Killing Mr. Griffin

'Killing Mr. Griffin' isn't a remarkable film, and the production values could best be described as "B+." However, it is saved by its willingness to tread into the darker territory of high school peer pressure and cliques with reasonable verisimilitude (unlike, say 'Cruel Intentions' or 'She's All That') and strong performances on the part of the lead cast, especially Amy Jo Johnson as Susan McConnell. Despite her lovely looks and renown for her breakout role as Valley Girl Queen Bee and Pink Power Ranger, Johnson is more than convincing as a socially awkward "Plain Jane" bookworm who nonetheless won't miss a sudden chance to join the cool kids and who tragically casts aside childhood loyalties and moral scruples along the way. The frame story also works wonders to that effect, providing the character introspection that would otherwise have been lost in the screen adaptation.

Nevertheless, the writers seem to have treated the adaptation of the source material a bit hastily in some respects. Mr. Griffin is here portrayed as an anti-social jerk as opposed to the somewhat brash drill sergeant and ultra-strict grader he was in the book, and so it's somewhat more difficult to have empathy with respect to his ill fate. The script also loses texture relative to the novel by its abandonment of the very well-done psychiatric dimension to the character of Mark Kinney (probably due to the difficulty of adapting his or the other characters' backstories in a single-shot film) and its under-exploitation of the Shakespearean parallels in the original plot.

Overall it's reasonably entertaining, certainly better than your average 'Movie of the Week,' and it's definitely a treat if you're a fan of Amy Jo Johnson, but if you've got time to kill consider reading the novel.

Mr. Griffin (Jay Thomas) is a bitter high-school teacher, who pushes his students to the limit and is hated by most of them. When he humiliates the popular student Mark Kinney (Scott Bairstow) is his class, Mark convinces his friends to play a prank on Mr. Griffin. The group manipulates Susan McConnell (Amy Jo Johnson), using her to attract the teacher to the parking area after hours. They kidnap, blindfold and take him to an abandoned boat house nearby a lake, and trying to frighten him, they leave him tied on a chair alone in the desert place without his heart pills. Mr. Griffin dies and when his body is found, the group panics.

"Killing Mr. Griffin" is a very reasonable teen thriller. It is not a masterpiece or an awful movie, as written in many reviews, but a slightly above average story with a good moral lesson in the end. I believe the intention of the writer is to show the consequences of the steps each one of us decide to follow in life, no matter who the person is. The character of Mr. Griffin is very nasty and arrogant, being impossible to feel any sympathy for him. The Brazilian title is ridiculous, and the VHS released by "Europa Filmes" shows a picture of the body of Mr. Griffin in a grave with the students around, inducing the viewer that the genre of this movie would be horror. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Terror Ronda a Escola" ("The Terror Rounds the School")

I must say that this was one of the finest made for TV movies I have ever seen. It was a part of the post Scream teen movie boom, but this one was actually good (unlike I've Been Waiting For You" and "Teaching Mrs. Tingle") The acting was surprisingly good by the cast of up and comers (it was great to see Michelle Williams pre Dawson's Creek) the script was intense and the direction made us feel we were part of the scheme. If you liked "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (both movies were based on the books by Lois Duncan) you'll get a kick out of this one too. It's not a slasher story, but a story about covering up secrets and how they can ruin your life. Amy Jo Johnson is terrific in the lead, and Scott Bairstow is creepy and sinister. This was a good movie. Too good to be a TV movie. It should have at least got a limited theatrical release!

Poor Lois Duncan. She's written many good-to-excellent thrillers aimed at the teen set, but their video adaptations almost never do them justice. "I Know What You Did Last Summer" was turned into a teen slasher flick; "Gallows Hill" was butchered into "I've Been Waiting for You", and "Don't Look Behind You" (one of Duncan's best, about a girl whose family enters Witness Relocation) was turned into a vehicle for "Dallas" has-been Patrick Duffy! Only "Summer of Fear", aka "Stranger in Our House", managed to survive intact (though you still have to put up with the dog/horse plot switch, as well as Linda Blair's scary perm).

The "Killing Mr. Griffin" movie, sad to say, is a middling effort, not at all worthy of the excellent source material. Most of the characters survive the transition to the screen, but are watered down and robbed of their distinctive traits. Mr. Griffin himself, a well-meaning guy who has trouble relating to kids in the book, is simply a jerk here. But worse is what happens to Mark Kinney. In the book, it is slowly and frighteningly revealed that Mark is actually a sociopath, whose history of violence and ability bend the group to his will is even more troubling than what happens to Mr. Griffin. But in the movie, Mark is just another troubled kid who is reacting to the pressure his parents have put on him to succeed. Too bad, because his original incarnation is much, much scarier.

If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it, as well as the other books I've mentioned above. It would be a much better use of your time.

Mr. Griffin is an English teacher at a high school. None of the students like him as he always seems mean and horrible, so to teach him a lesson some of the students from his English class, plan to kidnap him for a little while. When they end up leaving him for a couple of hours though, Mr. Griffin dies and now they have the police on there trail, to find out what really happened to him.

The cast in the movie includes, Amy Jo Johnson, Mario López and Michelle Williams (Who looks a little strange here.) and they give okay performances.

Killing Mr. Griffin is a lot like the Kevin Williamson movie Teaching Mrs. Tingle, which I actually liked more. (More exciting.) Killing Mr. Griffin came out first though and is based on the novel by Lois Duncan (I know what you did last summer films, etc.) and it's not to bad. It's not a proper thriller really, it's more like a cheesy thriller with not much suspense. If you like teen thrillers then you may just enjoy this. It sure isn't brilliant, but I guess it's quite good.