| Slaughter High (1985) Dirs: George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, Peter Litten Cast: Caroline Munro, Simon Sucddamore, Kelly Baker, Sally Cross, Billy Hartman, Gary Martin Rated R/Unrated Approx: 88/91 minutes (Unrated Version Reviewed) A Vestron Video Release (currently out of print) |
| Matt's Rating: **** (out of 5) |
| Reviewed by Matt Serafini 03/05/02 |
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| To get it out of the way right off the bat, you're probably not going to bother with Slaughter High if you're expecting to be scared. That's not saying that this one isn't worth watching (quite the opposite actually), it's just not taking itself all that seriously and neither should you. Directed with a lot of obvious love and knowledge of what makes a slasher film work by trio Dugdale, Ezra and Litten, there's way too much to savor when talking about this. Certain people will claim to be above this type of material (I call them snobs), but slasher fans are bound to adore this goofy and gory little mid 80's entry in the sub genre. From some surprisingly tense bits, to some over the top grizzly murders and all the sex and hijinks in between, this is a very fun film and one that's sure to please genre fans just looking for a great night's worth of entertainment. The class nerd Marty (Scuddamore-who committed suicide shortly after working on this film-lending the proceedings an aura of creepiness) is left horribly disfigured after a class prank goes horribly wrong. Poor Marty was the kid you knew in high school whom everybody teased and tormented, jocks beat on him, girls pretended to like him and just about everybody else was in on the fun for the fun of it all. Flash forward five years later and all those responsible for the hazing of Marty are invited to their high school reunion-on April Fool's Day nonetheless (if that's not some foreshadowing I don't know what is). At the old run down school (exactly how the high school closed down so quickly and aged so much in a five years-I don't know) our reunion (led by the lovely Caroline Munro of Maniac and The Last Horror Film) gets underway and oddly enough, our characters don't seem to really care that they are the only people to attend their reunion. Could it really be that Marty has returned to get even for the heinous prank that ruined his life? It's hard to describe this one as anything less than a blast. It's packed with some great gory moments such as gruesome death by acid bath, electrocutions, and drinking acid laced beer not to mention a trusty axe in the face bit. The characters never really evolve into much more than amusing body count fodder, but it matters very little. These victims are pretty a enjoyable bunch and yet, devoid of almost all logic and common sense. One scene that captures the spirit of Slaughter High pretty well is the moment where two people sneak off to have sex after one of their friends has been murdered (and get a load of that hilarious dialogue in the sex scene while you're at it!). This is one of the best examples of how an entertaining (and not necessarily scary) slasher film should be done. It's avoids the pretentious and hip attitudes of something like Scream by making us laugh along with the characters and situations without ever really making an outright joke of the genre. Where this is frequently a very funny film (as long as you have a place for dehumanizing hijinks and silly characters), it doesn't skimp on the blood or shocks either. Perhaps the film's best moment is when our heroine comes face to face with the killer in a hallway and as he walks towards her, the lights on either side of him explode enveloping the hall in darkness, it's spooky and the killer himself (dressed in a jester's outfit) is effectively menacing-especially when accompanied by Friday the 13th alumni Harry Manfredini's effective, yet familiar, score. This is a film to gather a few friends over for and have a good time with, nothing more. With that said, it's tough to find many more films that succeed in what they attempted to do than this one. A real winner in every sense of the word, if this one has somehow eluded you, wait no longer, get a hold of this movie (the unrated version preferably), you won't regret it. Originally titled April Fool's Day, the title was forced to change to avoid confusion with Paramount Pictures' latest slasher of the same name. For my money, Slaughter High is the better film and one that hopefully will see the light of DVD in the near future. |