The Hazing

Also titled "The Campus Corpse" This is a twisted ending flick that weaves you through one great frustration to the next as these current "college students" don't seem to have a reasonable brain between them. As some one once said "All's well that ends well!"

In the mean time you may wonder if the authorities would notice multiple snow shoe tracks leading from a road to a body that died naturally on the trail. I absolutely love these movies and appreciate a little ineptness here and there.

This movie is pretty awful but I have some interesting information about it:

It was filmed in 1976 at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, as well as at Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona, AZ. A good bulk of the extras in the film are then-drama students from NAU. I was a freshman there that year, minoring in theatre, but for some reason I didn't get involved with the production. I did however know several people who did and can supply this rather odd fact:

There is a scene in this movie where two of the principals, as part of their hazing ritual, have to run naked into the woods. They are seen from behind in the movie, doing just that. The thing is, those aren't the actors at all but two guys I knew from the theatre department. The identity of these "stunt posteriors" will remain anonymous, at least to this website, unless they decide to, um, "reveal" themselves!

The earlier title: The Hazing, was more appropriate. There is no bloodshed in the film except that dripping from the opening title. It is difficult to categorize this film. It's not a comedy, because there are only the faintest hints of humor. The classification as comedy fits only if one takes the entire film as a practical joke, indeed a kind of hazing of the viewer. I agree with an earlier critic who says the ending is rather hokey, but it does largely explain some of the inconsistencies and unbelievable turns of the plot. Anyone who is expecting a typical slasher movie will be a victim of the joke/hazing that may have been the intent of the producers. For me, it is one of those films I know I should hate for its manipulation, not to mention the low production values, but in fact I was manipulated and drawn into the dilemma of the "hero" who was being hazed without even realizing it, after the first several set-up sequences. Not in a league with Rocky Horror or Living Dead, but will live as cult film or not at all.

I am a fan of going back and watching older movies. This title appeared in my video store under the HORROR section. To my disappointment it is not a horror movie at all and far from being a comedy, which is the category IMDB gives to this movie. I suggest not even wasting an hour on watching this movie.

I'm glad the folks at IMDb were able to decipher what genre this film falls into. I had a suspicion it was trying to be a comedy, but since it also seems to want to be a dark and solemn melodrama I wasn't sure. For a comedy it is amazingly bereft of even the slightest venture into the realms of humour - right up until the ridiculous "twist" ending, which confirms what an utter waste of time the whole movie actually is. It is hard to describe just how amateurish THE HAZING really is. Did anyone involved in this film have any idea at all what they were supposed to be doing? Actually worth watching so that you can stare at the screen in slack-jawed disbelief at how terrible it is.