On May 6 Lifetime presented the "premiere" of something called "Deadly Sorority," an intriguing tale of skullduggery and murder centered around the student body and faculty at — no, not Whittendale this time, but Barclay University. It begins with Samantha Blake (Greer Grammar, Kelsey Grammar's daughter) and Kristina Roberts (Emilija Baranac), best friends from high school, attending Barclay together — only their friendship ends almost as soon as they reach Barclay because Kristina has her heart set on pledging the school's most exclusive sorority, Delta Nu, while Samantha shows up at the sorority house but its principal student leader, Jubilee Swan (Chloe Babcock), takes an instant dislike to Samantha because she's not from a rich family and she shows up with a sarcastic attitude that indicates how little Samantha thinks of sorority culture and all the snobbery and bullying that goes along with it. So Samantha suffers the loss of her best friend when Jubilee orders Kristina not to have anything to do with Samantha any more on pain of expulsion from Delta Nu. Kristina starts dating the Big Man on Campus, Paul Riveria (Ross Linton), whose huge, hunky, athletic body is matched only by his male ego and total disinterest in tying himself down to just one girl — only within weeks Kristina has broken up with Paul, telling him she's landed someone better. We only find out later who the "someone better" is.
Meanwhile, writer Rolfe Kanefsky and director Shawn Tolleson actually show us some of the "education" in higher education for a change — all too many college movies make universities look like elaborate summer camps — including a media class taught by Amy Thomas (Moira Kelly), who for some reason we don't at first understand takes a dislike to Kristina almost instantly; and an English class taught by Justin Miller (Steve Bacic), who is actually married to Amy but doesn't let that stop him from seducing and having brief affairs with just about every female student at Barclay who will hold still for him. The film begins with the mysterious disappearance of Tanya Brown (Rachelle Gillis) towards the end of the previous semester; Tanya was a Delta Nu member and also one of Miller's previous student girlfriends. Then Lifetime flashes one of their usual "time" titles — "Four Months Later" (a bit of a surprise since I had assumed that we would flash back rather than forward) — and we see Samantha and Kristina arrive at Barclay together, Kristina get accepted by Delta Nu while Samantha gets blackballed, and then a few weeks later Kristina is mysteriously killed in a car crash. The police at first write it off as an accident but later become convinced that Kristina was murdered — and they're convinced Samantha did it out of jealousy over losing her friendship to Jubilee Swan and the Delta Nu crowd. I've commented on at least two previous movies with "sorority" in their titles — "Sorority House," a 1939 RKO "B" written by Dalton Trumbo and directed by John Farrow (Mia's dad), which didn't include out-and-out murder but had some nice little bits of social comment about the snobbery and cliquishness at the heart of the sorority system; and "Sorority Murder," a previous Lifetime production that if anything painted an even grimmer portrait of the sorority system than this one did — indeed, "Deadly Sorority" is something of a misnomer as a title because the peril Samantha is in has very little to do with the sorority as an institution.
Meanwhile, writer Rolfe Kanefsky and director Shawn Tolleson actually show us some of the "education" in higher education for a change — all too many college movies make universities look like elaborate summer camps — including a media class taught by Amy Thomas (Moira Kelly), who for some reason we don't at first understand takes a dislike to Kristina almost instantly; and an English class taught by Justin Miller (Steve Bacic), who is actually married to Amy but doesn't let that stop him from seducing and having brief affairs with just about every female student at Barclay who will hold still for him. The film begins with the mysterious disappearance of Tanya Brown (Rachelle Gillis) towards the end of the previous semester; Tanya was a Delta Nu member and also one of Miller's previous student girlfriends. Then Lifetime flashes one of their usual "time" titles — "Four Months Later" (a bit of a surprise since I had assumed that we would flash back rather than forward) — and we see Samantha and Kristina arrive at Barclay together, Kristina get accepted by Delta Nu while Samantha gets blackballed, and then a few weeks later Kristina is mysteriously killed in a car crash. The police at first write it off as an accident but later become convinced that Kristina was murdered — and they're convinced Samantha did it out of jealousy over losing her friendship to Jubilee Swan and the Delta Nu crowd. I've commented on at least two previous movies with "sorority" in their titles — "Sorority House," a 1939 RKO "B" written by Dalton Trumbo and directed by John Farrow (Mia's dad), which didn't include out-and-out murder but had some nice little bits of social comment about the snobbery and cliquishness at the heart of the sorority system; and "Sorority Murder," a previous Lifetime production that if anything painted an even grimmer portrait of the sorority system than this one did — indeed, "Deadly Sorority" is something of a misnomer as a title because the peril Samantha is in has very little to do with the sorority as an institution.