Les baskets se déchaînent

"Massacre at Central High" is perhaps misleading in its title, which evokes a gore-filled splatterfest, which this film is not. The premise surrounds David, a teenager who transfers to a new high school where the students run wild, and a group of male bullies torment their peers without consequence. The unhinged David begins to murder each of the bullies, but his plan to cleanse the school backfires when those on the bottom of the social ladder take on the same traits as their former dead oppressors.

A weird but memorable entry in the horror genre, "Massacre at Central" high feels like it occurs in a dreamscape or an alternate world. This is largely due to the fact that the film features no "adult" figures to speak of; the bullies torment the students to extreme lengths, and even attempted gang rapes are left unreported and largely up to the students themselves to sort out. "Lord of the Flies" comes to mind, as well as some elements of "Carrie," minus the supernatural edge. This off-kilter universe in which the film orbits lends it a unique and memorable feel.

It's not what I'd classify as a conventionally "scary" film by any stretch of the imagination. It is a horror film, but only in the sense that there are savage murders occurring throughout and that the subject matter is generally dark. The film itself is aesthetically quite bright, boasting a distinctive Los Angeles atmosphere that is laid on thick. Malibu's beaches set the stage for several scenes, and the film feels every bit a "California" production.

Performances from Robert Carradine and Kimberly Beck (who would later become a genre favorite for her role in "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter") are some notable highlights, while Derrel Maury plays the outsider/deranged avenger with an appropriate distance. None of the performances are particularly provoking and are by and large rather bland, but serviceable given the material.

All in all, "Massacre at Central High" is a unique and thoroughly strange film that toes the line between exploitation slasher and thoughtful allegory. It is not a great film and at times feels extremely choppy, but it's a certain oddity and a respectable example of a filmmaker attempting something different. The fact that it predates the slasher by a significant amount of time also makes it an intriguing film on the historical timeline that is worth examining. 7/10.

I always believed "Massacre at Central high" has always been categorized incorrectly. Despite the title, it's not a "horror" film (it's not scary and doesn't fit the mold) and it isn't a true "slasher" film. I always felt that this film was just a great drama, one where the actual killings are secondary to the messages the film has to offer for examination. I really don't like "message" or "deep" films that much, but this one is a rare exception as far as "deep" films go. The great thing about this film is, it doesn't have to be "deep" unless you deliberately look further into it.

This is really quite an intelligent film. It examines social class and status, power and authority, the rebellion and the aftermath of such rebellion. The story is very interesting - David comes to Central High, only to find his old best friend Mark is now a part of a group of four guys that pick on everyone and rule the school. David has a choice, join up or become one of the picked on. David starts showing his disdain for the group, and it's only a matter of time before the group gets fed up with giving David chance after chance, as pleaded by Mark.

David is the leader of the rebellion against the bullies, and when the problem is solved, new ones crop up because there is a void that needs to be filled - the oppressed become the new bullies and it's the start of the same cycle over again.

The examination of such nature, especially seeing the "new bullies" and how they take over the role is fascinating. One of them even buys a car from the parents of the leader of the bullies, the car belonging to their son who David has killed, to even more completely fill the role.

You never see any adults in Central High - this is intentional as the world we are seeing revolves totally around the students. Actually the only time you do see any adults is in the final sequence at the school dance, where they are very zombie-ish and lifeless, Central High being their own futureless living graveyard.

This is definitely an underrated amazing little film. A DVD release would be very much appreciated!

The title might suggest a cheap hybrid of Carrie and Death Wish, but Massacre at Central High is not your typical drive-in movie. Granted it's filled with violence, blood, and nudity, and the revenge angle is quite powerful, but its examination of high-school politics is the element that really gets your brain working.

We've all experienced it--the Jerk Jock gets transferred to another school, and right away someone fills his position as King of the Cretins. Those at the top of the social structure exercise their ultimately negligible powers in order to make themselves feel bigger and better than everyone else. It is this tradition that Massacre at Central High pierces with a razor-sharp skewer.

