Rush Week

~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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.