Film Review: Alpha Girls (2013)

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SYNOPSIS:

Alpha Girls is about a Sorority House terrorized by an unholy curse of their own creation.

REVIEW:

It doesn’t matter if a film was good or bad but if you had fun while watching it. Alpha Girls isn’t a bad film at all (in fact, it’s quite good), it just really knows how to push buttons and have a good time. The film will most definitely be compared to something like The Craft, but it would be unfair to call it a rip-off. It’s much smarter than and a hell of a lot more fun.

It was more willing to play with the audience and was injected with a dark sense of humor. The film also seems to be inspired a bit by some of the other classic sorority set horror entries. And any film that casts Ron Jeremy as some sort of religious figure is alright in my book.

Morgan (Falon Joslyn) is ready to make her pledge to the Alpha Beta sorority. She meets Veronica (Nikki Bell), the head sorority sister and one mean bitch. She quickly lets Morgan know that she is in for some serious hazing and tosses her in a tiny room with three other girls, Cassidy (Beverly Rivera), Juliet (Nicole Cinaglia), and April (Kara Zhang).

The hazing is tough but the girls quickly bond over it and become friends. There’s a book, one which holds all the traditions and rituals used when bringing a sister into the fold. Cassidy steals the book and upon further inspection finds it to be a book of magic. The four girls use the book and they all make wishes. The next day, weird things begin to happen and their wishes come true. What they fail to realize is they have tapped into an evil much stronger and far more vicious than they could have imagined.

This is the debut feature for directors Tony Trov and Johnny Zito, having worked many years behind the scenes on much larger pictures, they have obviously learned much about their trade since the film looks remarkably well-polished for a freshman effort. The directors have a good eye and really capture the essence of the tone they were going for. The script is simple and effective with some funny dialogue and a twist you don’t really see coming.

Just because a film is constructed well, doesn’t automatically make it successful. There is one more important ingredient to insure a film’s success: the cast. Without a cast of talented actors who are able to mesh well as an ensemble you don’t have much of anything.

Thankfully, we don’t have to worry much about that at all. The story focuses on the friendship of the characters played by Falon and Beverly who are very talented young ladies. Beverly gets to relish in the crazy while Falon goes more for the sympathetic. I felt the character of Morgan was the most well rounded with a deeper arc, she gets to see and feel the consequences of her actions and how they affect her life.

Beverly’s character starts out as being unlikeable and it takes some nice character moments with Morgan before we see where she is coming from. She is quickly lost to the power and Beverly delivers a fun performance.

The film is laced with a dark humor and some mild-gore. There are a few CGI tricks thrown in, some look better than others. The introduction of an other worldly figure looks great and is actually a creepy effect. As a personal gripe, I could have done without the CGI blood I saw but again, that one is just me trying to find something negative to say (though the comment amounts to nothing so I really had nothing negative to say)

. The film could have quickly taken the exploitation route and for a moment I thought it would, instead it surprised me by being smart, quick witted, and a completely entertaining horror comedy. **** (out of 5) and I salute you for delivering the goods.

Alpha Girls (2013)