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There have been several moments in my life when I was absolutely convinced that I had watched every noteworthy slasher from the 80s, or at least had them on my radar. And yet, it still happens occasionally that I stumble upon a title of which I didn't knew existed! Makes me wonder if the 80s are still ongoing - and producing slashers - in a parallel dimension, or something.

"Rush Week" is such a pleasant new discovery for me. It certainly isn't a hidden masterpiece, and it doesn't contain any elements experienced slasher fans haven't seen hundreds of times before, but it has a good pacing and is overall very entertaining. It's rush week at Tambers College, and the ambitious journalism student Toni Daniels is assigned to write a report about it. She is, however, much more interested in the case of a coed who went missing after doing an erotic photoshoot in the science class. When more beautiful lewd girls disappear, Toni suspects there's a maniacal killer at large on campus grounds. Or perhaps it's all just part of a big Beta Delta Beta rush week prank?

"Rush Week" does several things very well. There are lots of beautiful girls with big...er, you know, and they all willingly go topless before getting slaughtered. The script is also efficient in upholding the tension. It's one of those films where every male character is a suspect, although - admittedly - most people will figure out the identity of the culprit quickly. Pamela Ludwig (known from the late 70s cult hit "Over the Edge) is a good actress, and many of the Beta Delta Beta shenanigans also genuinely make me chuckle, so "Rush Week" honestly isn't bad in my view.

There is one thing that is unforgivable, though... Despite featuring a grisly disguised killer with a giant axe, "Rush Week" hardly features any gory killings. Nobody likes the sight of a swinging axe without seeing the impact it makes on the victim's body; - they should have known that by the year 1989.

Low budget cross between "Porky's" style college high jinks combined with "Prom Night" style stalk & slash.

Plot involves students who moonlight doing naked photos for the seedy college chef, who then get their come-uppance from an unknown killer. Toni is a trainee journalist ( and by the far the least attractive female on view ), whose coverage of the ongoing Rush Week gets her involved in the killings.

To say the least there is nothing new here, but if you like the formula it is well paced and derivative in an interesting way. The violence is relatively non-graphic and the sex is limited to a few tits n' asses. Film pays homage to its better known predecessors with a "Hills have Eyes" poster and somebody in a Freddy Krueger mask.

It is Rush Week at Tambers College and several female students have vanished after posing for topless photos taken by the very suspicious looking kitchen cook. The Principal doesn't seem too concerned and there's not a police officer in sight so it's down to new student Toni Daniels (Pamela Ludwig) to investigate. "This is real life, not some stupid horror movie" says one character at the start, stupid maybe not but certainly not good either. The Golden Age of the Slasher Movie was long dead by 1989 though Jason, Michael and Freddy were still busy slashing teens in their respective franchises. So Rush Week is several years late to the party but for fans of the sub genre it is still a slasher movie that is worth seeing (though maybe just once). There is plenty of female nudity plus a lot of the men show - or "moon" - their bare backsides, however gore is in very short supply. Apart from a fairly decent decapitation all of the other kills are either off-screen or blood free, and this is a real shame because it lets the film down. There are a couple of red herrings but the identity of the killer comes as absolutely no surprise. The acting is pretty good and it does have that wonderful 1980's look, feel and sound, it just lacks the crucial red stuff.

It's a B-movie, so obviously you can't expect much of it. Yeah, the effects, what few there are, are awful, and there are a couple of editing problems, but it's actually fairly enjoyable for the most part. Some of the actors do a pretty decent job, especially considering the fairly standard slasher plot they're given to work with. It has a pretty decent soundtrack, which surprised me quite a bit. Basically it's like having the first Friday the 13th movie set at a college with an Animal House backstory going on. For those who enjoy the occasional B-movie, I'd say give this one a shot, it's better than most.

Pamela Ludwig was my main attraction to this movie in the first place. Oh, and also the fact that it was a slasher movie from the 1980's, set at a college. You really have to be patient with this one though. It doesn't really pay off like it should in the end. In my opinion, there needed to be way more deaths and way more murder suspects. I would never consider this movie a favorite unless my house burned down, leaving me to decide between this or Doom Asylum (which no one should EVER see). And I just remembered the fact that this was from 1989, making it fairly decent considering the circumstances but its still no Intruder (which everyone SHOULD see).

"Rush Week" is an aggressively pointless movie. It's a "slasher" film, but barely qualifies as such. The body count is surprisingly low, and the death scenes shot as though the filmmakers wanted to get them out of the way as quickly and painlessly as possible. There is hardly any violence in the movie at all: it all happens off screen.

The movie is set in and around a college, and most of the run time is dedicated to showing the uninvolving antics of two frat houses, one dedicated to respectability, the other the typical party-animal type. Neither ever do anything interesting.

