Detention

This particular movie has pretty much every cliché you could expect from a supernatural slasher, but somehow it works. The generic hero, his girlfriend, his quirky friend, the goth, the jock, the cheerleader type, and a nerd get detention for various reasons. Not surprisingly, they find themselves locked in.

Not surprisingly, there turns out to be the ghost of a nerd killed in a furnace years ago comes back seeking revenge. It happens that they're all connected through past events.

While terribly clichéd, the movie seems pretty spooky in a Halloween spookhouse kinda way. I know I'm making it sound boring, but somehow it works. Maybe the thunderstorms help the atmosphere. I don't know. But I was enjoying it considerably more than i probably should have!

Detention (2010)

* (out of 4)

Really bad horror film starts off in 1976 as a bunch of jocks play a prank on a nerd and sure enough it goes wrong and the nerd dies in a fire. Flash forward to the present day when a group of kids find themselves in detention and the ghost of the nerd comes back for revenge. Yawn. DETENTION is a really bad, really boring and really stupid little movie that doesn't have too much going for it. The best thing you can say about the movie is that the producers paid some extra money to get David Carradine to show up for a few scenes. This would eventually be released after his death but the few minutes seeing him is the only thing this movie has going for it. The rest of the movie you'll have a hard time finding something good to say. The opening prank features the nerd being put into a device, which lightening strikes and soon he catches on fire. The CGI fire is among the worst you're ever going to see and I can never figure out why if something looks this poor the filmmakers just don't try and shoot it in a different way. Things do get worse though. When the "revenge" aspect of the story starts not a single bit of it makes any sense. There are certain things alluded to but these never really play out and they're certainly never explained. I'm not sure why the spirit waited 24-years to seek its revenge and I'm not sure how these certain kids got picked to be in detention at the same time. As you can probably guess, the kids are "connected" to the events of the past and are having to pay with their lives. The screenplay leaves so many questions unanswered you really start to wonder if there was any attempt to really tell a story. Even worse is how stupid all of the characters are. It seems as if they are all doing something that doesn't make much sense including a rich brat and a gangster who seem to find time to flirt, act, mess around and just have a good old time even though they're being stalked by a killer ghost. There are other couples and stereotype characters who are just downright annoying and the role that the new teacher plays is just a joke. The entire set-up makes very little sense and in the end the movie adds up to very little. DETENTION is a pretty awful movie all around and the only reason someone would have to watch it is to see David Carradine but I'd recommend you go watch BOUND FOR GLORY instead.

Stuck in a high school detention class during a torrential rain-storm, a group of friends find themselves subjected to a series of ghostly visits and incidents in an attempt to seek retribution for a past incident involving their parents and try to get out before they're all killed off.

This one turned out to be a pretty nice haunted-school style ghost film. What works best here is that it's filled with a ton of clichés but never really manages to make them noticeable until pretty late in the film. That the school location is actually pretty creepy and manages to hold a place of suspense is a bright spot here, as it comes off as a perfect spot for ghostly activity and makes for some good times with it stalking the group throughout the grounds. There are some problems, though, in that the reason for possession in most cases goes unexplained when a twist late in the film makes it totally worthless as well as taking way too long in it's set-ups when they tease something only to not deliver as well as not come through on the kill, making some scenes seem to last forever yet the film is really quite brief. Overall, though, it's really not that bad.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

the two stars is because I'm feeling kind. I first wanted to watch this from seeing a preview where it looked like a satire on the teen slasher genre. Instead what we are served with is an incomprehensible plot (even by the ghost wanting revenge premise)It starts out promising enough with prank gone wrong in the past cliché' then fast forward to the present and it goes downhill from there.

We get the typical stereotyped students a la' the Breakfast Club, a mysterious teacher who we all know, she knows more than she's letting on, a mix of possessed student and murdering spirit, also a tarnished memory of Carradine by appearing in this dredge of a flick.

The effects were bad even for the budget- more reminiscent of early Syfy channel stuff. the plot which could have been good, became a convoluted mess. I took me some patience to get through this movie, the boredom and just waiting for the GD end can make one border on the suicidal. in short it's not worth watching even to mock(unlike such treasures as Troll2) unless you're brain dead, don't waste your time.

If there was "zero" - i'd give it. Definitely I will remember it as one of the worst I've ever seen. Very simple plot made by mixing others. In one sentence: "Ghost of accidentally killed boy comes back after 30 years and revenges..." - I was excited by such plots when I was 8 or 10 maybe - and really there's nothing else: no sense, no reflections, no aim. In 2010 one can expect better special effects than shaking heads and a lot of darkness to cover imperfections. Scary movie? - not in any possible way, "scooby doo" is more scary. This movie should be an example what to do to avoid making a serious faux pas in directory and scenario.