Horror Movie Review: The Brotherhood (2001)

Depending on your tastes, you’ll either smile or grimace when you see a movie with David DeCoteau as a director. He is often involved in some of the cheapest and trashiest horror of a certain era but by-goodness, does his work stand out.

Perhaps his most famous movies are The Brotherhood movies. A series of homoerotic horrors that began in 2001.

Starring Sam Page, Josh Hammond, and Bradley Stryker, The Brotherhood takes place at Drake University, home to the Doma Tau Omega fraternity. The most exclusive fraternity of all, everyone wants to be part of it, expect Chris, who bucks the trend of being a chiselled pretty boy in these sort of movies by focusing on his studies instead.

That is until his new roommate Dan and their new friend Megan convince him to go to a party thrown at the Doma Tau Omega house. Fraternity leader Devon welcomes Chris as he sees him as having Doma Tau Omega potential and Chris seems to be mesmerised by Devon. Enough so, that he goes off with Devon and discovers that drinking blood is part of the ritual to be in Doma Tau Omega.

Why? Well, the members of the Doma Tau Omega fraternity are vampires, of sorts, and Devon is immortal, sort of. He wants Chris to join them, even if it’s against his will.

The Brotherhood is so dated now, hilariously dated, not just with the visuals and music either. Watching it in 2023 feels like a time capsule of the late 90s and early 00s in America. From frosted tips to bead necklaces, to sunglasses indoors, red solo cups, and every other cliché that exemplifies the American Pie generation. It’s kind of delightful, especially as David DeCoteau knows how to cover it all with a delightful level of campiness.

The story is standard stuff and doesn’t exactly thrill and that extends to the characters, played by middling actors with no real direction, outside of ‘make that scene gayer’.

Often described as ‘softcore gay porn’, The Brothehood is far too tame to be given such a label. Even with its heavy-handed metaphors, topless men, and longing looks. With the overall campy tone of the film, the homoerotic elements actually add more reasons to enjoy it as it’s outside the standard ‘norm’ of horror. Give us more gay horror movies please!

The Brotherhood is not a good movie but it is an enjoyable one. That’s high praise for a David DeCoteau movie.