Killer High

...that pretty much tells you everything you need to know about "Killer High" (2018), as far as plot goes. It's a made-for-TV horror/comedy with several laugh-out-loud scenes and some interesting filming techniques, like angles and stills. The warthog monster is linked to the school's mascot and it's ferocious, but kinda goofy-looking. There's a lot of quality gore, if that's your thang.

The cast is ethnically diverse and likable, led by Kacey Rohl as the amusing protagonist who organizes the reunion. Varun Saranga and Asha Bromfield co-star as her main pals. On the female front, curvy cutie Niamh Wilson (Michelle) stands out, but she's out of the picture after the first ten minutes. Lauren Collins (Carrie) is good, but they don't do enough with her. Humberly González (Rosario) is striking, but she needs to eat some hamburgers.

The film runs about 90 minutes and was shot exclusively in-and-around a brick high school (I can't find any location info). The opening reminded me of my juvenile years breaking into our high school for kicks.

GRADE: C+ (5.5/10)

If you're in the mood for over the top, gory fun, this movie delivers the goods. It's colorful, the actors are all game, especially the lead (Sabrina), and the creature (a sort of giant Razorback puppet in most scenes) is grotesque enough to be impressive. I had fun watching it, and as long as you're cognizant of what you're going to get from a movie with this title, you won't be disappointed. Special mention goes to the lady in the wheelchair. In fact, everyone on camera is giving it their all, and that elevates this movie to a higher level than expected. The movie involves teens and a cursed high school. The body count is astronomical. The backstory is ridiculous and inexplicable. What more do you need to know? Nothing, really. Just enjoy the zany ride.

If I had to describe every aspect of this movie in three words it would be 'surprisingly not bad'. I'm not saying that it's good, I'm just saying that it's surprisingly not bad. The acting, sound, cinematography, and effects are all better than what you would expect. The story itself isn't great, but it's a decent setup to what is essentially an excuse for cheesy jokes and bloody kills. I really could have done without the handful of pointless freeze-frame scenes. I'm not sure if they were trying to be stylish here but it just doesn't work.

Overall, it's very mediocre. But for a SyFy original, you could certainly do much worse. If you feel like turning your brain off for a little while and enjoy some cheesy practical effect horror, with copious amounts of fake blood, it's a decent watch. Just don't expect too much. 5/10

You can tell they put all of their money into one scene and gave up on the horror effect

Reading the premise, which is hardly a novel one (not even close) but it did intrigue me somewhat, is enough to know what exactly to expect from 'Killer High'. What is expected to anybody even just a little intrigued into watching it is a lot of silliness, a good deal of camp and far from high quality production values, to not expect too much really and to not take it too seriously. If a film has all of that and has those expectations yet executes its components not very well it is to me not very easy to excuse it.

'Killer High', when seeing it for myself with an open mind, was not awful (have seen far worse films and worse wastes of potential recently and in general) and it was more or less what was expected. Would hesitate though to call 'Killer High' a great film, would hesitate to even call it a good film as there are elements not executed well. It is easy to see why some will find it guilty pleasure fun, it is also easy to see why others will find it bad.

There were things not done too badly. The best thing to me was the acting which was better than average, with Kacey Rohl carrying the film with ease and conviction. The audio is suitably eerie without being too loud or obvious. The monster has its moments, it may look goofy but there is a degree of menace.

Parts, though they came too few and between, did bring a smile to my face, coming over naturally and not really making me cringe. It also didn't bore me out of my skull at least.

Not much was done bringing much new to familiar territory however, predictability was very high and the camp silliness did get excessive that it actually became hard to not take it seriously. There is very little that's scary here and the suspense levels are even less. Wouldn't have said no to less use of gore as some of it was not really needed and cheapened scenes that only would have needed the suspense (again not enough) and sound to make it unsettling.

Despite not expecting the production values to be great, they didn't need to be this cheap or limited. The script mostly lacked sharpness and lacked personality and tightness, too much of the humour is silly pushed to breaking point and the cringe factor present quite a lot of time gets too much and takes away from the enjoyment. The characters are played well but just have too little to them in the writing, little more than genre stereotypes.

On the whole, tricky one here with it not being bad but not particularly good either. Less humour, and more subtlety in it, and more scares and suspense would have made things better. 5/10