You'd think that a feature length movie would be able to actually manage a character or two. You know, someone you remember for something. Anything. Not in "Rush Week". It has the guy from "Zapped Again", who actually did a pretty good job of carrying that movie. In this one, he isn't given anything to do. Neither is anyone else.

The movie is occasionally enlivened by some pretty impressive topless nudity, so I have to give it that, but you could get the same thrill looking at an old Playboy for a few seconds. Further, Gregg Allman (of the Allman Brothers Band) is in it, in a completely bizarre cameo as a hippy professor.

I'm not sure what the bigger mystery around "Rush Week" is: How did they get Gregg Allman to star in this dreck, or why was it made in the first place?

It's better than Edge of the Axe. Both killers wear robes and a white mask. The main characters message each other through a computer. They're essentially the same movie but Rush Week has better kills.

"Rush Week" follows Toni, a young journalism student at a university where the female coeds seem to be disappearing. As Toni digs deeper, she begins to uncover a common theme running between the women.

This late-eighties entry in the slasher cycle is a fairly routine and (unfortunately) also fairly forgettable experience. It boasts all of the hallmarks of the sub-genre: A college campus, rowdy students, sex shenanigans, and a killer dispatching the populace. In some ways, it heavily recalls films like "Girls Nite Out," except it's much less sinister and has only a sliver of the intrigue. What "Rush Week" really lacks is any real bite. There isn't enough suspense established to really keep the audience on their toes, and the stalking and murder scenes play out like something from an "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" episode--that is to say, they are muted, bloodless, and largely unthreatening.

The villain here boasts a medieval battle axe as the primary weapon, and dons a black cloak with a plaster mask (harkening to the ritualized rush week theme), and while it sounds like it should appear menacing in theory, it just isn't. Pamela Ludwig makes for a decent lead here, and the finale has the film at its most vital (which unfortunately isn't saying a whole lot) with the hackneyed revelation and unveiling of the killer's motive. For a low-budget effort, you could do worse, but there is an unmistakable blandness to "Rush Week" that black cloaks and fog machines cannot distract from. 5/10.

A journalism student (Pamela Ludwig) transfers to a university in SoCal during a notorious fraternity's rush week ceremonies. When attractive female coeds go missing and are curiously underreported, she investigates, but this attracts the attention of the axe-wielding antagonist.

"Rush Week" is a mystery/slasher that was released direct-to-video in the UK at the end of 1989, and not made available in the USA until early 1991. I point this out because it doesn't have the 'feel' of a theatrical release. While there's some nudity, there's hardly any gore until the final 'kill' (not that I care personally; I'm just reporting). Despite being second tier, it should be enjoyed by fans of, say, "Happy Birthday to Me" (1981), "Zombie High" (1987) and the later "Class Warfare" (2001).

Ludwig works well as the star with her distinctive, pretty face. She was 28 during shooting and left acting for good in 1990 after an 11-year career where breakout success was denied her. Also on the feminine front, Kathleen Kinmont, from "Halloween 4" (1988), has a noteworthy sequence in the opening act. Meanwhile Heidi Holicker is a highlight as Sarah in a small part; you might remember her as Stacey in "Valley Girl" (1983).

On the other side of the gender spectrum, Gregg Allman from the Allman Brothers, and Cher's ex-hubby, has a notable cameo as an aged-hippie "faculty advisor."

While this has a comic booky direct-to-video vibe, it's colorful and a fitting choice if you're in the mood for something Halloween-ish, like "Night of the Creeps" (1986), just not as good production-wise. I'd watch it any day over the overrated and ridiculously contrived "Scream" (1996). Sure, this is contrived and cartoonish too, not to mention predictable, but it's more palatable and less eye-rolling.

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles at the VA Hospital in Brentwood and the Higgins-Verbeck-Hirsch Mansion in Windsor Square.

GRADE: B-

It's Rush Week at Tambler College and there's parties and plenty of pranks going around. Toni (Pamela Ludwig) is a journalist student assigned to write about rush week. But when students go missing, she decides to write about that instead - endangering her life in the process.

When no-one believes something happened to the missing students, Toni investigates. She is assisted by Jeff (Dean Hamilton), one of rush week's pranksters who also becomes romantically involved with her. 'Rush Week' is an interesting whodunit murder mystery, different to the many slasher movies of around the same time. It has more substance and there's hardly any gore here. In fact, many of the scenes end abruptly just when a victim is about to get killed - almost like a TV movie. This might be disappointing to die-hard slasher horror fans.

But, being an 80's slasher, there's plenty of female nudity. Yup, sexploitation at its best. Boobies, boobies, boobies! 'Rush Week' didn't make a big impact at the time of release, and is also one of the less known slashers of the 80's. Yet, I actually enjoyed it more than expected.

