The Dorm That Dripped Blood aka Death Dorm (1982)

(In French, On Cable TV, December 2021) With a title like The Dorm That Dripped Blood and a production date of 1982, right in the slasher boom of the early 1980s, any horror fan (or jaded cinephile) knows exactly what to expect from the film. And they would be right: It’s certainly a horror film in which young people get killed one after another in various gruesome and supposedly imaginative ways. Where writers-directors Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow are slightly more disturbing than usual is in the bloodier-than-usual killings and the decidedly downbeat ending that doesn’t even allow for a final girl. Such “innovations,” however, only serve to make the result even more unpalatable than the usual slasher — The Dorm That Dripped Blood quickly goes from slasher to British video nasty, unremarkable for most of its duration then unpalatable for the finish. If you already don’t like slashers, this one will feel even worse than usual.