I wonder because a watched an old clip of Siskel and Ebert on Youtube where Siskel briefly reviews Pranks. I think he called it the Stinker of the week. There were very few slasher movies they gave positive reviews to.
sharecan you post a ,link???
shareWish I could, but I'm having trouble finding it again. It's at the very end of a review for another film, and it's not mentioned in the title of the clip. Siskel talks very briefly about it, and only shows a still of the Pranks poster. I know the UK version was called Pranks, and the original VHS version is titled TDTDB (I have a copy). Maybe it was released here under both titles.
shareIt apparently was one original title--there's a (superior) trailer on the new DVD that uses that title--although frankly it makes no sense, as the movie has nothing at all to do with pranks. When the killer is revealed, it's clear he or she (don't want to play spoiler here) were never having a joke, however twisted.
shareI finally found the Sisel & Ebert review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTP2CK_9xGg
Siskel actually calls it the Dog of the Week, and even he notes that it has multiple titles.
Original title was Death Dorm but American distributors released it as The Dorm That Dripped Blood and UK distributors released it as Pranks although I don't know why Siskel and Ebert were reviewing it under the Pranks title if that was supposed to be exclusive to the UK.
shareI could tell by the opening credits that they substituted "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" for the other titles because it doesn't "mesh" with the rest of the opener. I don't think any of the titles are that great, but neither is this film – though it's far from horrible.
shareIt sounds to me like one of those films for which there WAS no original title. It was known by different titles around the same time. You're right that none of them are very good, though. Did they ever actually show it as "Death Dorm"? Because that's probably the best of them! I do have a soft spot for "The Dorm That Dripped Blood", however. :)
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Indeed, it does seem like this was a "lost" film in search of a title. Most of the slashers from the early '80s had pretty generic titles, just as their stories were pretty generic. "Death Dorm" works for me too, for both the alliteration and the imagery.
shareI dont like the name 'Pranks', and 'Death Dorm' is too generic. Dorm That Dripped Blood is perfect.
shareSorry I'm two years (to the day!) late to the party, but I just found this.
My father-in-law's best friend (Jake Jones) was in this movie, and while it was being filmed, Jake always referred to it as PRANKS.
That's the only title I knew until it was released.
I recall watching it on The Movie Channel in the early 80's and it was called Pranks. It wasn't good enough to follow cult style like some other quirky flicks from the day. I never knew it had other titles until looking for it here following a high school reunion party involving conversations that obviously went on a little too long.
shareYes, the original release was on April 30, 1982 and was titled "Pranks". It was released again as "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" on July 15, 1983. "Death Dorm" was an early production title, it was never released under that name.
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