Rush Week (1989) — Triskaidekafiles

RUSH WEEK

WRITERS: Russell V. Manzatt & Michael W. Leighton

DIRECTOR: Bob Bralver

STARRING: Dean Hamilton as Jeff

Pamela Ludwig as Toni

Courtney Gebhart as Jonelle

Don Grant as Byron

Toni Lee as Alma

Kathleen Kinmont as Julie Ann McGuffin

John Donovan as Arnold Krangen

Roy Thinnes as Dean Grail

QUICK CUT: A year after a tragic death, students and faculty alike try and put the past behind them.

THE MORGUE

Jeff - The head of fraternity Beta Delta Beta, and he’s pretty typical frat boy material. Loves the pranks, loves being a jerk, but he’s arguably better than most, as he does occasionally draw the line.

Toni - A journalism major who transferred from another college and is trying to get in the groove at the new school. She doesn’t want to just do fluff pieces, and is instantly drawn in when she thinks she sees a mystery.

Byron - Another BDB member, and much more of a prankster, coming up with some pretty awful things, and he has a sudden turn when they need to actually have sympathetic characters in the movie.

Dean Grail - The (duh) dean for the college. His daughter died a year ago, and the weight still hangs over him. He's no fan of the Greek system, but he also knows it’s a fact of life he can’t do much about.

No his mind is not for rent, to any god or government

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! I've somehow started doing college and/or school related movies twice a year, and this year, I'm doing two college movies in May! Because I am apparently awful at scheduling! Whoops. Oh well. Anyways, the first one is Rush Week, so let's get to it.

Since this is a college movie, it is no big surprise that we start at a frat party. We meet our lead, Lori, who is new to the school, and assigned to cover rush week for the school paper. Rather than go to the party though, she heads through the woods to her room.

We get some usual party shenanigans, and Jeff sets free the rushes so they can do their thing, using a giant axe they just happen to have around.

Meanwhile, another student, Julie, is walking around campus, and getting worried as young women do walking alone in the dark. But, nothing happens to her, and she makes it to her destination okay.

You know what would've been better than nothing happening to her? ANYTHING!!

But we do get some titillation as she poses for sexytime photos, to help pay her tuition. No judgment.

They finish up the photoshoot, he pays her with a bill marked with an axe, as ominous music plays, and leaves. Oooh I wonder if that will mean anything. I'm sure it will mean just as much as going WAY out of their way to never show the photographer's face.

Once the photographer leaves, Julie gets dressed, and is interrupted when someone with Jeff's axe arrives to slice her up. Ah, there's the anything.

The next day, no one has noticed the missing Julie, so go about their business, including Toni meeting Jeff and starting what will be an ongoing flirtation.

She takes her leave though, and heads to the dean's office to interview him about rush week for her article.

While there, another girl shows up to tell the dean that her roommate Julie McGuffin has gone missing, and...wait, seriously? People are gonna go searching for the missing McGuffin? AM I BEING PUNKED??

Later, Toni listens to her tapes, hears about the missing girl, and she becomes far more interested in the true crime podcast, than in Rush Week shenanigans.

The liberal arts journo professor being a groovy hippie is commentary of SOME sort, I am sure.

The faculty advisor for the journalism students says if she wants to follow the story, check with the dean. So Toni does just that, but he pulls up Julie's information, and sees she disappeared just the same last year, and dismisses her concerns.

After the boys of BDB house ruin the gathering that the GAE house is having, Jeff takes Toni back to their place for more partying.

I should point out that BDB was kicked off campus a year ago, and only recently returned. Hmm. It sure seems like a lot went down a year ago, and instead we're watching this.

Some of the boys prank a girl into sleeping with a corpse (Which I SWEAR is a plot I've seen in another movie, and it is gonna bug me until I figure it out. The commentary mentions Urban Legend and another movie that were not it, but I am very much digressing at this point.)

This is a step too far for Jeff, so he goes after the girl who ran off into the night.

But before Jeff finds her, the axeman cometh instead, and chases her. Eventually she does the stereotypical trip, and gets it in the end.

The next day, BDB pranks the bike race going through town, and this is kinda where the movie fails for me. The pranking storyline is completely removed from anything else to do with the plot, and is really only there to kill time in a fairly short movie, and just makes them out to be assholes.

Toni heads over to Julie's, and her and Julie's roommate poke around a bit. It's not long before they piece together her modeling side hustle.

So, long story short, Toni heads to the science building where Julie goes for the shoots, and ends up discovering some blood. She takes a sample, and leaves.

Outside, she finds Jeff waiting for her, and Toni asks him about the other missing girl. All these questions are pointing to BDB, and he's understandably confused and annoyed.

Hey, Taylor! Sorry I can’t help you with that radioactivity issue…

Later, Toni is working on her article, and her computer gets a creepy message on it, as well she receives a strange phone call. She calls up Jeff and has him meet her at a bar.

