Tribute: Aimee Brooks

Fall is almost upon us. That means all the kids get to go back to school and college is starting up yet again as well. What does that mean for this blog? Hopefully nothing, but I will be taking some harder classes this time around and I'm not sure if that will cut into my movie watching time. I have a feeling it will but what is a hard class for some might not be a problem for the next person. Being my third year now, it is time to really get serious about my major. If you are wondering, I am going to college to get a chemistry degree. I will be taking classes in each of the four areas I can major in. I decided to do this to see if I might like one area over another better. I don't talk about myself much here so there is a little peak into my life for you. Anyways, I sort of promised a tribute before the 250th post and here it is. When I first started doing these I was mostly thinking of directors that I have liked over the years. When I did one for Jamie Lee Curtis, I was thinking I would do tributes for Scream Queens. After some thought, I sort of threw that idea out and decided to do tributes to actresses that I like in horror movies. They still have to be in more than one horror movie though, no matter how well I like them. Here is my next tribute: Aimee Brooks.

Aimee Brooks was born somewhere in California on Nov. 19th, 1974 (or 1976 but IMDb says '74 so I will believe them). I wasn't able to find a lot of information about her on the web. Aimee's first film credit is in Sorority House Massacre where she only had a small part. I will review this movie a little later in this post. From there she got some parts on different tv shows before showing up again on the big screen. This time she was in The End Of Innocence. I will admit that I have yet to see this movie so I dont know how big of a part Aimee has. However, her next movie would be Critters 3 which I have watched. She is the leading lady in Critters 3 so gets a lot of screen time. Aimee goes on to bigger, and possibly more popular things, like the TV show Port Charles.

I picked Aimee Brooks because when I saw her name pop up in the credits at the start of Critters 3, I realized that I had watched her in at least three movies and all of them horror movies. It turned out I had watched four movies. I had watched Sorority House Massacre prior to writing reviews. Even though I never really talked about her in two of the reviews, I have always like Aimee as an actress. I don't consider her one of the greats, like Jamie Lee Curtis, but I do feel she deserves her due. While none of the horror films she has been in blew me away, my favorite so far would have to be Critters 3. I hit on the reason in the review. I related to the character because I had gone through the same type of thing. Not being chased by Krites of course. The more I think about that film, the more I feel that Aimee did a wonderful job of acting the part of someone that has lost their mother at a early age. If you haven't watched a movie with Aimee Brooks in it, it is about time you did.

Reviews I have done of Aimee Brooks movies are:
Critters 3
The Mangler Reborn
Moster Man

Sorority House Massacre (1986) is basically one big flash back since we start in the movie's present time and then go back and tell the story of how Beth (Angela O'Neill) ended up being in the hospital. Beth is going to college and is invited to join a sorority. Almost as soon as she arrives, she starts to get day dreams. That night she has a nightmare that is somewhat close to the day dream that she had. The next day she starts to meet some of the other women and makes a couple of friends. They all go off to their classes and when they get back, everyone is in a mad rush to leave for the weekend. Except of course, Beth and her new friends. Beth's friends include Linda (Wendy Martel), Sara (Pamela Ross) and Tracy (Nicole Rio). Since they have the house to themselves, they invited their boyfriends over along with a guy for Beth to date.

The day dreams seem to be connected to Bobby (John C. Russell) who is in a mental hospital for murdering almost everyone in his family. We are never told why he does it, which was just fine with me. Beth's dreams are about him and the events that took place in the house. The sorority house happens to be the very house the murders took place in. He tries very hard to get out of the hospital and when he finally does, he heads straight for the house. What does this have to do with Beth though?

For a movie that got an R rating, there is surprisingly low slasher effects to be found. This is a little surprising considering this movie was released in the middle of the 80's. Slashers were big buisness by this time. The kills aren't the best around but there is some blood to be found. It doesn't get too over board which is probably a good and bad thing. It is good because it is slightly more realistic. It is bad though because some of the kills probably would have had more blood from them and, lets face it, that is part of the appeal of the slasher genre. To see how people will get it and to see the effects. The acting wasn't great but I liked it well enough. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I liked each of the women in their roles and the guys weren't too bad either. You will also find Marcus Vaughter, Vinnie Bilancio, Joe Nassi and Robert Axelrod.

Sorority House Massacre gets a pretty bad rap from most fans. Most find this film boring because the women raid the closets of the women who have left in order to try on their clothes. They sit around and talk to each other. They sit around and have their boyfriends tell them a scary story. In other words, they are acting like real women who have a sorority house to themselves. The only thing they didn't do is have sex. Maybe that is where the disappoint comes from. I found the "slow" part of the movie entertaining. Sorority House Massacre isn't the best movie out there. It isn't even the best slasher movie out there but it was fun. One person was mad that the women invited their boyfriends over because "That totally destroys all the homo-erotic undertones." Hmm...I think someone likes the idea of two or more women being together.

As I said, this is hardly one of the better movies out there. I liked it because it actually has a story to it, even if it is a bit borrowed from other plots. The dream sequences were a nice touch and a bit odd in places. A good odd that is. With some better effects, this movie may have stuck out more than it has. Since the effects are mild at best, I would venture to guess that the nudity which is found is what pushed the movie into an R rating. What I found a little strange is that the only one that didn't show her breasts was the lead actress. This isn't the first movie like that though. As for Aimee Brooks, her character was one of the sisters you will find in the dreams/flashbacks. At some point Bobby names each of the girls. The only way I knew which one was Aimee was by looking at the credits on IMDb before watching the movie. She doesn't have a speaking role in her first outing as an actress but I'm sure it didn't take long before she did.
3 out of 5 Is it possible to have flashbacks within a flashback?