Jolly Killer

"Slaughter High" has been given an official DVD release but, going by the quality, you'd never know that. If it wasn't for the Lionsgate branding, trailers, and cheap trivia track "special feature," you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a bootleg. The full-screen video is ripped off the same VHS copy all the YouTube video pirates use. The image is almost indecipherably dark at times. The picture is grainy, scratchy, washed out, and full of tracking errors. The audio is tinny and frequently distorted. They even maintained the Vestron Video logo at the end! You could criticize Lionsgate for the shoddy release. Actually, you should do that. Yet, when I pressed play at the menu, a rush of nostalgia washed over me. I remember this world of scratchy VHS-rips and barely watchable uploads. (By the way, if you want a decent disc of the film, import Arrow's Region 0 release from the UK.) Anyway, the actual movie. "Slaughter High" begins in a high school. Duh. Thirty-six year old Caroline Munro plays a high school student, part of a group of the school's "cool" kids playing a prank on resident nerd Marty Ratzen. Marty is seduced, stripped naked, strapped into a bizarre condom, photograph in the nude, sprayed with cold water, and has his head dunked in a toilet. Afterwards, the gym teacher yells at Marty for being in the girl's bathroom. His humiliation isn't over yet, as another one of the bullies hand him an exploding joint. This goes horribly wrong and the nerd is splashed with acid, deforming his face. A decade later, the same group of bullies are invited back to the now-abandoned hospital for an April Fool's Day party. Predictably, a lunatic in a jester mask begins murdering them in gruesome, contrived ways. Gee, who saw that one coming? The film was produced by Dick Randall, the same man behind "Pieces" and countless other low-budget trash offerings. While "Slaughter High" is neither as sleazy nor hilarious as "Pieces," it comes awfully close at times. Aside from the thirty year olds cast as teenagers, the film is full of ridiculous slasher nonsense. Somebody just drank and acidic soda, their stomach literally splitting open. What is Nancy's first course of action after that? To take a bath in one of the dilapidated building's tubs. Surprise, the tub is full of acid! Her face melts via stop-motion animation. Despite their friends dying left and right, two of the invitees decide now is the best time to have sex. The woman implores the man to talk dirty, leading to him grunting out "T**s!" and "F**k!" The killer drops an activated lawn mower on a victim. The guy never thinks to roll out from under the vehicle. Characters play practical jokes, a rat leaps out at someone, and the creepy old janitor dies first. If you want clichés, "Slaughter High" delivers swiftly with its own demented sense of humor.

The film's hilarious oddness is exacerbated by an unexpected mean-spirited streak. None of the characters are likable. Yes, Caroline Munro's Carol expresses some guilt over the accident, but just a little. Marty, at first, might be a victim. Yet his cluelessness, awkwardness, and overwhelming dorkiness make him hard to root for. The other victims show such astonishing stupidity that they endear no sympathy. "Slaughter High" quickly dissolves into awful people doing awful things to each other.

But a devoted stalk-and-slash fan can find something worth-while in any thing. Honestly, when it comes to grimy, Z-grade slashers, "Slaughter High" is a better example. It's certainly better then, say, "Blood Cult" or "Honeymoon Horror." The empty hallways of the high school provide some decent atmosphere. Directing trio George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, and Peter Litten throw in one or two inventive shot, like a close-up of Marty's hands bursting through a picture of himself or a POV of someone falling from a robe. The kills are ridiculous but quite creative. I mean, any maniac can stab someone, and Marty does, but it takes a real creative mind to melt someone in an acid bath. The final chase sequence goes on for way too long but admittedly hits the horror fan sweet spot for me. The jester mask and letter man jacket combo is actually a pretty cool get-up. When many slasher films were content to stick their killer in a ski mask, that one sticks out. Henry Manfredini's score is pretty terrible but his fans will probably enjoy it.

Ultimately contributing to "Slaughter High's" atmosphere of nastiness is that Simon Scuddamore, the actor playing Marty, committed suicide from a drug overdose not long after filming wrapped. Apparently, he suffered from depression. It's easy to imagine that his character's torment added to his real life depression. The film's thrown together, nonsensical ending features slow-motion murder, self-mutilation, and character's forever stuck in mental anguish. Dude, what a bummer. So "Slaughter High" is not a good movie in any traditional sense. Yet those with a stomach for the stupid, senseless and cheap will find it has an indelible atmosphere all its own.

