[yasr_overall_rating]
Eight people are invited to their old high school for their ten-year reunion where a fellow former student, disfigured from a prank gone wrong, is out to seek revenge.
In the 1980s, slasher flicks were everywhere. You didn’t have to look too far to find one. With the success of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” in 1978, and Sean S. Cunningham’s “Friday the 13th” in 1980, the movie industry became a battleground for the next big slasher film. From the inevitable sequels to both “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” (both still going strong over 30 years later), the market became saturated with a slew of copycat features that, for the most part, were truly awful. Movies like “Splatter University,” “Shocker,” “The Boogeyman,” “Inseminoid,” and “Motel Hell” to name but a few. So where does “Slaughter High” fit into all these? Honestly, it falls somewhere in the middle. The story had been done countless times before, both before and since. A high school geek is bullied and embarrassed by some of his cooler classmates and exacts revenge on them. That’s pretty much the story summed up.
Marty (Simon Scuddamore) is your typical high school nerd, interested in physics and books and not much else. A group of his classmates concoct a plan where the class beauty, Carol (Caroline Munro), leads the unsuspecting Marty into the girls’ locker rooms while the school is nearing the end of the year. Carol places him into one of the showers, closing the curtain over, and tells him to undress. When he comes out, stark naked, the rest of the gang are there with a video camera to record everything. They then proceed to give him a swirly, where they stick his head down the toilet and flush it. The prank ends quickly when their P.E. teacher catches them in the act. Marty gets dressed and goes back to his science lab, embarrassed but not much else. Mad that his prank was cut short, Skip (Carmine Iannaccone), sneaks into the science lab while Marty is in the bathroom and mixes some highly flammable ingredients together, just in time for Marty’s return. After they explode, accidentally knocking over a jar of acid, which splashes directly into Marty’s face, the lab catches fire and Marty is taken away in an ambulance screaming in pain, vowing revenge.
Years later, the gang receives individual invitations for their high school reunion and they all return to the school but upon reaching their destination, realize that the school is closed. As night draws near, they make their way inside, out of the cold and find welcome banners in the school gymnasium, along with food and beer but as the night progresses, one by one, each of the classmates succumb to a horrible death, each more bloody and violent than the last. With Carol being the lone survivor, she must try and stay alive until morning when she has a fighting chance of leaving the school and making her way back to civilization.
While the story of “Slaughter High” is terribly unoriginal, the one good aspect of the film is the school itself. I don’t know if the filmmakers found an abandoned old building, or whether it was an actual school that they filmed in during the summer months but the location is the stuff of nightmares. While the movie is set in the U.S., it was actually filmed in Surrey in the United Kingdom and this explains why the old building is so creepy, obviously, it had been around for a very long time and looks it. The acting is more horrifying than the film itself but it lends a certain appeal that makes it more enjoyable than if they had played it straightlaced. While the performances are laughable, credit has to be given to the fact that many of the kills are somewhat original, at least for a 1980s horror movie. One guy drinks a beer, unaware that it has been laced with poison, and quickly, starts tearing at his stomach, allowing his entrails to fall out. After being splattered with blood, one girl decides to take a bath in one of the many bathrooms around the school and the killer releases acid through the faucet, dissolving her body into a pile of bloody bones. They sound quite horrific but believe me, they have to be seen to be believed.
The film is not the most original slasher flick but I have seen a lot worse. I don’t think it will be joining any of the horror remakes circulating Hollywood any time soon (although I wouldn’t be surprised if it did) but if you like blood and gore, and the occasional boob, you might just enjoy “Slaughter High.”
Available on Limited Edition Blu-ray October 31st
