The Dorm That Dripped Blood, originally released under the title Pranks,[i] is a 1982 American slasher film directed by Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow, written by Carpenter and Stacey Giachino,[3] and starring Laurie Lapinski, Stephen Sachs, David Snow, Pamela Holland, and Daphne Zuniga in her film debut.

It follows four college students who stay on campus over the Christmas holiday to clean out a condemned dormitory, where an unknown assailant begins stalking and murdering them.

When its distributors found this title non-conducive to box-office sales, the film was re-titled The Dorm That Dripped Blood and re-released in 1983.

In the United Kingdom, it suffered significant censorship due to its graphic violence, earning its inclusion on the British Board of Film Classification's "video nasty" list, though it was later removed.

Meanwhile, Joanne and her boyfriend Tim attend a campus party, discussing that their dormitory, Morgan Meadows Hall, has been condemned.

Along with friends Brian, Patty, Craig, and Debbie, Joanne is staying behind during the Christmas holiday to help clear the building for its impending demolition.

Her father gets impatient and leaves the car to find her, only to be bludgeoned by an unseen killer with a baseball bat spiked with nails.

In the kitchen, they get separated, and Patty is grabbed from behind and knocked unconscious by the killer, who then drops her into an industrial pressure cooker and closes the lid.

Inspired by Friday the 13th, Stephen Carpenter co-wrote the script with Stacey Giachino while film students at the University of California, Los Angeles.

[11] As it is set, the bulk of the film was shot over Christmas vacation at the university over a period of around three weeks in December 1980 and January 1981, and additional photography was completed over the ensuing six months.

[14] Upon the film's release in the United Kingdom (under the title Pranks), it was deemed a video nasty, which Carpenter and Obrow surmise was due to the graphic drill murder sequence,[15] and for the cover artwork which depicted the spiked baseball bat.

In the United States, the film was released by its distributor under the title Pranks on September 10, 1982, in several U.S. cities, including Atlanta[16] and Indianapolis.

[18] After the distributors found the title unsatisfactory and non-conducive to box office sales, the film was re-released as The Dorm That Dripped Blood on July 15, 1983[19] in Baltimore[20] and later expanded that fall to 40 U.S. theaters on September 23, 1983.

[22] Gene Siskel picked it as one of his "Dogs of the Week" for a 1982 "Sneak Previews" show, declaring it to be another "women in danger" slasher piece of garbage.

[24] TV Guide awarded the film 1 out of a possible 5 stars, calling it "utterly predictable and full of infuriating red herrings".