"Slaughter High" is, perhaps, the most underrated slasher flick of the 1980s. It is one of the few films in the genre that is enthralling throughout. That being said, it also relies heavily on the standard slasher formula: A group of young men and women get killed one by one gruesomely until the final showdown.

The reason why "Slaughter High" stands above most movies in its genre is that it goes more over-the-top. Marty, the killer, has good reason to hold a grudge against his former classmates. They electrocuted him as he stood naked in a girl's locker room shower, jabbed at his crotch with a javelin, and, to top it off, rigged his science lab experiment so it could disfigure him.

So, the victims in this movie are about as unlikeable as you get. When they reunite years later -- at a high school reunion put on by Marty himself -- you realize they haven't matured all that much. They're a bunch of sociopaths.

It is mind-boggling why they would not wonder why they were the only ones to show up to the reunion, which, by the way, is held at a school that has since fell into disrepair. And who would think it's a good idea to drink beer and liquor found in the abandoned building in a room that happens to have their old lockers -- as well as Marty's -- on display? There are many leaps of faith the viewer needs to take to enjoy this film. The ending makes little or no sense. And the screenwriters have a strange understanding of how April Fool's Day works: The movie claims that pranks are no longer allowed after noon.

In all, the movie is one of the best examples of the slasher genre, despite all of its flaws. It is hard to understand why it hasn't yet found its way to DVD, when so many other run-of-the-mill slasher flicks are graced with special editions.

This one is just okay, the setting of the abandoned high school is cool and a lot of the death scenes are creative. But in the other hand, the acting sucks and the characters are two dimensional while also making the stupidest decisions known to man kind. After one of their friends dies they all decide to go to sleep! Who would do that!? I would actually give this a lower rating but the ending gives it some points. Overall it's an entertaining mess of a movie and I kinda like it.

This was a movie that I feel like I saw the cover at the one of the local video stores, but for whatever reason I never checked out. It really took podcasts to hear about it. I will admit though, it wasn't one that really stuck with me though as I came in pretty blind. It was on my list of films to see and decided to check it out as part of Side Quest Podcast. The synopsis is eight people are invited to their old high school for their ten-year reunion where a fellow former student, disfigured from a prank gone wrong, is out to seek revenge.

We start by seeing the outside of a high school. There's a track meet that is about to start and we cut inside. Marty (Simon Scuddamore) is a nerd who believes that he's going to hook up with the gorgeous Carol (Caroline Munro). She takes him to the girl's locker room and he's leery about going in for fear of getting in trouble. She does convince him though. After he strips naked, he learns that it is a prank. It seems to be led by Skip (Carmine Iannaccone), but helping out is Stella (Donna Yeager), Joe (Gary Martin), Frank (Billy Hartman), Ted (Michael Safran), Carl (John Segal), Nancy (Kelly Baker) and Susan (Sally Cross). They're interrupted though by a coach, Marc Smith, who punishes them with detention.

They're quite upset about this, but aren't done yet. A joint is given to Marty to make up for what happened. It seems like there's seeds in it. I've never experienced what he is, but I'm assuming that is what is happening. It pops and causes him to go into a coughing fit. He leaves the room and Skip sneaks away. Marty is doing a chemistry experiment where Skip puts some drops of something into a mixture he's made. It ends in disaster as an explosion happens with Marty being burned by fire as well as by nitric acid.

We then shift 10 years into the future. Carol is now an actress and her agent wants her to be in a horror movie. She declines and states she would rather go to her high school reunion. She isn't the only one that is coming back for it. The whole gang gets back together and goes to the school like the invitation states. The problem is that the school looks condemned. It doesn't stop them from breaking in though.

Things seem quite weird though when they find a room is set up for the crew to party. No one else from the class showed up though. They do find their old lockers have been moved into the room and inside, items of theirs that have gone missing. They also notice that Marty's locker is there as well. As they decide to just party the night out, it takes a dark turn when they start to be killed off. It then becomes a night of terror as they try to figure out what is happening and who is doing this? Is Marty back for revenge?

That's where I want to leave off my recap of this movie and I will say, this is a pretty fun slasher film if I'm going to be honest. It has an interesting concept that Marty was pranked on April Fools' Day. I didn't realize until reading trivia about this movie, it was all filmed in the United Kingdom, but pretending to be the United States. Over there, they stop celebrating at noon which explains a plot point here that I didn't know as we celebrate the holiday all day.

