Dead Scared AKA: The Hazing (2004) 
I was curious to check this one out when I saw it on Dem's Top 100 horror films of all time list for the upcoming Cult Labs Members' Top 100 Horror Films community list. As you all know Dem has eclectic taste when it comes to horror; the gothic, gialli, genre classics, and straight to video cheapies all adorn his favourites and with me being always on the lookout for new stuff to watch; my mentality being I'm pretty much game for anything cinema wants to throw at me, this film posed an interesting opportunity.
Despite being curious, I was also wary. Early 2000s US teen horrors (especially ones I had never heard of least of all seen) didn't usually factor very well within my cynical, jaded (albeit open minded) perspective on modern US horror cinema. I therefore adjusted my expectations accordingly and with trembling hands and a lump in my throat inserted the disc into my player and mentally prepared to sharpen my pitchfork to pierce Dem's pale, supple man-flesh.
The intro hooked me immediately as a crazed professor and his collection of ritual artifacts brains one of his students with a staff (incidentally one I'd love hanging on my wall - the staff I mean, not the student although I'm not fussy). The subsequent ten minutes during a sorority hazing and a group of annoying teens scoring insult points off of one another saw fervent mental pitchfork sharpening, however once the film gets going and the establishment of which horror caricature each member of the 'pretty' cast is, the film sets off in its stride and despite being nothing fantastically original is a highly entertaining tale of possession by the hospital bed bound professor astrally projecting his revenge on the teens who took his book of incantations and left him for dead whilst on a scavenger hunt to get into their sorority of choice. The teens are then trapped with the professor's spirit in a 'haunted' house on Halloween.
There is a fair amount of nudity too (it's easy to see why Dem likes this film so much now
) and some nice demon possession effects with a strong vein of cheddar to all the proceedings, where nothing is taken too seriously by the cast in as much you can enjoy the ride with them, rather than at their expense - the latter being quite often the case with a lot of these sort of films unfortunately, which makes this film all the more refreshing in that respect.
Overall, I was mildly surprised with what was on offer here and sat back and enjoyed the ride right up to the predictable lame pre-ending and then the less lame more fun kind of ending.
Another stellar recommendation from our resident raven.