Unfortunately, the picture is very hard to find in this age of sickening political correctness. A typical knee-jerk reaction would be to say that films like this glorify school violence--currently a big concern. But, as always, that sort of viewpoint is formulated without really looking at the message of the project. Yes, it's violent. Yes, it deals with a teenager killing other teenagers. But ultimately, what does this accomplish? No matter how many are killed, they're immediately replaced. Violence does not solve the problem. THIS is the point, and it's stated with a subtle brilliance that really hits home.

Of course, this underground classic also benefits from a terrific exploitation cast and an imaginative approach to the material. The scratchy, grainy color cinematography has a low-budget beauty that not everyone can appreciate. The melding of professional and amateurish elements results in a genuinely tense, scary experience...but one with much more to offer than your typical psycho epic.

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently.

This is not ur regular slasher movie inspite of the kills happening around a high skool involving teens. The swimming pool kill terrified me then. The film has lots of kills, lil nudity but the best part is the script n the characters.

The theme where the oppressed students take on the role of their bully oppressors really impressed me aft revisiting it now.

After falling foul of a group of bullies at his new high school, promising young athlete David (Derrel Maury) is attacked and severely injured. His near-crippling leg injury leaves him angry, deranged and thirsty for revenge on those who would bully others.

This entertaining and thought-out horror movie is an interesting addition to the horror genre. Unlike many other similar films, ‘Massacre at Central High' spends a relatively large amount of time building up the plot and developing the central characters. It is through this intelligent characterisation that the viewer is positively encouraged to feel contempt for the gang of bullies. In some ways the actual acts of bullying and violence towards other students committed by the central gang are reminiscent of ‘Carrie' (1976), albeit on a much larger scale. Rather than have the torment revolving around one character, the entire school is subjected to often horrific acts and thus they live in fear of the gang that runs the school. While one could easily question the situations that the students continually find themselves in (such as where are the teachers?), the movie raises some questions about how far a group of people will go before someone steps in to halt their actions. In fact, the gang is convincingly portrayed as taking their violence and brutality further each time and even revelling in the new `experiences' that they create for themselves. Although the film is fairly entertaining even when taken at face value, there does seem to be underlying storylines throughout and while the film does indeed suffer somewhat from implausible situations, there is still a lot of enjoyment and thought provoking material that can be found within it.

Unfortunately, there are two main problems with the film. First of all the acting is of a generally low standard. While the performances are by and large tolerable for this type of movie, the limited talents of most of the performers can be somewhat sidetracking, and when an important point is to be made it maybe does not have the impact that it could have were a more talented actor have been involved. However, considering the obvious low-budget of this movie and the apparent effort that was put in by the entire cast, these lapses are forgivable. The second problem with the movie is that it seems to get sidetracked somewhat around two thirds of the way through and the storyline seems to branch off a little too far. While the second part of the story does have merit and tries to be as thought provoking as the earlier story, the movie fails to mesh together all that well. The slow pacing of the second part of the film becomes something of a distraction rather than being an advantage as it was in the first part. Also, the second part of the film turns the character of David into an almost typical slasher villain whereas in the earlier scenes of the film one felt compassion for him and supported his actions, just as one may support the actions of Doc. Collingwood in ‘Last House on the Left' (1972). Although the reason for David's later actions are explained (albeit completely obvious) there is a lack of further character development where an insight into David's deranged mind would have been something of a refinement.

Nonetheless, ‘Massacre at Central High' is still a generally well thought out movie and certainly an enjoyable enough watch. The grainy picture is, in some ways, a perfect addition to the movie although probably accidental. Fans of other revenge-style horror movies should probably enjoy this and it is recommended for those who like a nice, often subtle subtext to their films rather than just straight-forward and rather unimaginative horror. There are flaws with the film but most of those can be overlooked, even when the story seems to be bordering on the completely ridiculous or senseless. Entertaining, thought provoking and with well developed characters – recommended! My rating for ‘Massacre at Central High' – 7/10.