Student Bodies

I stumbled upon this flick by accident. I was more interested in the other side of the Commander USA double feature. I just figured this was some lame 80s slasher flick. To my surprise, it was an Airplane style spoof of the slasher flicks of the late 70s/early 80s. In fact, it almost plays like a parody of "Scream", years before it came out. Everyone tries to figure out who the killer is that is picking off the students. The killer calls up and breathes heavy. Every horror fan should check this out!

Those who are not sold on this movie have not seen it with friends. The biggest laugh-getting slumber party movie of all time. Take off your thinking cap, don't take yourself seriously and do not watch alone! It pokes fun at how stupid the acting and plot points are of slashers. The original teen horror comedy has become one of the most seminal movies ever - dozens of Student Bodies imitations try to duplicate the sick and disturbed humor, but those are contrived wanting to copy. This is the most genuinely disturbed comedy of them all. It should be... look at the teenage snuff films they ridicule. It deserves the Nobel Prize. Ahead of its time. But watch with friends. "Individually, the audience is an idiot. collectively, it is a genius." - Samuel Goldwyn.... SO WATCH WITH FRIENDS! No one is qualified to judge until they do.

Before "Scary Movie" decided to spoof the slasher genre, the 80s had its very own send-up called "Student Bodies". It came quite early you might add, even before the sub-genre had completely hit it off. Anyhow despite that, we know where the ammo for this fun is coming from. "Halloween" and "Black Christmas" comes to mind. Quite variable, but this cheeky and in bad-taste enterprise pokes fun at everything (no one… that's no one is safe), including itself which makes it enjoyably amusing as the typical stereotypes are turn upside down. The story is old-hat and a little tame, but the craziness of the situations makes it hard not to get a tickle out of it. The script holds an exceedingly self-knowing attitude, filled with smart-lipped dialogues and the humour is visually evident too. Slapstick bumbling (the murderer's weapon of choice is just ridiculous) to the humorous use of subtitles pointing out the obvious. The intro perfectly paints it ("I have the feeling this is the last time I baby sit"). Even the music score gets into the action. The apparent genre staples are turned into gags, because how blatant they are in a story's progression for things to work. Horny students, suspicious red herrings, virgin heroine and of course heavy breathing. Some gags are repeatedly used, some to good effect and others became a little tiring. After halfway through it was starting to wear a little thin, but then it breaks out even more insane revelations… one topped off by another. There are about three climaxes! The ending has a nice little homage to a horror classic… which you simply see coming. The performances are spot-on, aiming for a mock seriousness approach and it works with the kooky array of memorable characters like Malvert the janitor. A more than decent little slasher parody.

Part of me thinks that, if the ever-reputable Criterion Collection can put out a 2-disc special edition of crap like "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas," they certainly could throw a bone to a sharp-witted parody like "Student Bodies," which nails the genre better than the 3 "Scream"s (which eventually went down the route of self-parody anyway) and the 4 (and counting) "Scary Movie"s. So why, then, has this cover-all-bases send-up been relegated to a word-of-mouth cult item since its 1981 release? Distributor Paramount, which hit paydirt with "Friday the 13th" the year before (and its sequels in the years following), likely saw "Bodies" as an opportunity to take a satirical jab at a genre that really only "began" with the breakout success of John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978). The result? A film so ahead of its time that the audience didn't know what to make of it--relatively goreless and sex-free (our killer offs his teen victims BEFORE they get a chance to score), "Student Bodies" approaches an "Airplane!"-style level of pull-all-stops humor (albeit on a shoestring budget) that remains surprisingly tasteful, even in the midst of cracks about necrophilia and a farting corpse. The opening 15 minutes alone stuffs in references to "Halloween," "When a Stranger Calls," "The Prowler," and even Dario Argento's gialli (our killer's gloved hands figure heavily into the plot); the filmmakers superimpose a helpful "body count" tally plus other deliciously obvious mistakes the characters make (a door kept unlocked, for instance). I only have one major complaint about the film: even at a scant 86 minutes, it goes on for too long, halting to a crawl during a prom sequence that unwisely tries to build some suspense to accompany the humor (though I will give the climax credit for successfully managing to lampoon "Carrie," "Psycho," and even "The Tenant"). That being said, "Student Bodies" is a fine, funny horror lampoon, even more resonant in the fact that, despite its early placement in the slasher pantheon, it still manages to nail all the clichés that have afflicted the genre ever since.

"Studen Bodies" is the movie that started the Horror parody movies. The winning formula of the movie is a mix between sexual/scatological humor and cheesy/teenager humor.

I had to dig into a rare video store's catacombs and after researching and finding some atrocities, I found "Student Bodies". I searched for this movie for years and finally the time came. The VSH copy I found to my surprise had good sound (although Mono) and decent image. I prepared myself pop corns and sat to enjoy this hidden gem.

The Slasher genre has a lot of clichès and "Student Bodies" makes the adequate and necessary parody of them. Sex being the motive for death scenes, gore, dumb characters and a lack of logic are the elements that this movie makes fun of.

The movie makes fun of "Friday the 13th", "When A Stranger Calls" and "Prom Night" mostly (also, look for the "Carrie" ending spoof). I wonder if Wes Craven was inspired by this movie to create "Scream" because most of it's scenes are very similar (including plot!).

The situations are very funny and perfectly mix with the funny lines and one-liners. With some discriminatory jokes towards a black guy, a minus-valid guy, a foreign student, etc. the movie works without being very rude. The script is clever and asks for the jokes and parodies. They don't make movies like this anymore. I prefer 10 times "Student Bodies" than the "Scary Movie" trilogy.

The actors do what they have to do. "The Stick" is a great comedian! and a cult classic character of the 80's cheesiness. The body count meter is another classic moment in the genre. I watched this movie under the name "Thirteen corpses and a half"; the title is explained because of the body count meter. My only beef with the movie is it's silly ending. I know the movie is a Horror Comedy but still the ending left a lot to desire. With a dumb explanation the events get resolved although I felt good for Malvert!

I wonder if they re released this movie in these days, would it be a hit? I think yes. It's a cheesy but funny movie and a good way to kill 80 minutes.