rattlesnake bite later, she’ll stay there permanently.

Father carries Judy away. He tries to shooting at Mark, too.

Mark fights a guard dog.

Father strips Judy into the blue pledge outfit from the beginning of the movie. Sylvia is in the same outfit, too.

The Mark-dog fight continues.

Sylvia places a noose around Judy’s neck.

Mark reaches the room and has to freeze by the pistol packing Sylvia.

Apparently, it was a trap and there was no witness. Father was only going to terrorize the girls until the killer confessed. However, the killer went after the other girls.

Father is sure that Judy is the killer. Sylvia claims Judy has always got what she wants: marrying the governor’s son or wanting Elizabeth’s top spot.

Judy tries convincing Father that Sylvia told her about the bullets. Elizabeth asked about the bullets because she was planning suicide. Judy kept the secret for 7 years. Elizabeth couldn’t devote her life to music like her father. Father can’t accept that.

He uncovers his big secret: a Gatling gun. This will be the gun to re-enact the initiation. Some of the bullets are blanks but some are real.

Sylvia seems awfully batty by this point.

Father demonstrates the Gatling gun on the wall.

Mark jumps Father.

Sylvia grabs a pistol. Mark is able to get it away from her.

Mark unties Judy and they get out of the room.

Father accidentally shoots Sylvia in the back as she chases after the escapees.

Mark and Judy are in the open trying to avoid Father’s Gatling sniping.

A barrel of gunpowder blows the gate open.

Judy is able to cap Father.

Mark and Judy get to the car. She pulls out the pistol shoots him, and a happy ending ensues.

What I say:

Note: I will be discussing the ending in detail so spoilers will ensue.

Not another made for TV movies from the 1970s. Well, time slipped up on me and hought this would be the best choice for this week. Which should beg thequestion what could have been worse. Those movies will be posted at some point.

Claudia Jennings was known in the 70s for a number of her movie roles ranging from Gator Bait to Deathsport. In fact, she was even a Playmate of the Year in the 1970s. At the time, Playboy seemed to have slightly more realistic women than what those that pose today that are filled with "perkium" and "enlargium" in their chestical protuberances.

I'm not sure if this is a tv movies from the 70s or not. It doesn't have the expected sleaze of a typical exploitation movie of the period. However, it does seem a bit sleazier than what was aired on network television. With the movie being held back for 7 years, maybe it just sort of tanked from such a hiatus.

Near the end, the movie started freezing up on my DVD-Rom drive too the point the movie crashed right before the end. The couple of times I tried watching the end later, the movie seemed to crash earlier and earlier into the movie. So, I gave up seeing the very last few seconds I didn't see.

Ok, wouldn't a girl's death would be investigated? Especially if it involved an initiation into a sorority that featured a gun and playing Russian Roulette. A blank with a gun somehow is able to be fired and kills someone. Shouldn't anyone be suspicious about who switched the bullets? I guess everyone was too hooped up on white powder and heading to theWest Coast equivalent of Studio 54.

I Know What You Did Last Summer will never be considered a high art movie. While it certainly isn't highly original, I never thought so much of it was stolen from Sisters of Death. Small group hides a death or claims it was an accident. Sorry, woman using a gun loaded with a "blank" to scare a pledge sounds is a pretty sadistic initiaion ritual. Of the surviving group, it looks that only one has made anything of theirselves in the following years, while the rest have bobmbed much like Jennifer Love Hewitt's character in the aforementioned I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Say what you will, the ending was something that can't be done today. We spend the entire movie thinking that Claudia Jennings is innocent until pulling out a revolver and capping Mark. I wasn't able to hear her reasons at the end. Near the end, Sylvia claims Judy(Claudia) always had to have her way though we never understood what Elizabeth had that Judy wanted so badly. In fact, why was Judy so determined to kill Diane and Francie? The less of the girls that survived the more she would be suspected under the Ten Little Indian theorem. Well, Elizabeth's father mentioned that one of the coeds saw who switched bullets. So, it would make sense to get rid of the witness. However, who was left would have been the killer.

At least in the 70s you could have the heroine turn out to be a crazy killer without any understandable reasons. Today, too many movies have the killer all but have "Hi, I'm the psycho killer" on their foreheads. Sisters of Death does have a bit of that campy vibe. Don't expect what would make this same movie R-rated in the 80s. No Claudia Jennings basking in all her glory all fresco or whatever. The completelyinsane ending can excuse quite a bit of the faulty logic in this movie.

Quotable Dialogue
"There is no truth anywhere, the true is nowhere to be seen, you think that you have seen the true, then your seeing is not a true one."
"Job starting to look a little better."
"This would be a great place for an orgy."
"Well, Commando Kelly, looks like the party is over."
"I don't think you really should take a shower."
"Cleanliness is next to godliness, right? So I figure, if I'm next to Him, Clybourn won't get next to me. "
Morals of the Story
Coeds wear veils.
Sorority girls sound like robots.
Electric fences have warning lights.
Madmen play flutes.
Girls can shower around friends.
Taratantulas are filled with white goo.