SISTERS OF DEATH

Cheri Howell

SISTERS OF DEATH (1976). Director: Joe Mazzuca. 

During an initiation ceremony in a sorority secret society, a young woman is killed during a game of Russian roulette. 7 years later the surviving members are invited to a reunion at an isolated estate. Partying with them are two men -- Mark (Paul Carr) and Joe (Joe E. Tata) -- who were hired to bring the girls to the estate. Their client is Edmond Clybourn (Arthur Franz), whose daughter is the dead girl. Clybourn is determined to find out which of the other women switched bullets in the gun and killed his daughter, but when people start dying off is it Clybourn doing the killing or the unknown suspected sorority sister? 

Arthur Franz

 Sisters of Death was released in theaters, but it plays like a Movie-of-the-Week with bloodless killings and less real suspense than your average telefilm. Franz is the best-known actor -- and Paul Carr appeared on the TV version of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea -- but he is given little to do but sit around making bullets. Playmate of the Year Claudia Jennings is the best-known woman in the cast, but the best femme performance is by Cheri Howell as Sylvie. In general the acting is more than acceptable, as is the premise of the film, but it is let down by a fairly dull and routine execution. There is, however, an interesting climax involving a gatling gun. 

Verdict: A real time-waster. *1/2.