Terreur sur le campus

There have been several moments in my life when I was absolutely convinced that I had watched every noteworthy slasher from the 80s, or at least had them on my radar. And yet, it still happens occasionally that I stumble upon a title of which I didn't knew existed! Makes me wonder if the 80s are still ongoing - and producing slashers - in a parallel dimension, or something.

"Rush Week" is such a pleasant new discovery for me. It certainly isn't a hidden masterpiece, and it doesn't contain any elements experienced slasher fans haven't seen hundreds of times before, but it has a good pacing and is overall very entertaining. It's rush week at Tambers College, and the ambitious journalism student Toni Daniels is assigned to write a report about it. She is, however, much more interested in the case of a coed who went missing after doing an erotic photoshoot in the science class. When more beautiful lewd girls disappear, Toni suspects there's a maniacal killer at large on campus grounds. Or perhaps it's all just part of a big Beta Delta Beta rush week prank?

"Rush Week" does several things very well. There are lots of beautiful girls with big...er, you know, and they all willingly go topless before getting slaughtered. The script is also efficient in upholding the tension. It's one of those films where every male character is a suspect, although - admittedly - most people will figure out the identity of the culprit quickly. Pamela Ludwig (known from the late 70s cult hit "Over the Edge) is a good actress, and many of the Beta Delta Beta shenanigans also genuinely make me chuckle, so "Rush Week" honestly isn't bad in my view.

There is one thing that is unforgivable, though... Despite featuring a grisly disguised killer with a giant axe, "Rush Week" hardly features any gory killings. Nobody likes the sight of a swinging axe without seeing the impact it makes on the victim's body; - they should have known that by the year 1989.

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.

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.