This is a grossly underrated whodunnit slasher will all the quirks we know and love from 80 slasher films. The story almost seems Giallo in nature. VERY underrated. People are way to harsh on this film. We have a killer dressed in a cloak wielding a medieval ax killing coeds in a "seemingly random" fashion. What's not to love? The kills are a bit modest but I believe that's because of the budget, it doesn't try to do too much. This 80 slasher is like if scream and American pie had a weird horror baby.

Rush week is when fraternities and sororities recruit new students: the guys at Gamma Alpha Epsilon take this matter very seriously, which makes them an obvious target for the wild boys of Beta Delta Beta, who enjoy playing juvenile pranks whenever they aren't partying. Assigned to report on the tradition is ambitious journalism student Toni Daniels (Pamela Ludwig), who sniffs out a much better story when several young women on the campus go missing...

An attempt at blending Porky's style humour with slasher horror, Rush Week fails on both counts: the comedy is cringe-worthy, the Beta Delta Beta guys being a thoroughly unlikable bunch of douchebags whose idea of a good time is to ruin everyone else's fun (their supposedly funny tomfoolery includes sabotaging a bicycle race and tricking a hooker into sleeping with a corpse!); even more disappointing is the scary stuff, which is frustratingly 'dry', the action cutting away whenever the films killer, wearing an old man rubber mask and hooded robe, gets choppy with his axe.

Thankfully, director Bob Bralver loads his film with big breasted girls who are only too happy to strip for the camera, which helps the time pass less painfully. If only the gore had been as plentiful as the boobs...

4.5/10, generously rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

~Spoiler~

Rush Week is another uninteresting slasher from the late 80's. This time our killer dons a cloak, an "old person" mask, and a double edged axe. So it's nothing groundbreaking. It seems like the filmmakers wanted to make Animal House into a slasher movie. Much of the running time consists of college pranks and the typical hijynx that goes along with that. The problem with this movie, other than the glaring predictability, is that the death scenes all occur off-screen. There's plenty of nudity to speak of, but no gore whatsoever. So I guess you could say they got it half right. One very strange aspect of this film is the casting of Gregg Allman in a minor role. He seemed very out of place and very wasted. Also watch for Halloween 4's Kathleen Kinmont and Friday the 13th 5's Dominick Brascia.

'Rush Week' is a late 80's slasher that came out during the dying days of the genre, it's a likeable effort yet very average with plenty of T&A but not enough gore or suspense. The majority of this flick plays out more like a teen comedy than an effective slasher film and could have done with better kills and more tension.

The plot = Toni (Pamela Ludwig) a young journalism student transfers to a new college, where several female students begin to disappear during the campus's rush week where she meets Jeff (Dean Hamilton) the head of the Frat fraternity and begins a relationship, while at the same time investigating the disappearances, which makes her a prime target for the killer.

Despite the movie's flaws its entertaining enough if you're in a certain mood, as it boasts a decent budget, solid performances and a killer soundtrack, but these positives doesn't help it rise above its faults as the mystery element is very predictable and the kills are very boring and mostly off-camera, plus there's too much time devoted to the boring romance sub-plot and the Frat house pranks, which doesn't add anything to the overall story.

Pamela Ludwig makes for a decent and likeable final girl, she's intelligent and handles the movie quite well. Dean Hamilton also makes for a decent leading man, he's interesting and charming in his role and has good chemistry with the female lead. Kathleen Kinmont was also a fun addition to the cast in her small but memorable role.

Overall 'Rush Week' is light on gore and thrills but has just enough cheesy 80's charm to make for an okay time waster.

My review was written in January 1991 after watching the movie on RCA/Columbia video cassette.

"Rush Week" is a 1988 slasher film long on pretty girls and short on gore. It's a belated direct-to-video release.

Durable if cornball format has coeds being killed on a college campus during the frats' annual rush week ceremonies. Only fledgling reporter Pamela Ludwig believes in the disappearances; the stupid dean (Roy Thinnes in a poorly acted transparent bad guy role) keeps pooh-poohing her evidence.

It isn't until the climax, when the ax wielding killer is beheaded, that the film delivers the makeup effects fans have come to expect from this genre. Instead, all the murders take place offscreen and director Bob Bralver seems more intent on satisfying voyeurs.

In fact, the female victims all appear topless (no pun intended) and are extremely well-endowed; Kathleen Kinmont (pre-marriage to Lorenzo Lamas), Toni Lee and Laura Burkett. By this standard, mosy heroine Ludwig is never in any real danger of being wasted.

Rocker Gregg Allman guest stars but makes no impression as Ludwig's stoned-out faculty advisor. Film's mixture of gags from an "Animal House"-type pic doesn't work in the horror context. Killer's identity is telegraphed blatantly in the first reel.