Return to Horror High

Horror spoofs either work or they don't - this one sadly doesn't. Within the first 5 minutes I knew that this was going to be a long hour & a half. It's a film within a film, an opportunity missed as this is something of a confusing mess. It's not that funny either. There's some reasonable gore - the lecherous teacher getting dissected is the standout scene - plus some gratuitous nudity thrown in. The killer wears a cool mask but is let down by wearing yellow rubber gloves, the type you wash up with! The DVD case gave George Clooney star billing but that's a con, he's only a very minor character in the first 10 minutes.

This movie had some really good comedy bits, but they don't add up to make a good movie. They don't even add up to make a horror movie. The basic plot follows a bunch of low-budget filmmakers who are making a movie about a series of murders that happened at a high school years ago. The only problem is the killer was never caught. The problems start off with this movie when you can obviously tell the school is not abandoned, or ever was. But according to the movie, it's been abandoned for years. Then theres the bad acting. It was pretty bad all the way through, although the producer actually pulls of some good one liners. The one redeeming factor of the movie is some funny comedy bits. Unfortunately, they are few and far between to make it worth while. Although the end was as stroke of genius, sitting through the film is quiet a task for such a small payoff. So I can't really recommend this film to all but the most hardcore fans of any of the cheesy 80's slashers, and even they might not find it all that entertaining.

Yes, it was a standard cheesy 80s horror movie, but it had some nice touches. The filmmakers ambitiously tried to combine flashbacks with the movie-in-a-movie they were making, which was sometimes confusing, sometimes clever, but definitely worthwhile. You could do a lot worse than this one.

I was pretty angry about the review left by Dangera. He said it was a bad movie and he turned it off after the first 20 minutes. Well, you can't put a final judgment on a movie by the first 20 minutes! I actually watched the WHOLE MOVIE and I thought it was pretty good. I can see why it could be considered cheesy, but it is kinda cheesy in a good way. Also, you need to watch the whole thing because there is a twist ending that is pretty cool. I suggest you give this movie a try. However, an even more under appreciated horror movie is one called "Popcorn". It is really great! Check out my review on that one!

It's a shame because this film had a lot of potential. There were really lively moments like the man getting chopped by a huge fan, but then it goes into oblivion and confusion.

Basically, what I mean is that the film itself is constructed in a way that really confuses the viewer. This isn't David Lynch we're talking here, this is supposed to be a horror comedy but some of the jokes just don't work because we're too busy trying to figure out why these random scenes come out of nowhere and whether or not we're watching the movie or the movie within the movie.

Now that may sound like a fun element to the film and indeed, if constructed the right way, it probably would have been. But alas, it pretty much... well... in all honesty... fails.

But this is definitely one of those you'll at least wanna say you saw if you're into 80's schlock.

Love the poster art though.