Much like other slasher films, it is a bit slow to start off. We get to see what happens to Marty which I felt horrible for him, to the point where I kind of side with him if he decided to get his revenge. I like though that Skip claims that he's been in a hospital, raving about getting his revenge since it happened. It makes me wonder if Marty is back or is it someone else doing this. We get a reveal at the end that at first I was like okay, but they try to do a twist with it. That I wasn't the biggest fan of as it really just kind of cheapens the movie if I'm going to be honest. It feels like a troupe that was used in something like Nightmare City.

Something that I did like was the back-story, to an extent, of our characters. Carol, who is the lovely Caroline Munro, went on to be an actress. I do like that her agent wants her to be in a horror movie and she rejects it. The reason I find that funny, she is in a horror movie, but did a bunch of them throughout her career. There is an interesting little meta aspect here. None of the characters have amounted to much aside from her and Carl, who is in law school. It really seems like they were cool then, but that was their peak.

This movie though is really back-loaded with the action. It is interesting that a group chat I'm in, someone brought up how slashers aren't that different from slow-burns. We get the initial event, but then really nothing until around the one hour mark. From there it is action packed until it ends. It is also kind of difficult to differentiate who the different characters are as well which is a bit problematic for me when it comes to slashers. They don't do the greatest at making them distinct in my eyes. It really makes it hard when you want to write something like this as they're going off the idea that in slashers, we want to see the kills. The greatest job isn't done in fleshing out and making us connect with the characters, except for me where I'm rooting for the killer if he is Marty.

That's not to say I hated the acting. Even though she was a bit old to be playing a high school student or even the age of the character, I can let it slide with Munro. This is a problem across the board is that everyone looks the same age during the high school scenes to the 'present day'. Anyways, Scuddamore does well at playing his role of the nerd and what we see later in the movie. Iannaccone is solid as well as that jerk character who is just bullying Marty to do it. It might be interesting to flesh him out as maybe give him a reason. I understand why we don't, as to not connect with him or the rest of the characters. They're all fine in their own way, but it is just hard to differentiate. I really didn't have any issues with the acting in general.

That will take me to the best part of the movie, the effects. I think they really did a solid job at putting the time and effort into what was used. They were practical and it feels like they built the movie around what they knew they could do. There's an acid bath scene that was solid, but doesn't make sense as to the set up. An electrocution scene which is really good and it is funny in its build up as well as some stabbings to name a few. I was surprised how well they looked to be honest. Aside from that, the cinematography was solid as well.

The last thing to go over would be the soundtrack. I was shocked to see Harry Manfredini's name. As the movie was going on, I realized that so many of the songs are taken straight from Friday the 13th and that includes musical cues. He did seem to do an original song as the theme here. I like what was used in the movie, but I can't give too much credit since it was just rehashed from the other movie.

Now with that said, this isn't a great slasher film, but I did have fun with it. I like incorporating a holiday into this with April Fools' Day and that would have been the title if not for April Fool's Day getting the rights to the name first. This has a bit of unrealistic concept, but I can let that slide. It doesn't do the greatest job in fleshing out the characters. The acting though was fine. The real bright spot would be the effects though. I did like they had Manfredini, but I'm bummed he really just reused music from a past movie here. I don't think this will appear as one of my tops in the genre, but still a lesser known one that doesn't get talked about a lot in my opinion. My rating here would be just over average.

Producers Steve Minasian and Dick Randall certainly had an extreme flirtation with the slasher genre when it was finding its fortune in the peak years. Their credits include perhaps two of the most bizarre and blood-soaked movies of the early eighties, Pieces and Don't open ‘til Christmas. This was their last joint venture into the kingdom of stalk and slash and it was probably their finest hour. Carolin Munro (that name always makes me giggle, I'm not trying to be Marilyn Monroe sir, Honest!) returns to what she does best… well, gets most work from! Yes, she was the buxom beauty queen stalked by Joe Spinnell in both Maniac and Fanatic and she also made a somewhat brief appearance in the aforementioned Christmas-set hacker. Having discovered a themed-calendar date that had not yet been knifed/slashed/pickaxed, the movie was initially going to be called April Fools Day. But Frank Manucuso Jnr, the producer most famous for his work with the later Friday the 13ths, must've just beat them to the copyright for his flick of the same title. On the cover this claims that it too was from the makers of the Voorhees series, only I'm not quite sure how much truth can be found in that statement. If Minasian did have any involvement at all, it wasn't credited ANYWHERE, which hardly makes him worthy to call himself the ‘maker'.

