A Set Visit to 'Sorority Row'

It's kill or be killed for Audrina Patridge of "The Hills" as she hits the big screen in the upcoming thriller

By Gregory Ellwood
Special to MSN Movies

I just watched Audrina Patridge get killed. And then I saw it again, and again and again. No, this wasn't the dramatic, drag-out, "to the death" fight with Lauren Conrad that fans of "The Hills" have craved for years. Instead, Patridge is starring in her first real dramatic movie role as the initial victim in Summit Entertainment's remake of the cult horror flick "Sorority Row."

First off, whatever your opinions of Miss Patridge, it's important to know that the person you see on "The Hills" isn't an accurate representation of her private persona. As director Stewart Hendler notes, "She's the sweetest thing in person, sweet as pie. But, you know, that show pulls out every side of people's characters and amplifies them."

Or, better yet, stages fake drama for the sake of good television. But, love her or hate her, it's hard not to feel sympathetic and impressed by Patridge's performance this night.

"Sorority" is shooting in and around Pittsburgh (tax breaks, baby), and this particular scene is being shot in a rock quarry in the middle of a very cold October night. This writer, along with a few others along for the ride, was freezing even in the comfort of a thick winter coat.

You know how you earn respect among a crew of longtime movie veterans? Do your job and don't complain about it. Patridge got the memo. She shoots take after take in nothing but a negligee while you can see the actor's breath in the cold air. Even worse, after she's killed (as documented in the trailer), she has to lie completely still in the subfreezing weather as the rest of the cast members lament her character's accidental death. Most people in her situation would compulsively shiver through the five-minute scenes, but Patridge shows some chops by holding it all in until Hendler yells, "Cut." Now, to be fair, crew members would cover Patridge with a blanket between takes, but it didn't diminish how impressed everyone was with her commitment to the role.

Inspired by its 1983 predecessor, "The House on Sorority Row," this new thriller tells the tale of a group of sorority sisters who decide to pull a prank on one of their cheating boyfriends by convincing him he's accidentally killed his girlfriend (Megan, played by Patridge) after a party. They then continue the facade by taking him (and Megan's seemingly dead body) out to a deserted quarry to dump it. The girls are just about to let the tormented guy in on the prank when he loses control and, obviously thinking she's dead, spikes a tire arm into Megan's chest. Whoopsie. The girls and the boyfriend dump the body into a mineshaft and vow to never reveal what happened. All this is documented in the film's trailer, but things really heat up a year later when Cassidy (Briana Evigan of "Step Up 2"), Ellie (Rumer Willis), Claire (Jamie Chung of the upcoming "Dragonball: Evolution") and Jessica (Leah Pipes) discover someone knows what they did last, um, fall and is intent on having them meet the same fate.

Hendler, who will be getting his first true theatrical release with "Sorority," admits that recruiting Patridge was a wink at Drew Barrymore's casting in the first "Scream" movie. Hendler says, "All of us liked the idea of pulling in a girl who had a lot of notoriety, good and bad, from her role on TV."

The filmmaker actually won over Summit by embracing a script he describes as "very tongue-in-cheek" and "very self-aware." Hendler recalls of his interview, "I figured I'd risk it, and I went in there and said, 'This is like 'Mean Girls' meets 'Scream' and you can kick me out of the room if you want.' And they're like, 'Totally, that's exactly the movie we want to make.' And from there on out we've been on the same page."

During a break between scenes, Patridge happily shared a heated tent with the writers visiting the set. She's only shooting for a few weeks, but she had already gotten to experience a rite of passage for a horror movie victim: She's had her face molded for a dead body -- her own. She calls shooting "Sorority" "a great experience" as she continues down the road of being taken seriously as an actress.

"You've got to put yourself in that character and take yourself to that moment, like if you're really going through that or if you're really that person," Patridge says of her death scene. "It's kind of, give it your all. You've got to take yourself out of who you are, become that character, and really play the part."

(That's an actual quote. Really.)

One disappointment for Summit is that MTV nixed any tie-in by not chronicling her experience for "The Hills." Patridge reveals, "I talked to the producers about it, but they didn't want to bring that part of my life into the show, which is hard because it's what I moved to L.A. to do and this is my passion, my love. So it's kind of hard not to share it with the fans and bring them on the journey."

Patridge also says she had fun with all the blood and gore in her death scene.

"Well, this is part of making movies and it makes it look real," Patridge says. "I had to spit up so much blood it got in my eyes and up my nose and I had to just take it."

Laughing, she adds, "It's actually kind of good. It's sweet; it's like corn syrup. It's just really, really sticky."

The other cast member that has an ongoing love/hate relationship with the paparazzi is Willis, who plays Ellie. If any character takes the accident the worst, it's Ellie. She may have gone along with the cover-up, but she's clearly the most tortured when the film jumps ahead a year.

Bruce and Demi's baby girl is taking this acting thing seriously, and is looking for back-to-back hits after last summer's "The House Bunny." Unlike Patridge, Willis is around for a good portion of the film, although her ultimate fate will remain embargoed even if she and Evigan casually gave away the identity of the hooded killer (much to the horror of the on-set publicist). She also revealed that if anyone is the designated "screamer" on set, it's her.

"I think sound is going to be sick of me by the end of this movie because I've been screaming so loud," Willis says. "When you do scream and get into that tightened emotion, it does help you get back into it. I noticed when we shot this scene in a basement at a library by our sorority house, I had to scream really, really loud and, by the end, my hands were shaking so bad. It helps keep you in it, you know? Especially if you're doing scenes like last night, when you have to be upset and crying all the time."

Obviously having spent way too much time thinking about her role (not that unexpected for a 20-year-old newbie), Willis waxes deeply about how the cast members have worked hard to make sure they are all in the moment.

She notes, "If everybody isn't participating and helping to tighten everything, it is hard to get back into it. You have a one mind-set thing of thinking this is really messed up, but I'm good and it's freezing. It depends on the mood of the scene, but you have to stay in that mind-set and keep yourself in check of what the goal is and what you're doing and what's happening. If you get yourself outside of that, sometimes it's hard to get back in."

Yes, if only we'd been able to interview Patridge and Willis together. If any duo deserves to be paired on a press conference dais, it's these two. Yet, like Patridge, Willis has no time to complain about the rigorous conditions of the past two nights of shooting saying, "It's just part of the job."

"In the moment, you might be freezing. But at the end, when everything comes together, it ends up being entirely worth it and that's why you do it," Willis says. "Everybody else can watch it and say, 'This is good,' or even if they're watching it and say, 'This sucks,' you still know you were out there in the freezing cold and you did it."

"Sorority Row' opens nationwide on Oct. 2.

Gregory Ellwood originated the Hollywood Hitlist and counts "Sorority Row" one of the coldest set visits he ever experienced. He currently waxes about Oscar, movies and pop culture on HitFix.com from the warm confines of Los Angeles.