Student Bodies

"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.

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.

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.

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"?

The first 20 or so minutes of the movie are pretty funny. Sure, there are some cheesy gags in there, but there is a jovial spirit that makes even these lamer gags ones that make you giggle. However, after that part of the movie ends, the frequency of the gags that work grows slower and slower. Eventually, the laughs totally stop and the remaining portion of the movie is somewhat painful to sit through. I suspect that the major production problems that happened during filming are the chief culprit here, not only explaining the drop in humor but also how some things don't make any sense even for a goofy comedy. (It would also explain how some additional gags seem to have been added in the movie during post-production.) There are laughs here - even a few that would be considered classics of some kind - but nowhere enough. Actually, considering how many visuals of the Dr. Pepper logo that are displayed, maybe it was intended as a commercial instead of an actual movie!