Deadly Lessons

It's great to see at least a few posts on this good little t.v. slasher. I still pull out my old VHS of the NBC premiere just to see what television was like especially considering the current, sad state of the tube now where commercial blurbs are at the bottom, top and sides of squashed, mashed and castrated film & program credits and huge bylines slapped across the screen to remind you of what you are watching! Well, I can't really add to what's been said about this film except that it got some great play time on TBS in the late '80s and in an interview shortly before she died, Donna Reed lambasted the film as 'very cheap and on the sleazy side'! Nothing of the sort, I actually double featured this with Wes Craven's Scream for a couple of friends of mine and they really got into it. When will tele-flicks like this get their due?

Starkwater Hall , an exclusive school for girls, is in its summer session when the unimaginable happens - a pupil is found murdered. The headmistress, Miss Wade, is determined to hide the fact and preserve the school's reputation but, when a second killing occurs, the secret is out. Terrified, the remaining girls decide to protect each other from the unseen horror.

This made for TV film has some elements of a slasher or killer on the loose genre, but where it differs is in its lack of gratuitous violence, gore and nudity. Consequently, Deadly Lessons isn't so tacky or cheap and is essentially a whodunnit- Hardy Drew style. The focus is on the detecting than on murders. There's no heavy menace, but it's got a light touch while maintaining a serious tone. Donna Reed adds a touch of class. Larry Wilcox' detective character looks out of his depth and is an annoying character. It might lack some punch, but overall it's an entertaining mystery. Plus the ending is quite suspenseful with that twist. Diane Franklin is cute.

When girls at Starkwater Hall Boarding School start turning up dead, a group of friends are determined to find out who's doing it. But will they before it's too late? It's a pretty good movie but slasher fans will be disappointed from the lack of blood. There's none, but there is an okay suspense scene at the end.

Is there anything more pointless than an old made-for-TV slasher movie like Deadly Lessons? Strict broadcasting restrictions meant that gore, gratuitous sex and nudity were a no-no (there's not even any side-boob!), resulting in a frustratingly tepid thriller. So why did I bother checking this one out? Because it stars Bill & Ted cutie Diane Franklin in the lead role, with supporting turns from Donna Reed (From Here to Eternity, It's a Wonderful Life), Nancy Cartwright (The voice of Bart Simpson), Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club), Bill Paxton (Aliens, Weird Science) and... um... Larry Wilcox from C. H.i. P.s. It's this interesting cast that makes the film just about bearable.

The adorable Franklin plays student Stefanie Aggiston, who has won a scholarship to spend the summer at Starkwater Hall, an exclusive private school for girls run by strict head mistress Miss Wade (Reed). Unfortunately for Stefanie, her time at Starkwater coincides with a series of murders, the killer picking off the privileged students one-by-one. Investigating the murders is big-city cop Det. Russ Kemper (Wilcox).

In addition to the lack of gore and nekkidness, Deadly Lessons is totally devoid of scares and suspense, but Franklin is so appealing in the lead that the film is hard not to enjoy to some extent. It's also fun to see pre-fame Sheedy and Cartwright as fellow students, and Paxton before he got his big break in Aliens, as stable hand Eddie Fox, Stefanie's romantic interest. Wilcox, on the other hand, is rather bland, at least until the final scene when he gets to overact.

Pretty boring TV movie that plays around with some slasher tropes, but feels more like a padded episode of Murder, She Wrote. There's never a great sense of danger, but I do like the cast a lot with familiar faces like Diane Franklin, Ally Sheedy, Donna Reed, and Bill Paxton showing up and adding some class to everything. I only wish it were a more exciting movie.