F - London Highschool-Massaker

In North London, the teacher of the Wittering College Robert Anderson (David Schofield) is hit on the face by a student and is forced to take three months vacation to be not sued by the parents of the kid.

Robert is affected by the incident and a couple of months later, he is emotionally disturbed, alcoholic and separated of his wife Helen (Juliet Aubrey). Their daughter Kate (Eliza Bennett) lives with her mother and has classes with Robert, but she does not respect her father. The principal of Wittering College, Sarah Balham (Ruth Gemmell), loathes Robert and wants to get rid of him, but the Union does not allow her to fire him.

When Robert reads about violence in another school, he sends a memo advising the employees of the school and he is considered paranoid and delusional by everybody. One day after hours, Robert notes some strange movements outside the school and he advises the security guard James (Finlay Robertson) that does not give much attention to the discredited Robert. But sooner Robert realizes that the Wittering College is under siege of a gang of hooligans and he need to find Kate to protect his daughter.

"F" is a film with that had potential to be a great movie. Unfortunately the inconclusive story is shallow and does not develop the characters that are unlikable or the situation, and has a weak ending.

Robert is a looser and emotionally unstable; Kate is a bitch; Sarah is another bitch; Helen is also a bitch; James is coward; Kate's boyfriend Jake is a douchebag. Robert seeks out Kate in the school without any weapon (a piece of wood, a ax or whatever) to defend himself and his daughter from the gang. The conclusion is absolutely disappointing. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Adolescentes em Fúria" ("Teenagers in Rage")

First thoughts : This will going to be something good. No zombies, no aliens, no sadistic crap ... just pure it-could-happen-to-everyone horror movie. Maybe with expected ending, maybe something new, but I thought let's give it a try. And movie continues that way. Each human has some boundaries that either he is kept in them forever, or (if pushed too hard) breaks them and escapes, does something (super)natural or at least ... something. Both ways are good, which is human end of the day. But no. Not this one, not our hero. This movie tries to show something new, some alternative perspective while it enters into a nonsense experimentalism, virtual apparent calmness, which is just not realistic. This movie can even make you nervous as it is that silly. It would be better if movie would continue into direction of psychological internal battle of the main "hero" (whether to do something or do nothing) or deeper character analysis than entering into some very poor horror atmosphere, which at the end leaves you empty as shell. So why even bother to write a short poor review about this poor movie ? Purely for the reason that someone else would not make the same mistake I did by watching it. Actors are good, no doubt, but their performance and story they want to tell is just awful. For the beginning of the movie I give 10, for the ending 0. (if this would exist). Sooo average ... or even below.

The bad guys could have been nutbars, murderous ex students or zombies... They're THAT generic.

Worse, the premise of the bad guys ALWAYS being behind their victims... It's like none of the characters ever heard of "the second Raptor" (Jurassic Park reference for those unfamiliar... Which shouldn't be many by this point!).

The cops who show up, could have been extras from ANY horror movie. Somethings going wrong, what should we do first off, split up. Duh.

Definitely a gore-fest. VERY formulaic. It's too bad, as the actors could have done SO much better, if the director would have actually put some serious effort into storyline instead of the gore factor.

The ending was the only bit that came across as realistic. In a human sense, if not a movie ending sense.

This is a great independent effort. They really take an old fashioned simple concept and make it entertaining. The only real character to speak of is an alcoholic Teacher who appears to be coming slowly undone more and more. After being attacked by a student one day everything just seems to be going wrong for him. I'll just leave it at that. As the viewers were just kind of watching a regular day at school that goes horribly wrong when menacing faceless(which is also a nice touch) killers start slowly taking out all in their way. The movie works with a lot of camera angles, but has a couple of decent gore shots. The directors seemed to be making a more cerebral approach which worked with the breathing and spooky sound tracks. Also, the movie didn't wear out its welcome at an hour and 15 minutes. I would say this is a very watchable British horror flick indeed.

Reading some of the reviews about F, it is clear that there are a few misguided and unimaginative people out there. Fair dos to them - they are entitled to their own opinions! For the more open-minded people out there:

This film marries together several different film genres to create quite a unique experience. It relies on the audience being able to envisage in their own mind how the story progresses and ends, giving just enough clues to help them along the way.

If cut and dry endings and 100% gore is what you are after, then this isn't going to be the film for you. While F does have several toe curling scenes, that is not all it's about.

I challenge all avid film buffs and viewers to watch this film and identify all the 'non-horror' influences and techniques that have gone into its making. Appreciation for these qualities will mean appreciation for a very talented film maker - hopefully with plenty more films to come!