Student Bodies

If you can, I strongly recommend to watch this movie with a good friend because it's probably hilarious that way. Watching it alone, I found it hard to laugh at most of the jokes because they are so constant and over the top they are just not funny to me. If you liked the movie "Airplane!", you will probably like this movie and have a good time. While I acknowledge the effort and good ideas in the movie, I personally didn't laugh a lot, but never the less I think the movie deserves it's share of praise for parodying horror genre clichés. Acting is also really great and, all in all, I give "Student Bodies" 6/10! It's definitely worth a watch both to hardcore genre fans and casuals alike. Just make sure to enjoy it in company!

A 1980'S version of "Scream." I found myself laughing more than anything. "The Breather," made me laugh. I couldn't help it. I thought I was supposed to laugh. The guy is making snide remarks and breathing like a horny 12 year old for the entire movie. The cast is unknowns, which makes the movie a sort of cult classic for me. I enjoy the film because it's just plain old silly. It's not gory and it's not in the least bit scary. It makes fun, more than anything, how murder victims in horror movies end up. You'd never see a killer walking around with a bunch of Hefty trash bags as their weapon, but in this film it's used purely for the laughs and after a while it does get old, but "the Breather" will make you laugh enough to watch the whole thing. Good for a Halloween laugh.

STUDENT BODIES is a great, satirical take on the bevy of horror flicks that flooded theater and drive-in screens(and consequently, polluted video store shelves)in the eighties. Watching this group of no-name actors trudge through all the stock situations that teens in these flicks find themselves in goes to show how the people who conceived and made this flick got the joke long before most of us. What's incredible is that this movie came out in 1981, well before the genre peaked and the films became stale variations of HALLOWEEN, FRIDAY THE 13TH, OR NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. While SCREAM was a black comedy/satire that pays homage to the genre(and served to revive it), STUDENT BODIES plays it strictly for laughs, thumbing its nose at all the insolent jerks and dumb bimbos who, despite having knowledge of a killer on the loose, wander alone through isolated woods or dark hallways and wind up on the wrong ends of axes, chainsaws, butcher knives, or pitchforks. Now, who stole my paperclip?

I didn't find it to be hilarious, but it is an amusing horror spoof; generally I've found horror comedies to be funnier than horror spoofs.

The movie starts by noting how many horror movies have been made recently, and that they've all made money. We see a shot of a house at night with ominous music, and a caption reading "Halloween." This fades out, and then fades back up with the caption "Friday the 13th," which fades out and is replaced by the caption "Jamie Lee Curtis' Birthday" (the movie doesn't say, but that is November 22). This is an early indicator of the cheap and silly humor of the movie.

A heavy breathing killer wearing black boots and green rubber gloves makes phone calls to the babysitter in the house. After she looks outside for a cat that turns out to be a meowing dog with gas, she leaves the door unlocked (a caption and arrow call additional attention to this fact). Her boyfriend shows up, he's turned on by something that should be a turnoff, but he leaves the room (this series of actions repeats throughout the movie). The killer enters the house, and picks from a collection of weapons under a rolltop desk: a gun, knife, noose, hatchet, pack of cigarettes, paperclip. He picks the silliest one, of course. The girl dies by the silly weapon, and the guy gets killed by suffocating in a large black trash bag (this MO repeats too; the weapon is always different, but always silly).

A number of people at the school wear the same things the killer does, making them suspects to the audience, who knows, but not to the police. In fact, I'm not sure there are police - the school itself seems to be in charge of investigating the murders. The one person in the movie that becomes a suspect to other characters is a virgin girl.

Lots and lots of silliness in the movie, too much to cover. Anyone that likes silly spoof movies is likely to find something to make them laugh here.

Whatever happened to the actor "The Stick"?

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.