Slash, Laugh & Snooze!

I was in the 7th grade the first time I saw THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (which quickly went to VHS under both this title as well as PRANKS).  Now, thanks to the loonies at Synapse Films, the film has been released in a DVD/blu-ray combo pack in an uncut version titled DEATH DORM (why this title isn't used on the DVD packaging is anyone's guess).
While I recall enjoying this back then, today the film is quite tedious to get through.  It features a cast that's as unattractive as the acting (even future SPACEBALLS / MELROSE PLACE star Daphne Zuniga hands in a terrible performance).
DORM/BLOOD is a standard slasher flick, about four students who help a lone handyman close down a college dormitory.  An unseen killer hides in the shadows and slowly offs the cast, the most memorable being a drill-to-the-head whacking of the aforementioned handyman (FINALLY uncut here in all it's brain-splashing glory).  But aside from this kill scene, most of the murders here are hard to see and lame, including a nail-laced bat to the head that's about as convincing as a SyFy channel dinogator, a rubber-looking hand cut in half, a machete to the shoulder that'll have you laughing out loud, and some really, really poorly-done fight sequences.  I DID like the dark ending, which (thankfully) made a sequel nearly impossible to do.
The 88 minute running time feels more like 2 and a half hours, and it's not too difficult to figure out who the killer is halfway into this poorly-executed mess.
Despite the less than stellar film, Synapse Films once again releases a gore-geous product, another DVD/blu-ray combo.  There's also some fantastic extras, including trailers under both titles, commentary by directors Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow (it's scary to think they needed two men to direct this), and two informative interviews with music composer Chris Young and FX-man Matt Mungle.  There's also an isolated music track and a reversible cover-insert.
THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD is for old-school slasher completists only!

Laura Lipinski heads a cast of over-aged college students---she's harder to look at than the gore scenes!

"In a couple of years I'll be working for Mel Brooks and these losers will be forgotten."  -Daphne Zuniga

Fast forward to the infamous drill-to-the-head scene (the killer even takes the time to use an extension cord to power the sucker up!)

An actress known only as "Chandre" plays one of the suspects' girlfriends.  She has the ugliest rack ever to appear in a horror film, which I have mercifully censored for your sanity.

NO!  It's NOT Richard Simmons' new work out video.  It's Woody Roll (who later starred in a couple of turkey TV shows) as John Hemmit, another suspect who lurks around campus.