Rush Week (1989).
“Death purifies.”
Directed by Bob Bralver
Written by Russell V. Manzatt and Michael W. Leighton
Starring Pamela Ludwig, Dean Hamilton, Roy Thinnes, and an axe
The Stage.
“Finally, she fell down. I was wondering how long I’d have to lazily walk behind her.”
It’s Rush Week at Tambers College, which means pledges are being hazed into fraternities and…having bike races where people sit in bleachers and eat popcorn to see people ride by for less than five seconds. Unfortunately, Rush Week isn’t good for the females at Tambers, because the women who pose nude for the school lunch guy are ending up dead!
The Review.
In terms of being a low budget slasher, this one checks most of the boxes with the exception of gore. There are a few topless women and a good decapitation, but the rest of the kills and the nudity are pretty tame.
The story is something you’ve seen many times before - people are going missing and there are plenty of suspects (the weird ass boyfriend, the jealous rival frat leader, the creepy photographer, an old guy who just shows up a few times in the bushes). Toni, our ‘final girl’, is heading up an investigation to find out who the killer is because she feels she hasn’t been given a chance to be a real journalist (although if you see what she’s typing in her report, it’s probably pretty clear as to why they don’t want her in the journalism program - she’s fucking stupid).
Um…what
As the bodies and red herrings stack up, she becomes a target for the edge of the axe. Again, stuff you’ve seen before. There are references to Nightmare on Elm Street and The Hills Have Eyes, it’s fully aware of the genre it’s trying to fit right into. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many kills in the film. We only see three deaths, and they’re not characters the audience has any attachment to.
The look of the killer isn’t interesting - they’re dressed in a hooded cloak (think: Ghostface from Scream), wear a bizarre mask that I think is supposed to be an old person’s face but isn’t really scary, and they tote a long medieval axe that looks like it came right off of the shelf at the local Spirit Halloween store. They stalk their prey by walking calmly until their running victim slips and falls, ripe for the chopping.
“Look, I know the fraternity that I’m in charge of tricks women into having sex with dead bodies, but I swear I’m not a bad guy.”
Unfortunately, the killer only goes after women. This is a shame, because everyone in the BDB fraternity is full of awful people and I would have loved to see them get picked off one-by-one. In one of the more despicable pranks, they trick a prostitute into having sex with an old man’s corpse. Super funny, guys! I think BDB was intended to be a real lovable Porky’s pack of gents, but ended up just being mean spirited pricks. The whole love story aspect featuring the leader of these dumbasses who we’re supposed to feel sorry for (?) as a man who doesn’t necessarily want to be the head of BDB so he can roast marshmallows and hack computers just did not work for me.
The technical aspects of the film are severely lacking. Once the killer stumbles upon a hapless, fallen female, we get to see three to four cuts of the axe coming down before we abruptly switch to the next shot. No gore, no body. Nothing about the cinematography or scenery looks particularly memorable. The nicest thing I can say here is that the soundtrack was pretty decent.
The End.
Rush Week was a weak entry into the slasher genre right as the craze was on it’s way out in the late 80’s. It doesn’t have enough kills or gore to satisfy fans of the classics. Fans of topless women will probably be satiated, but if you’re here for the story or the deaths, let me save you an hour and a half. The minute we get the ol’ “pull off the mask Scooby Doo” moment, you’ll be rolling your eyes because the killer is both exactly who you expected and even though you knew it was coming, it doesn’t make sense and it’s just plain stupid.
