The Hazing

With all the inane, witless garbage being released to theaters, it is always a shock to find a gem like this that for some ridiculous reason went straight to video. This film has style, originality, humor, imagination and intelligence. Not to mention decent direction, editing and acting. The characters appear at first to be your average stereotypical horror grouping of who-will-die-first-and-how?, and then the film throws all that away to keep you not only guessing but thinking. What more could one ask from a movie one has to pay to see in a theater? Except that you won't find this anyplace but the local video store. Forget big screen releases with super-serious A-list stars and nonsensical, hole-ridden plot lines, just go to the video store and rent this movie. The Hazing is for those who can appreciate clever, imaginative horror like Hostel or The Evil Dead series, and it is a shame this was never brought to box office.

This surprisingly good low-budget Rolfe Kanefsky horror film is generally predictable but still manages 87 minutes of great fun and entertainment. I don't understand any of the negative comments as "The Hazing" would serve nicely as a "good" example for film students looking to get the maximum effect out of a tiny budget while avoiding the pitfalls of similar examples of the horror genre.

Taking much of its premise from "The Evil Dead" (including some actual references to Bruce Campbell), "The Hazing" slightly amps up "Evil Deads" subtle self-parodying style. Which means a slight increase in fun/humor and a slight decrease in suspense/horror. Not that there is anything wrong with that as Kanefsky manages this trade-off to the advantage of his more relaxed film. It should also appeal to fans of "Night of the Demons" and both versions of "The House on Haunted Hill".

The story involves the standard overage group of fraternity and sorority pledges forced to spend the night in a haunted house. Fortunately the atmospheric low lighting serves to generally hide the physical casting age issue.

A hint to the many clueless directors and cinematographers out there: note how Kanefsky recognized the damage that low lighting can do to his sexploitation elements. He has the female leads dress in a tight silver super-heroine costume and a white Playboy bunny outfit, which are thankfully visible even when the characters are standing in the shadows.

Brad Dourif (Billy from "One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest") does a convincing job as one of their professors, a nut case who seeks to open the gates of hell. Nector Rose (Delia) gives a nice performance as a not-quite-the airhead-she-seems blonde sorority chick. Tiffany Shepis (Marsha) fills out the super-heroine costume quite nicely and appears to be having a lot of fun as a character who must alternate between being normal and being possessed by the professor. The rest of the cast is serviceable in undemanding roles.

Make-up and effects are not elaborate but are quite effective. Technical elements (production design, cinematography, and editing) are all first rate.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I turned this movie on, laying in bed, curled up in my covers, all set for a B movie with bad story, bad characters, bad acting, bad effects... but I was pleasantly surprised. Even if the main villain seems to have stolen his character from Michael Keaton's BeetleJuice, it pays out in the end. This movie, obviously pays homage to the Evil Dead series with Bruce Campbell, even so much as to cameo a black and white photo pinup of Campbell in one great death scene.

On the offset it begins as a scavenger hunt and scare on a Halloween, when a joint hazing for a sorority and fraternity leads a group of young men and women to steal a bunch of random junk, and spend the night at a abandoned house, once owned by the man who murdered his wife and her lover when he walked in on her having an affair; leaving them in a bit of a mess.

But, when one of the artifacts they need to steal is a spell book belonging to one of their professors, who is engrossed in centuries old black magic, all hell breaks lose, as we set the stage for madness, mayhem, and murder fun :) The characters were somewhat reminiscent of the old Wax Museum remake of Vincent Price's original, but that's an homage I can live with.

I saw this not too long ago.. It's just your average typical comedy horror which mostly takes place inside the house, where weird things can happen.. With Brad Dourif playing the Mad Professor Kapps.. I'm sure mostly a lot of viewers will notice this guy is either a genius at his work, or he's totally insane! Well, hats down to the actors Nectar Rose, Tiffany Shepis and Parry Chen who kept me viewing this thing until the end..

But to sum it up.. It was worth a watch. I suppose anyone can watch this on a rainy day..

But for director Rolfe Kanefsky, he did his bit by making the film enjoyable as possible.. If he didn't, I would've stopped the film halfway and call it a day.. Nice try, Rolfe! Keep up the good work! An average 7 out of 10!

In a Halloween night, five students participates of a scavenger hunt trying to join the sorority Sigma Si and Delta Pi. They are divided in two groups, and one of them has to steal an ancient book of magic from their weird Professor Kapps (Brad Dourif). Doug Leary (Phillip Andrew) and Marsha Glazer (Tiffany Shepis) break in the professor's house while he is performing a satanic ritual with a student he has just sacrificed, and Kapps attack the students, but accidentally is impaled by a spear. Marsha and Doug leaves the house and brings his staff and his book of incantation to destroy the evidences and drive to an abandoned house, where the two groups have to stay until the next morning. Meanwhile, two seniors students from the frat house have prepared pranks in the house to scare the sorority pledges. But the evil spirit of Professor Kapps possesses Doug, slashing the group of students that have to fight to survive.

"The Hazing" was a good surprise. I was expecting a bad horror movie, but actually it is good and funny, and entertains. Even the gore scenes are hilarious, and in spite of not having exceptional performances, the cast is nice. There are many beautiful women naked, gore, and lots of humor, following the pattern of 1986 "House", "Vamp", "Frankenhooker", "Idle Hands", "Evil Dead" and many other flicks. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Jovens Amaldiçoados" ("Cursed Youngsters")