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.

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.

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.

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.

It's Rush Week at Tambler College and there's parties and plenty of pranks going around. Toni (Pamela Ludwig) is a journalist student assigned to write about rush week. But when students go missing, she decides to write about that instead - endangering her life in the process.

When no-one believes something happened to the missing students, Toni investigates. She is assisted by Jeff (Dean Hamilton), one of rush week's pranksters who also becomes romantically involved with her. 'Rush Week' is an interesting whodunit murder mystery, different to the many slasher movies of around the same time. It has more substance and there's hardly any gore here. In fact, many of the scenes end abruptly just when a victim is about to get killed - almost like a TV movie. This might be disappointing to die-hard slasher horror fans.

But, being an 80's slasher, there's plenty of female nudity. Yup, sexploitation at its best. Boobies, boobies, boobies! 'Rush Week' didn't make a big impact at the time of release, and is also one of the less known slashers of the 80's. Yet, I actually enjoyed it more than expected.