The School

The concept was a good one, and it sounded like one that would be relatable to the viewer. One that sounded like it would be a creepy film with some emotional impact. 'The School' may not have the most exciting of titles, but it did have its premise going for it and was more than willing to look past the poor rating and reviews.

Good news is that 'The School' does have its moments and redeeming merits and it is not a waste of time, didn't find myself severely regretting watching it at least like has been the case with some films recently. While there was a lot wrong with it, 'The School' is a little better than has been indicated (personal opinion of course). The bad news is that 'The School' is not really a good film still and should have done much more with its concept. This is coming from someone who was really intrigued and thought it could be decent if executed well instead of the semi-watchable to lacklustre film it turned out to be.

It does have its slick and atmospheric moments visually, there are far cheaper films out there. The audio is not too obvious and it didn't intrude too much.

Found the acting better than average with a empathetic female lead, apart from moments of over-acting from the younger cast, and the characters at least had some rootable traits and didn't bore or annoy me. There is some unsettling creepiness in the early stages, as well as some emotional impact.

On the other hand, the storytelling does get muddled and confused in the final third especially (although most of the film is vague) and ends feeling incomplete with too much left hanging in the air. The middle also drags quite a lot. The creepiness should have been much more consistent, things do get predictable and the tension and suspense dissipates the duller and more confused the film gets later on.

Will McDonald's performance is uneven, sometimes good but at other points he overdoes it. Similarly the direction has assured moments but also too many pedestrian ones too. The dialogue is a mix of contrived and limp and the editing is too often rather choppy.

Summarising, semi-watchable but didn't quite do it for me. You can do with far worse though. 4/10 Bethany Cox

The thing is that until the plot is fully revealed is kind of confusing. Nevertheless, I have to say that I could see the whole thing thanks to those dark fantasy touches.

I saw a mix of like a lot of film. And as I said at the beginning is confusing because you do not know if you are seeing some kind of post-apocalyptic movie or what.

It is not outstanding but I think it will please more to feminine sensitivities-not only women ones.

This dark fantasy follows a doctor as she travels a graffiti ridden school and encounters strange tribal tattooed children, ghosts, and zombies. The character designs come off as a big gaudy.. but decent. In fact, I feel the same can be said for a number of the films elements such as the acting, the set designs, the characters lines, the story etc. Over the top villains can be very hit or miss... and I feel as Zac's character was a miss. He was very close to something I liked.. maybe he was lacking some more backstory, which could have been subtly sprinkled in. The hospital scenes (in the real world) can be almost completely removed, especially the scene that is a strait rip from the Silent Hill film which had me and my friends sigh at each other. The scenes are not properly utilized to develop any characters or plot devices and only break up the story.. maybe if you shifted all of those to the beginning of the film, used them for character development and a connection to the mothers plight, and had our heroines entrance into the fantasy underworld be a little more unique. Having something like the scene with the mother reading bedtime stories take place at the beginning of the film, only to have Zac repeating those lines to her later might have been more effective than showing the scenes back to back. I am not movie writer though, just a casual viewer so from one viewer to another I say this movie was "almost good".

I went into The School knowing absolutely nothing (The way I like it) but within moments had my concerns that this was not going to be something I'd enjoy.

The reason being is that the movie plays out both in the horror scenario and flashbacks and I immediatly sensed that I knew what was going on, what the twist was and basically had the entire movie mapped out in my head based on similiar titles.

Was I right? Pretty much yeah.

It tells the story of a doctor who wakes up in a bathtub in a mysterious rundown school. She's surrounded by kids led by a lunatic that has them living in fear of him with a host of ludricrous rules. The school and it's perimter is also populated by the undead!

In the real world flashbacks her young son is in a coma and she's doing everything in her power to prevent the powers that be from turning the machine off as it's rapidly approaching two years.

Have you got an idea of what the twist is and where she is in your head? If not I'd be surprised. I've seen several films with essentially an identical plot before but generally they didn't have the kind of budget they did. So could that salvage anything?

Well The School does make best use of this recycled plot to its credit, a couple of the cast were capable and it looks great. Sadly when the finale kicks in and the whole thing is really quite expected it didn't have quite the impact it needed to elevate it beyond mediocrity.

Some nice ideas, but too many unanswered questions and I simply don't like movies of this general premise.

The Good:

Some decent ideas

A couple of standout performances

The Bad:

Been done before

Doesn't meet its potential

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The Littlest Vampire seems to be lost

They whitewashed Katana!

Kinda makes me think of the movie silent hill even tho that movie was better but it makes me think of the knock off of it.