The Curious Case of the Campus Corpse

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.

There is not a speck of entertainment in this entire film. There's not one scary, funny, or even interesting scene in this film. It advertises itself as a horror, then goes on to call itself a comedy. It doesn't even ATTEMPT humor. Neither does it attempt to be scary.

In order to not be bored by this film, you would have to be one of the most easily entertained people on earth. If you like this movie even a LITTLE BIT than you have no standard for what you watch at all. I'm having a very difficult time trying to understand what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish with this. Its not funny, scary, shocking, or intriguing. So was it supposed to be a drama? Because it really wasn't dramatic either.

Please just do yourself a favor and don't watch this film. Life is too precious to be wasting 90 minutes of it watching this.

Although the movie takes place at an "Ivy League" college, it was in fact shot entirely in Northern Arizona, mostly at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff in the fall of 1976. I was involved in the theater department there, and most of the extras in the film are then-members of the theater department.

There is an absolutely ludicrous scene in this film (if you know your Arizona geography) that shows several cast members riding bikes from the college to a creek. We NAU'ers know that the campus and said creek (Actually Oak Creek Canyon) are about 35 miles apart, and while the trip there is all downhill, it would be literally IMPOSSIBLE to ride a bike back UP that same road!

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.

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.