Lizzie Borden's Revenge is a 2013 horror slasher film, directed by Dennis Devine, and starring Veronica Ricci, Shanalynne Wesner, Jenny Allford, and Mindy Robinson.
A group of sorority girls are having a slumber party at their house. One of the new sorority girls is Leslie Borden, a descendant of the infamous Lizzie Borden family. They believe that they are holding a harmless séance to conjure the ghost of Lizzie. But they get locked in the house with an evil, vengeful spirit as Lizzie Borden returns to wreak havoc with her axe. One by one, the girls are murdered as they try to figure out how to put an end to the return of Lizzie Borden.
Tropes:
- As the Good Book Says...: Lizzie's stepmother is unable to have a conversation with her stepdaughter without quoting the bible.
- Axe-Crazy: It is a film about Lizzie Borden. This can be taken as read.
- Basement-Dweller: Bobby still lives with his mother, in her basement. he is very defensive about it:"I don't live in her basement! I live in a room! That happens to be in her basement."
- The Beard: An unusual example occurs in that the beard is not a person but serves the same function. When Bobby confesses he is gay, an exasperated Dee asks him why he runs a sleazy website that sexualizes women. Bobby explains that it is to stop his mother from finding out. Apparently, she is fine with him being a pervert, so long as it is women he is lusting after. Dee then describes his website as being "his beard".
- Bedsheet Ladder: Amanda and Cindy use a bedsheet to lower Dee from the upper floor of the sorority house to the ground.
- Blood from the Mouth: Vanessa is trying to tell the others who the killer is when blood dribbles from her mouth and then she topples forward with Lizzie's axe in her back.
- Building of Adventure: Apart from the flashbacks to Lizzie Borden's home, and a brief scene in Bobby's photographic studio, all of the film takes place in the sorority house.
- Camera Fiend: Bobby carries a camcorder with him everywhere, hoping to shoot footage he can put on his sleazy website.
- Casanova Wannabe: This is Bobby's persona: running a sleazy website and constantly coming on to women. He asks Dee if she wants to get something off her chest, and suggests her bra, while they are being stalked by a supernatural Spree Killer. It turns out he is actually gay, and this is just an act for his mother's benefit.
- Catholic Schoolgirls Rule: Vanessa spends the movie in a very short plaid skirt and white blouse knotted underneath her breasts, white knee socks, and black high heels.
- Closed Circle: The sisters are locked in the sorority house for the weekend as punishment, while the rest of the sorority heads off on Spring Break.
- Covers Always Lie: See the page picture? The entire movie takes inside a sorority house and certainly has no scenes set on lonely roads in forests.
- Deus Ax Machina: The girls are locked in the sorority for the weekend as punishment. When Janice asks how they are supposed to get out if there is an emergency, Amanda helpfully points out the fire axe on the wall. This is the axe that Lizzie will later use to butcher the sorority sisters.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Excluding the flashbacks to Lizzie Borden's life, the action unfolds over a single night.
- Familial Body Snatcher: The spirit of Lizzie Borden possesses the body of her descendant Leslie Borden after being unwisely summoned by a séance. She then proceeds to go an Axe-Crazy rampage through the sorority house
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: In a rare female example, the drunken Janice dares Ashley and Leslie to make out, then gets really turned on by the sound of them doing so in the next room.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Dee has anger management issues and flies off the handle at the slightest provocation.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Ashley. She is keen to get everyone at the Slumber Party drunk, even though the sorority has placed them under an alcohol ban. She supplies the booze for the party and keeps trying to get everyone to loosen up. When she and Janice wind up consuming most of the alcohol by themselves, everyone comments that this is out of character for Janice, but nobody thinks it's strange for Ashley.
- Haunted House Historian: Cindy is obsessed with the story of Lizzie Borden and keeps trotting out details about Lizzie and the murders.
- His Name Is...: After getting a good look at Lizzie, Vanessa realises that it isn't really Lizzie Borden. She tells the others that is someone they know. She starts to say "It's...", and then blood seeps from her mouth and she topples forward with Lizzie's axe in her back.
- Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Leslie Borden is the descendant of Lizzie Borden. It is also suggested that Amanda and Vanessa might be descendants of Nance O'Neil
, but it is never established for certain. - Historical Domain Character: Lizzie Borden, her father and stepmother.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: Perhaps unsurprisingly the rhyme "Lizzie Borden took an axe..." (which Haunted House Historian Cindy tells us is a children's skipping song from the 1930s) is used multiple times. When Leslie is first possessed by Lizzie's spirit, she starts reciting it in a creepy monotone that unnerves everybody before she seems to shake herself out of it. When it looks like Amanda might have been possessed at the end of the film, she starts reciting it as well, only to be slapped by Dee who tells her she never wants to hear that rhyme again.
- Laughing Mad: Amanda's flashback explaining why Vanessa is screwed up shows her finding her parents' murdered bodies. She is briefly shocked and then starts laughing and is unable to stop.
- Off with Her Head!: Lizzie decapitates Janice with a single swing of her axe.
- Old Maid: A flashback has Lizzie's father chiding her for her lack of interest in dating, and reminding her that she is past the age when she should have married. (In Real Life, Lizzie would have been 32 at this point, but she is portrayed as younger in the film.)
- Right Through the Wall: After Janice dares Ashley and Leslie to make out, they adjourn to Ashley's room and do so. Their orgasmic squeals can be heard in the lounge: to Janice's delight and the other girls' discomfort.
- Pain Mistaken for Sex: Ashley and Leslie are making out in Ashley's room, and their orgasmic moans are disturbing the other girls in the lounge. Leslie leaves and Ashley goes to take a shower. In the shower, she is attacked by Lizzie and hacked to death. Her screams are interpreted by the other girls as she and Leslie enjoy a second round.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Ashley the sorority's Hard-Drinking Party Girl. She arrives at the slumber wearing nothing but a pair of black lace panties—claiming that this is what she sleeps in— and is peeved when Amanda forces her to go and get dressed. She only barely complies with this demand; putting on an extremely abbreviated crop top. Later she all but demands that someone dare her to make out with another girl, and seems turned on at the thought of putting on a show for the others in doing so.
- Skirts and Ladders: When Mallory climbs up on a box in an attempt to get a signal on her cellphone, Bobby takes the opportunity to film some upskirt shots under her nightie for his website.
- Slumber Party: Confined to the sorority house for the weekend because the results of their last drunken game of Truth or Dare, the sisters decide to turn the event into a slumber party.
- Spree Killer: The returned Lizzie Borden butchers a houseful of sorority sisters, and a couple of boys who sneaked into the house, over the course of a single night.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Vanessa has a habit of appearing silently behind characters, and later vanishing when their backs are turned.
- Taking the Bullet: Bobby jumps in front of Vanessa as Lizzie swings the axe at her, and wears the axe head in his chest.
