Horror Movie Review: The Hazing (2004)

A Rolfe Kanefsky special, in that it sounds like it’s going to be terrible and looks substandard but actually turns out to be pretty decent. Filled with gore, nudity, silliness, and some comedic moments, The Hazing is an entertaining watch, driven by a game cast, least of all Brad Dourif.

He stars alongside Brooke Burke, Nectar Rose, Tiffany Shepis, Jeremy Maxwell, Parry Shen, David Tom, and Philip Andrew. Each plays a caricature of students wanting to join frats and sororities but embraces the basicness of their characters and work hard to infuse life into them.

It certainly does help that Kanefsky’s writing and directing is energetic too, evident by a start that sees Professor Kapps (Brad Dourif) impaled on a spear in his home. How? Why? He was performing a ritual on a student using a book of magic, which is interrupted by some of the ‘would be’ frats and sorority sisters who were tasked with stealing said book.

Obviously this goes wrong, and now they have to hide the evidence, meeting up with the others at an abandoned house, where they must stay until the morning. Prof Kapps isn’t dead though, and while his body is in a coma, his spirit is wandering free. Eager for revenge, and able to possess bodies, these pledges are in for a rough night now.

It’s as standard as it sounds, but through sheer force of will and against all odds, least of all a very low budget, it rises above all of that. From the moment it starts, its cheesiness is front and centre, and it only gets sillier as it goes on. This is what makes it entertaining, even if it is rarely ‘laugh out loud’ funny. Although it’s not supposed to be really. The comedy elements are there, all over the place and more miss than hit, and almost always offering up little more than a ‘snort’.

The film’s entertainment value comes from the fact that it (mildly) parodies Evil Dead, and there’s a concerted effort to make it schlocky via the gore and nudity on offer. While the budget does stop the more graphic moments being great, there’s still some strong moments. One, involving a tongue, is imaginative and fun.

Which is as good a summation as any, The Hazing is a fun slice of horror comedy paying homage to a different era in a unique period of time. While there’s nothing that memorable overall, get yourself in the right mind frame and you’ll have a blast watching this.