The premise is even more archetypal than the category it so lovingly frequents. Marty Rantzen is the school nerd that suffers a constant barrage of bullying from a troupe of (middle-aged!) students, which includes the beautiful Carol (Munro) and the joker of the pack Skip (Carmine Lannacconne). He emphasis the fact by wearing a Jester's mask that we know from the off will reappear later for more sinister reasons! As if you hadn't already guessed, one April fools day they go too far and Marty ends up horrendously disfigured and transferred to a loony bin for lifelong imprisonment. You wanted by the book plotting? Well check this out: Five years later, the culprits are all invited to a reunion on their now abandoned campus, but no one knows who planned it (take a guess!). Almost as soon as they enter, the caretaker is nailed to the door by a nut-nut in the Jester's mask and soon they each find curious reasons to wander off and suffer gory deaths at the hands of the masked maniac…

Most of these ‘actors' are as English as the Tower of London, but try to convince us that they're American, which would explain their humorous accents switching between UK and US more times in 85 minutes than British airways do in a year. Cars are given foreign number plates, but there's no disguising the location's obvious English heritage. Ex-Bond babe Munro hasn't improved her characterization since the last time she was stalked by a maniac killer and by 1985, she was looking a little too ‘mature' to be a Hi-school teen. I'd love to know how she managed to wake up early in the morning with perfect hair and make-up too, but hey, I guess we're not supposed to ask questions like that and she did bring some much-needed beauty to the movie. Most of her support were outright first-timers, flat as a punctured tyre with no thread of speech pattern. But Simon Scuddamore and Carmine Lannaccone kept up the camp spirit - if little else. The really obscure thing about Slaughter High was undoubtedly Dick Randall's brief cameo appearance. Surrounded by posters from his previous ‘hits' (hey, there's Pieces!), he proves that his flair for dramatics was even worse than his taste for production.

There's fun to be had in the inventive murders that involve disembowelment by a tractor engine, exploding intestines and death by drowning in a bog of mud! (?) Perhaps the dumbest of the bunch was when one girl decides to take a bath after the blood from her friend's bursting guts sprays all over her face (Well, isn't that exactly what you'd do?) She climbs in the tub and turns on the taps and suddenly the water rushes in to boiling acid. Does she simply step out of the basin to save herself from scalding or does she stay seated until she completely melts into a bloodied skeleton? Yep, you guessed it… Perhaps on this occasion the killer actually did her a favour! Director George Dugdale shows very little potential in his directorial debut. His biggest mistake was relinquishing the usually redeeming stalking set pieces for rushed murders that lack any suspense or tension. His efforts at jump-scares were too slowly framed and he lacks the skill shown in the early additions to the series that he so desperately emulates. The ghost-like apparitions that pop-up as the runtime draws to a close were indeed silly and pointless, but if you keep watching they at least give us an explanation for their needless appearance. Harry Manfredini hasn't so much mimicked his score from Friday the 13th as simply cut and pasted it, which is no real mean feat, but at times it felt as if we were watching a (less competent) sequel instead of a completely different movie.

The most macabre thing about Slaughter High, is the fact that actor Simon Scuddamore tragically took his own life soon after it was released. It's a real shame, because he was probably the most talented guy in the picture. The reason(s) for his suicide are unknown, but watching him play the role with his tongue stuck firmly in cheek and clearly disguising the problems that he may/may not have been suffering at the time, makes his performance look far more credible. It also gives the film a somewhat morbid air of mystery as to why he chose to end his life at a time when he should've been celebrating. What is questionable, is why no tribute was added to the closing credits in memory of the deceased star? Perhaps the reason being that it had already been transferred to video when news of his suicide was announced.

Although it lacks the polish of the flicks it obviously wants to be classed alongside, this is still a great deal of fun. The unrated versions give some visually amusing splatter, even if it's nowhere near as gory as the producer's previous bloodstained offerings. The overall campiness spoils any chance of fear and it's a little too under-written even for a slasher flick, but it does manage to keep interests raised without ever becoming boring and it doesn't take itself too seriously. The net result is a movie that succeeds in doing exactly what it set out to. Have some fun and kill a few deserving victims along the way! It's as routine as brushing your teeth, but it gains credibility for accepting with warm embrace the knowledge that it's nothing more than that.