Zombie High

This film is according to me not only about zombies it is actually made by them. Unbelievbly stupid, boring, sick movie, made by and directed by zombies.

A girl decides to go to a prep school on a scholarship (Virginia Madsen), which displeases her cool beau (James Wilder). He warns her with rumors of a diabolical covenant the faculty has, but she dismisses it until strange things help her to see otherwise. Sherilyn Fenn plays a student and Richard Cox a sympathetic teacher.

"Zombie High" (1987) is a mixture of two future movies: "Disturbing Behavior" (1998) and a little "Dead Poets Society" (1989) albeit with a wink of humor & camp. There's also a bit o' "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956/1978). The title is somewhat misleading since you won't see a school full of literal zombies, yet it's applicable in another way.

It's nice to see Virginia when she was so young (25 during shooting) and Fenn doesn't hurt.

The film runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot at School of Cinema-Television, USC, Los Angeles, California.

GRADE: B-

This movie begins with a young 18-year old high school student named "Andrea" (Virginia Madsen) being dropped off at a prestigious prep school known as "Ettinger Academy" by her boyfriend "Barry" (James Wilder). And while Barry isn't too happy with the idea, Andrea is ecstatic at the opportunity that's been presented to her. Unfortunately, things aren't quite what they appear to be as there is definitely something odd with her fellow students. Now, although the movie title might cause some people to expect a film about brain dead sub-humans who feast upon human flesh, I should probably warn viewers that the "zombies" in this movie aren't the typical "Romero" type who have come into being due to a virus. Neither was there any black magic or voodoo involved in the creation of these "zombies". Such things weren't needed when there was something much more practical-medical science. At any rate, rather than disclose any more of the movie and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that I found it to be slightly disappointing for several reasons. First, although it had a decent cast I don't think any of the actors were given a script which worked to their advantage. Likewise, the comedy was flat and the horror was non-existent. Additionally, even though Sherilynn Fenn (as "Suzi") fit the part of a high school student I can't honestly say the same for Virginia Madsen. Put quite bluntly, she was a bit too mature for the role. That said, all things considered I rate the movie as slightly below average.

Zombie High is a movie that is absolutely all over the place. It can never decide if it's going to play it straight or play it for laughs. It never finds an even tone and it's a disaster of a horror film. The plot should sound familiar: A new student at a prep school finds that her fellow classmates are being brainwashed to be the perfect students. Ever hear of Disturbing Behavior? Well, it stole Zombie High's storyline...and vastly improved upon it. So, yes, the title is misleading. Very misleading. There are no actual zombies and they aren't even in high school. Virginia Madsen proves that she can carry a movie, but she can't compensate for the horrible music choices in the film and car chases that come out of nowhere. Go watch Disturbing Behavior instead.

The lovely and appealing Virginia Madsen stars here as Andrea, a young woman who wins a scholarship to a snooty prep school, which has only recently begun accepting female students. Her boyfriend Barry (James Wilder) has his misgivings about this institute of higher learning right from the start, but she tries to make a go of things. She eventually discovers that there is a sinister plot being engineered by the faculty, who are turning their students into emotionless automatons.

The student film "Zombie High" is hard to completely dislike, but overall it misses the mark. An odd, awkward horror comedy, it's nothing more than a minor variation on the old "Stepford Wives" theme. Its attempts to be irreverent are sometimes amusing, but more often than not, they fall flat. It's got a few action sequences, but nothing terribly impressive. The makeup effects are basically adequate. There's an omnipresent rock soundtrack to sort of make things interesting.

The performances are better than the material deserves. Also starring are Richard Cox ("Cruising") as a nice guy professor, Kay E. Kuter ('Green Acres', "The Last Starfighter"), who gives the best performance in the movie as the diabolical Dean Eisner, future film director Paul Feig ("Bridesmaids"), who has his moments as the aggressive, amorous Emerson, the extremely foxy Sherilyn Fenn, Scott Coffey ("Satisfaction") and Clare Carey ('Coach', "Waxwork").

At least "Zombie High" manages some poignancy in its final act. It needs to get a demerit, though, for including one of the worst closing credits rock songs that this viewer has ever heard.

Four out of 10.