Sisters of Death (1976)

_**Starsky and Hutch come to the aid of 5 beautiful gals at a hacienda in SoCal**_ Five women, who were once members of a secret sorority, are invited to a lavish ranch in a remote area north of Los Angeles. It seems like a celebratory reunion until things turn deadly. What’s going on and who’s responsible? "Sisters of Death" was shot in 1972, but not released until 1976-77. It starts off as an occult-oriented flick involving beautiful women, but morphs into a sorta Ten Little Indians situation with elements that would influence the forthcoming slasher craze, just don’t expect a lot of gore. The highlight is the five women, played by Claudia Jennings (Judy), Sherry Boucher (Diana), Roxanne Albee (Penny), Sherry Alberoni (Francie) and Cheri Howell (Sylvia). You would think that Claudia Jennings would win out on the beauty front, but actually Sherry Boucher and Roxanne Albee surpass her (Boucher is, interestingly, a Jennings lookalike). Elizabeth Bergen is also on hand as Elizabeth in a small role. While there’s no Starsky and Hutch, as amusingly suggested, the two guys sure are reminiscent of them (that particular TV series wouldn’t debut until a few years after this flick was shot). It’s somewhat similar to “The Beast Must Die” (1974), just without the werewolf angle. Like that movie, not enough focus is put on fleshing out the characters, which makes them uninteresting and this isn’t helped by the one-dimensional location. The entire mid-section of the flick is relatively dull, but things perk up in the end with a twist or two. The movie runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot in Paso Robles, California, which is about 200 miles north of Los Angeles. GRADE: C