The Hazing

With all the inane, witless garbage being released to theaters, it is always a shock to find a gem like this that for some ridiculous reason went straight to video. This film has style, originality, humor, imagination and intelligence. Not to mention decent direction, editing and acting. The characters appear at first to be your average stereotypical horror grouping of who-will-die-first-and-how?, and then the film throws all that away to keep you not only guessing but thinking. What more could one ask from a movie one has to pay to see in a theater? Except that you won't find this anyplace but the local video store. Forget big screen releases with super-serious A-list stars and nonsensical, hole-ridden plot lines, just go to the video store and rent this movie. The Hazing is for those who can appreciate clever, imaginative horror like Hostel or The Evil Dead series, and it is a shame this was never brought to box office.

When I first saw this movie I really didn't expect much, just another cheesy low budget gore movie that sucked, though those are the movies I love most. But this film was actually above average and an homage to old 80's horror flicks like THE EVIL DEAD, NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, and many more. It also has some great comedy, the "demon" makes some pretty funny jokes, and the characters are also interesting. The acting is also good, with Brad Dourif (Child's Play) and Tiffany Shepis (Tromeo And Juliet, Citizen Toxie, Scarecrow). Also has some nice nudity, and creative gore, including an excellent scene involving a tongue and sex. If you are a fan of 80's movies of demonic possession, and gore movies, check this out, it is a very pleasant surprise and one of the better new movies I have seen. Just watch for a good time.

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.

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.

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.