He reassures Toni he's not sending her the messages, and she lays out the case she has before her. He's concerned, but impressed that she won't back down, in spite of the danger.

The next day they meet to go on a picnic or whatever, and while Jeff gets ready, Toni has a chat with Byron Exposition.

Byron fills us in on that rather important 'last year' time frame. It turns out Jeff was dating the dean's daughter who died, and not jus that, all hacked up. And he hasn't been the same since.

They eventually reach Jeff's spot in the woods, they start making out, and she just has to go and ask about the dead Laura.

Jeff instantly turns cold and distant at her name, and insists that they leave.

Later, Jeff is putting together a nice murder scrapbook, and the movie is leaning in SO hard to him being the killer, I'm calling bullshit. ...Also, I've watched it before, and so spoiler, it ain't Jeff. But they’re dropping so many clues that are never properly resolved.

The movie drops another random murder in to keep things interesting, and then has Toni head to pick up developer, so they can tie off another loose thread.

She runs into the photographer, who they finally show the face of, and gasp, he works in the lunch room. It's really not a surprise, and serves no real purpose.

He tries to lure her in to do some photoshoots, and she seems interested enough to get his card, track down his house, and break in to investigate him. This is the only point where the weirdly marked axe bills come into play, because she finds it weird.

Naturally, he returns home while Toni is snooping around, and she eventually escapes. On the way, she ends up dropping her ID card.

Toni takes her case to the dean, and he points out she really only has circumstantial evidence, and point blank asks about his daughter. The dean chalks that up to being an isolated incident that her daughter died exactly one year ago.

Would you like to try my AXE body spray??

She starts to think maybe everyone is right, it's all coincidence and not some horror movie, but you best start believing in horror movies. You're in one.

Toni starts getting ready for a BDB party to take her mind off things, when one of the other girls in her dorm mentions someone has gone missing. So she is back on the case!

So the party begins, and Toni has A Plan. She calls Jeff and the photog to all meet at the science building, hoping somehow this will cause the truth to out. Unfortunately, she doesn't realise he has her ID, and knows exactly who she is. But trust me, this ultimately is meaningless.

Looks like someone is getting an automatic 4.0 this semester!

Toni tries calling the cops, but they don't buy it, and flat out hang up on her. So she calls the dean, to try and get his help for the impending axe murder, but he's not home.

We get a bit of cat and mouse as the photographer arrives first, but before he can catch Toni he finds the wrong side of the axe.

Next, Toni runs into the axeman, and they chase around the science building for awhile, and she eventually gets Jeff in the back, thinking she killed him.

Remember, with great power, comes great responsibility

But then the real killer shows up, and surprise! It's the dean! He reveals he's doing this as a form of redemption for the girls being photographed, which he believes Toni to be among their number. Even though it was just a ruse to get the truth.

Which is a good time for Jeff to show up, being not quite dead, to save the day. The pair of executioners spar for a bit, and eventually Toni gets to be the one to deal the killing blow.

The couple reunite, and Jeff uses this moment for a final bit of exposition, because yeah, THIS is the time.

But we can't quite be done yet, as the dean rises up and interrupts the tender moment with his axe. After some more fighting, Jeff AGAIN deals the killing blow and executionals the dean with his own weapon, slicing off his head. Well, Jeff's version of the weapon. But same axe. Man, what are the odds?

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: Pretty good. Nice and sharp.

Audio: Everything is perfectly clear.

Sound Bite: "This is real life, not some stupid horror movie"

Body Count: A very small amount, just enough to keep things going amongst all the pranking.

1 - 10:30 minutes in and the axe falls on our first victim.

2 - Another girl gets the axe.

3 - A third girl gets it

4 - The photographer gets cut.

5 - The killer gets his head sliced off

Best Corpse: It’s a classic way to go with the final death of the killer. Always love a good decapitation.

Blood Type - F+: This is an almost completely bloodless movie, and no real makeup effects to talk about.

Sex Appeal: What this movie lacks in blood it makes up with in boobs, with a lot of casual nudity.

Drink Up! Every time you see another red herring.

Movie Review: If you can’t figure it out, this one is a BIT of a mess. There’s a lot of elements there, and you can really feel the multiple writers, like one did a college romp, the other did a slasher, and they stapled the two together, with no regard for smoothing that out. The overarching plot is fine, it’s genuinely set up well enough, but the red herrings are a lot. And there are so many clues that go unresolved. And other plot points that just clutter up the narrative. It’s an all right movie, with too much pranking that slows it down, and just has too much going on to really be a clear movie. Three out of five axes.

Entertainment Value: While the movie is pretty packed, and it does a bit too much, the acting is nice, the kills are pretty good, if bloodless. The movie has an all right sense of humour, and it really just needed to be tightened up a bit, because it can be a bit of a slog between deaths. You can see they were trying, at least. Three out of five dropped ID cards.