Bad Kids of Crestview Academy

I've long been of the opinion that actors take roles in horror films because they can go to town acting outrageously and never be accused of overacting. Maybe doubly so for young actors in these teen flicks.

In Bad Kids From Crestview Academy five of them get detention in the library, but as that famous Red Buttons song went, 'strange things are happening'. Someone is out to kill these kids in a most gruesome manner.

Crestview is an expensive prep school for rich juvenile delinquents and the rich and famous pay dear for little Johnny or Jane to go there and gain that all important high school diploma.

The film starts out like the Breakfast Club but it turns into a gory version of Ten Little Indians.

In fact the gambit that failed for the murderer in the Agatha Christie classic succeeds quite well here. If you care to watch, if these movies are your cup of tea, you'll see what I mean.

Amazon was pushing 'Totally Killer' on me, and I couldn't make it through that one either. This one also appears to be targeted towards the 14-34 female, um, let's say "Velma" demographic, so I'm probably not the audience they're going for. I guess I was expecting more of a "Disturbing Behavior" type movie, but BKoCA is more like a spoof of a horror movie than it is a horror movie.

That being said, it's a horny/gory teen comedy that leans heavily on current-day tropes which won't make sense in the future, so if you hadn't heard of this movie before, then you probably won't hear about it again. It employs levels of acting and writing that you would see on The CW. The camera work and audio is well done.

This was made for a pretty specific group of people, so if you're in that group you'll probably love it, but otherwise you deserve a medal for making it through the first hour.

PS- I saw someone else mention that it has themes of "And Then There Were None", but implying that these writers read Agatha Christie is giving them way too much credit. I could see if maybe they watched a YouTube video summarizing the film adaptation.

.... which, depending on your POV, may or may not be a compliment.

Here is the scoop -- there is a theory in the biz that if you deconstruct enough films in the same script, you may possibly trigger a paradox in the (Hollywood) time-space continuum, Star Trek style, and end up with a film which is actually a legitimate successor to the genre you were trying so hard to satirize.

Which is what I think happened here.

Ben Browder seems to have learned a LOT of valuable lessons from his first "Bad Kids" attempt -- just a rambly B movie which gained cult status because of some clever tropes -- and came back with a film which (I kid you not) has a remarkably tight script, good performances and good production values.

Which is not to say that the Coen Brothers are nervous, far from it. But the script is so interesting (with sly hints of Scream, Friday the 13th, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and even No Country For Old Men) that it actually engages and holds the attention.

And Sammi Hanratty gives what can best be called a bravura performance, biting into each line of dialogue and each piece of mayhem like she actually believes what she is saying ... like her career depends on it (which it probably DOES!) ... and essentially picks the film up and carries it to the finish line.

Gina Gershon does little more than offer a parody of herself, but her character ironically provides a "political angle" to the film which conveniently comes at a time when the world at large is starting to see politicians as potentially more dangerous than serial killers.

Recommended. And I predict there will be more in the series.

Four years earlier, a psycho rampage occurred during detention at the Crestview Academy. Siouxsie (Sammi Hanratty) forces her way into detention to investigate her sister's death and exact revenge. Joining her in detention are "Latin Spice" Brian Marquez, "Cat Lover" Sara Hasegawa, "Mr Clean" Blaine Wilkes, and "Preacher's Daughter" Faith Jackson who are connected to the party where Siouxsie's sister died. Once again, it ends in carnage and destruction with Siouxsie wielding a flamethrower.

So.... That happened. Sean Astin walks into a sex scene. That's this movie. The 'kids' are younger this time and I don't know if it helps this sex-obsessed high school murder drama. Ben Browder is directing this time and he's trying to be funny. Sammi is a solid lead but the other girls struggle to play dumb. The guys are bland. The main issue is that the humor isn't funny. It's weak grade school humor where Drake Bell is a computer sex fiend. It's a bunch of ridiculous dark humor which is suppose to be funny just because it's ridiculous. This needs a comedic writer to make one more pass at the script.

Although I am not a huge slasher fan I enjoyed most of the ones I saw (such as the SCREAMs and the I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) and don't mind to watch them just for increasing the numbers of movies seen with actors I love. And although I have never seen BAD KIDS GO TO HELL I was very curious about its sequel after seeing it as a Youtube suggestion, and I ended up enjoying it.

At Crestview Academy there is the strange issue that when the students are put in detention end up slaughtered but this time five kids want to know what's really going on and try to stop this massacre, and things become serious after a student throws herself to her death on headmaster Nash's (Sean Astin) car. After some deaths, our heroes will do everything they can for stopping this madness also with the help of the headmaster and his daughter during a mid-credits scene.

As I have never seen BAD KIDS GO TO HELL I had to read the plot and reviews first and they helped me a bit. But I still liked this slasher because it reminded me of the classics of the genre I love and there were lots of twists and turns, and also lots of entertaining moments involving Astin, and the teen actors were surprisingly good.

Not to be missed for slasher fans, and overall, very entertaining and funny.