Rush Week

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.

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 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.

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.

'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.