Horror 101

Some students are taking a psychology class called Horror 101; it's unclear what the class is about - it's right near finals and they're just touching on some phobias in a discussion, and mainly they seem to be dealing with serial killers. This is one of at least a few horror movies set around a horror-themed college course, After Midnight (1989) and Urban Legend (1998) being a couple others that come to mind.

The teacher (Bo Derek) is decidedly weird. She has a nice collection of horror-themed assemblage artwork by Susan Tibbles in her office (also seen during the opening credits). The teacher tells the nerdiest student, a would-be criminal profiler, about a serial killer who was freed on a technicality and has him do his final project on that. She gives a suggestion for a project to the surliest student (Justin Urich) also, but we don't hear what. Urich played a somewhat similar character in Serial Killing 101.

The night of finals, some of the people that should be there are missing. Most of the movie's running time seems to be spent on them looking for the missing people, while more of them disappear.

There are some things about the movie that are silly. This university has guard dogs, for some reason, and this keeps the students from leaving the building. One of them says about the dogs that he can lure them away from the others since "they can't be in more than one place at once!" Well, sure they can: THERE'S FOUR OF THEM! Ay-yi-yi.

There is a little suspense in the movie, since it's unclear if the disappearances are a part of someone's project, or if there really is a killer, and if there is a killer, then who. Although, everybody guessing who the killer might be, if there is one, would probably pick the same person.

The movie is available on DVD with Horror 102, and Museum of the Dead. Even if they're all just so-so, it's a good bargain.

When I first saw the commercial on TV for this movie I thought, "Oh, this is gonna be really boring." But, I watched anyway and boy was I surprised. It was actually pretty good. There was suspense throughout the entire movie. It also kept you guessing who did it right up until the end. I'd recommend this movie to those who like suspense and like to guess who did it all through the movie. In other words, people like me.

If you're looking for a movie to pull your own MST3K on, this is a good one. Horror 101 airs on the Sci-Fi Channel from time to time, yet their is no "science fiction" in it. You can't take anything seriously because every part of the movie either tries to hard (the pictures in Miss James's office looks like rejects from the Se7en art direction department) or tries too little (all the students utter "What's wrong with you?" AND "You idiot!" at least once, maybe more). The characters are glaring stereotypes, which could have been effective if it got us thinking about the characters one way and then suddenly turned the tables on us. But instead, no tables are turned and the characters are devoid redeeming qualities. The pudgy guy in black is the loner weirdo, the student in the glasses (which, by the way, don't have any LENSES!) is another possible suspect because he's the typical repressed nerd. But the jock is a bit of a hot head, so we could suspect him of foul play, blah blah blah...

There are so many questions to ask, but I suggest that you don't because it makes your head hurt. Why would a university not cancel a course after most of the students dropped out, leaving only eight left in the class. Seems like a waste of money. And WHY does this university have guard dogs out at night, for goodness sake? Are none of the students allowed to walk around campus after the sun goes down? If you've ever been on, seen, or just heard of a college campus, you know that people are out at night!

The most annoying things about this movie is its crappy soundtrack that gets played WAY too often and the fact that the writers wrote about a page of dialogue and just found different ways of rewording it to fill the 2 hours. That said, this is a good one to make fun of with a few friends. It good even for the squeamish, because there's NO HORROR AT ALL in it. This is the Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai of horror movies.

Floyd: That's a stupid place for a hole in the stage.

Jake: (like he's an idiot for not knowing) IT'S TO SERVICE THE HYDRAULIC LIFT!

Allison: You dork!

Wow this movie was so bad it's good, but also had decent mood and atmosphere... Obviously a Scream knock off because the main girl who plays "Allison" in this film also plays a restaurant waitress is Scream 3, Lisa Gordon ...SHE WAS THE WAITRESS IN SCREAM 3 FOR 5 SECONDS TO SERVE DEWEY AND GALE WEATHER'S THEIR DRINKS...but, In "Horror 101" she's serving up decent acting and BIG ol bootyyy! AND I wouldn't mind serving Dewey and Gale their drinks in the Scream 3

Wooden acting, (as usual, Ms. Derek?) over acting or just plain bad acting...a lame plot full of more holes than a slice of swiss cheese. These are a few of my _least_ favorite things.

I mean, c'mon, people! This was done in 2000. 2000!!

It played, and in fact I thought it was, something from the lost eighties. I did notice, however, that of the three writers, this is the only credit for two of them. The third writer has a whopping TWO credits. Can't wait to see what this dream team can do once they get out of junior high.

Rounded out with an all star cast, this one is IN THE CAN!

The trash can.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go put Scary Movie in the VCR.