El libro del mal

A group of college students are sent on a scavenger hunt on Halloween night to find and retrieve several things as part of an initiation into a college fraternity. One of the items they have to find is a Necronomicon- type of book from one of their teachers, that can unlock some kind of doorway to hell, or something like that. Two of them think that they have accidentally killed the teacher, but he's taken to a local hospital and put on life support and kept alive. His spirit (I think) returns and tricks one of the students into reading the book and opening the gates of hell, and starts killing the rest of them. Sound familiar? Teach's body has to die before he can possess someone new though. Then after being shot by a cop at the hospital seven times from a six shooter, he manages to say 'Thank you'? Then tries to possess and kill all of the college students at his house that night responsible for his death, or near death.

Despite the derivative way this sounds, it's actually kind of a fun little movie, Tiffany Shepis and a couple of other hot girls only help matters, but it's uneven and can't quiet decide if it wants to be a horror movie or a satire, or just another rip off. The fact that it is so derivative obviously doesn't help, as it borrows heavily from Evil Dead and the remake of House on Haunted Hill: a scene here looks a little too much like the lockdown scene and its aftermath from that movie, and the old record player left over from the 1930s in this film looks really familiar too. This movie starts slowly, then gets good, then starts to fizzle away, and goes on once scene too long. The effects run the gamut from being surprisingly good to really tacky (a girl turned into a life-sized plastic doll?) but if you've ever wanted to see a girl attacked by a demonically possessed four foot long tongue, this is the movie for you then.

It's good overall, better than one might expect, but it could have been so much better. The theme song 'Do the Zombie Dance' sounds like they were either drunk or intentionally trying to sound stupid for some reason.

I turned this movie on, laying in bed, curled up in my covers, all set for a B movie with bad story, bad characters, bad acting, bad effects... but I was pleasantly surprised. Even if the main villain seems to have stolen his character from Michael Keaton's BeetleJuice, it pays out in the end. This movie, obviously pays homage to the Evil Dead series with Bruce Campbell, even so much as to cameo a black and white photo pinup of Campbell in one great death scene.

On the offset it begins as a scavenger hunt and scare on a Halloween, when a joint hazing for a sorority and fraternity leads a group of young men and women to steal a bunch of random junk, and spend the night at a abandoned house, once owned by the man who murdered his wife and her lover when he walked in on her having an affair; leaving them in a bit of a mess.

But, when one of the artifacts they need to steal is a spell book belonging to one of their professors, who is engrossed in centuries old black magic, all hell breaks lose, as we set the stage for madness, mayhem, and murder fun :) The characters were somewhat reminiscent of the old Wax Museum remake of Vincent Price's original, but that's an homage I can live with.

During a hazing on Halloween, seven college students get trapped in a Fraternity house with an unholy book that attracts the spirit of a crazy professor who threatens to possess them. Can any of them make it out alive?

"The Hazing" (2004), retitled "Dead Scared," is a low-budget slasher with an amusing edge. It borrows from the first two "Evil Dead" flicks and is just as good or better. One of the highlights is brunette Tiffany Shepis as Marsha and blonde Nectar Rose as Delia, the former in a shining bodysuit and the latter in a bunny costume.

The movie runs 1 hour, 27 minutes and was shot in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-

Exactly what you would expect from a B-Movie. Deritive, gratuitous nudity, boring in parts, ridiculous gore and cheesy special-effects. Of course it could have been better, better acted (defintly) better written, directed, etc. But then I guess it wouldn't have been a B movie. The actors pretty much sucked, in fact this pretty much seemed like an episode of buffy the vampire slayer or something except with a lot of blood, profanity and nudity.

Tiffany Shepis must be singled out. She absolutely is the scream queen of the new millennium. Not that acting really matters in these movies, but she was better than any of the other actors. She's also smokin hot, in that plastic jump suit thing she wore for the whole movie - wow! Her posterior is absolutely stunning in that outfit, I mean it every single time she turns around you can help but check her out. And near then end of the film the viewer is rewarded with seeing her completely nekked.

So if your a looser b-movie horror buff (like myself), check this out. If not, you should probably avoid at all costs.

This surprisingly good low-budget Rolfe Kanefsky horror film is generally predictable but still manages 87 minutes of great fun and entertainment. I don't understand any of the negative comments as "The Hazing" would serve nicely as a "good" example for film students looking to get the maximum effect out of a tiny budget while avoiding the pitfalls of similar examples of the horror genre.

Taking much of its premise from "The Evil Dead" (including some actual references to Bruce Campbell), "The Hazing" slightly amps up "Evil Deads" subtle self-parodying style. Which means a slight increase in fun/humor and a slight decrease in suspense/horror. Not that there is anything wrong with that as Kanefsky manages this trade-off to the advantage of his more relaxed film. It should also appeal to fans of "Night of the Demons" and both versions of "The House on Haunted Hill".

The story involves the standard overage group of fraternity and sorority pledges forced to spend the night in a haunted house. Fortunately the atmospheric low lighting serves to generally hide the physical casting age issue.

A hint to the many clueless directors and cinematographers out there: note how Kanefsky recognized the damage that low lighting can do to his sexploitation elements. He has the female leads dress in a tight silver super-heroine costume and a white Playboy bunny outfit, which are thankfully visible even when the characters are standing in the shadows.

Brad Dourif (Billy from "One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest") does a convincing job as one of their professors, a nut case who seeks to open the gates of hell. Nector Rose (Delia) gives a nice performance as a not-quite-the airhead-she-seems blonde sorority chick. Tiffany Shepis (Marsha) fills out the super-heroine costume quite nicely and appears to be having a lot of fun as a character who must alternate between being normal and being possessed by the professor. The rest of the cast is serviceable in undemanding roles.

Make-up and effects are not elaborate but are quite effective. Technical elements (production design, cinematography, and editing) are all first rate.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.