Director: Rospo Pallenberg
Writer: Steven Slavkin
Starring: Jill Shoelen and Brad Pitt
Body Count: 7
Review: What a cast! 80s scream queen Jill Shoelen (of Phantom of the Opera and Popcorn fame), Brad Pitt (of course, playing the rich pretty boy), Planet of the Apes star Roddy McDowall as the icky school principal, and, straight from his popular stint as the spokesperson for Red Roof Inn hotels, Martin Mull.
This movie is a hoot from start to finish. The death scenes are decent, the acting is, well, enjoyable, Jill Shoelen is hot, and the story is typical high school mayhem, and dialogue like, "He's the killer; we must stop him!"--an exercise in total gratiuity.
Jill plays Paula, a cheerleader with everything going for her--a rich dad, hot, rich boyfriend, and good grades. The only problem is that she's got too much going for her. Everybody wants a piece of her: her boyfriend, Brian the creepy kid, the brain-fried school janitor, the absolutely hilarious school principal--everybody. Before long, it's pretty evident to Paula that one of these many admirers is not quite right, and the movie just kinda follows the typical formula from there on.
The only problem with Cutting Class is that the death scenes were not too original, and there weren't enough of them. The film doesn't make total use of its potential body count--there's two or three people left standing at the end who could have easily been offed. But all in all, this movie's just plain fun of the late-80s suburban high school horror type.
