Lifetime Review: 'Sorority Secrets'

With her scholarship having lost its funding, Cassie Thompson (Brytnee Ratledge) fears it will also mean the premature end to her college career. Salvation arrives in the form of Kappa Ada Lambda, an exclusive sorority on campus that provides free housing and tuition assistance to its members. To her amazement, Cassie is accepted as a Lambda sister and is welcomed into the sorority with open arms.

Initially, Cassie is amazed by the lavish lifestyles of her sorority sisters--from regular shopping sprees to extravagant parties. But beneath all the glitz and glamour lies a dark secret. Unbeknownst to Cassie, the sorority's ritzy trappings are financed by the girls acting as escorts to the university's alumni. In addition to that, it seems a ruthless killer is picking off Lambda members one-by-one. Now entrenched in a sorority's criminal enterprise and caught in a murderer's crosshairs, Cassie will have to work fast to escape this twisted web before it's too late...

With both films coming to us courtesy of Reel One Entertainment, Sorority Secrets shares a lot in common with last year's The Cheerleader Escort. Both follow similar stories of college girls unknowingly becoming involved in a covert escort business, and both even feature main protagonists named Cassie. But where The Cheerleader Escort faltered under its uneven pacing, Sorority Secrets maintains a more balanced plot progression. After an appropriate amount of build-up, the film shoves the viewer (as well as Cassie) straight into the drama and mayhem as murder befalls the Lambda house and Cassie is pulled into the sorority's shady dealings. While spoiler-ridden marketing reveals Lambda's criminal underbelly and other crucial details, Sorority Secrets might still have you wondering just how deep Lambda's influence runs.

Ultimately, though, the truth ends up being exactly as you'd expect it to be. This proves to be Sorority Secrets' biggest problem, as without deviation through twists or over-the-top thrills, only so much entertainment can be salvaged by a reliable cast. In this film's case, however, it not only has a reliable cast, but a good deal of lower-octane thrills to keep you watching. The latter leads up to a fairly well-done climax that, while a bit on the brief side, makes for a strong closer to Sorority Secrets' well-constructed final act.

Helming the movie's capable cast is Brytnee Ratledge in her third Lifetime movie of the year. Like in The Au Pair Nightmare, Ratledge brings an easy likability to Cassie as her financial woes lead her to become unwittingly involved in Lambda's criminal endeavors. While Cassie has your requisite amount of naivete and frustratingly keeps her mother (who she's established as having a close relationship with) in the dark for too long, the script keeps it reined in to avoid allowing Cassie to appear overly blind. Ratledge, meanwhile, plays Cassie with the indication that she's somewhat aware that something's off about Lambda, but is too dependent on the sorority's benefits to leave or question it. The third act allows Cassie a cathartic arc of chiding her own naivete and working to take Lambda's escort ring down--for herself and any potential future victims. This arc redeems Cassie of any potentially character-derailing moments, and Ratledge delivers that character growth with understated determination.

Of her co-stars, Elisabetta Fantone forms the strongest chemistry with Ratledge, giving a great deal of heart to the bond between Cassie and her mother Debra. As stated before, this comes as a double-edged sword, as it's bound to leave many wondering why Cassie doesn't confide with Debra about her harrowing situation earlier. Though her introductory scene has her going too far with the act, Marie Debrey otherwise brings histrionic fire to house mother Wendy's condescending remarks and thinly veiled malice. SPOILER ALERT Sinister Seduction's Tommi Rose brings a nice blend of depth to Cassie's "big sister" Monica, and throws herself into Monica's turn into psychotic villainy. Even as she becomes your classic "Woman Scorned" villainess, earlier scenes of her bonding with Cassie and crying over Simon's rejection might have you wondering. Was Monica as much a victim as the other Lambda girls? Would she have turned out differently had she not become ensnared in Wendy's exploitative scheme? Spoilers Over

Duncan Bahr is the appropriate mix of dashing and slimy as Simon Hughes, and in their shared feature film debut, Abigail Baldwin and Nikolai Soroko give great first impressions as Cassie's friends Lisa and Charlie. Baldwin authentically sells Lisa's character arc of an innocent and eager young woman becoming entrenched in her sorority's dark side, while Soroko brings adorkable appeal to Charlie as he becomes an ally and love interest to Cassie.

But while Soroko and Ratledge work well together, the relationship between Cassie and Charlie feels too rushed for its own good. Barely any time passes between Cassie and Charlie's first interaction and their first major development as a couple, with little in between to show that development in action. The red string strangulation treatment gets even worse in the final act, with Charlie taking a huge step in his and Cassie's relationship that feels sudden at best and tone-deaf at worst. It's enough to make it hard to care about the relationship at all, with the rushed feeling coinciding with how few scenes the pair have together.

Sorority Secrets also begins with an "in media res" cold open, which not only comes across as unnecessary, but winds up spoiling how part of the movie's events will end. But for all its problems, Sorority Secrets redeems itself with consistent drama and a stellar cast. The predictable resolution is sure to leave some unsatisfied, but with what it gets right, Sorority Secrets overcomes its by-the-book story. And if nothing else, Sorority Secrets proves that even with an imperfect script, newly christened Lifetime regular Brytnee Ratledge can still give an excellent performance.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 black cocktail dresses.