31 days of Halloween: Slaughter High

Slaughter High is a 1986 slasher-horror film written and directed by George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, and Peter Litten.

Slaughter High is a film I first saw a few years ago at the Washington Psychotronic Film Society, a fantastic organization that shows some very obscure and zany films ranging from horribly bad comedies to little known or largely forgotten horror films. This is one of those horror films that, well, everyone forgot about.

The film is about a group of post-graduate high schoolers (played largely by people in their late twenties and mid-thirties (Caroline Munro, who was I believe 35 in this film). They used to treat their classmate Marty Rantzen horribly. They would play pranks on him and treat him like garbage. The problem here is Marty was a loser, and was either oblivious to most of the hazing from his classmates or he had just gotten so used to it it didn't phase him.

Unsuspecting Marty ends up smoking a joint (full of poison or something along those lines) using one of the science lab's Bunsen burner (real smart). He gets sick and the kids play a trick on him by adding chemicals to his experiment to cause an small mishap when he proceeds with his experiment. Well Marty returns, and what do you know, his experiment is a bust, and woops, a jar of acid that was not secured very well falls and shatters in front of him, spraying his entire face and body.

Years later they all are invited to their High School reunion. The entire gang shows up, and soon realizes they're the only ones there. Unfazed by that suspicious situation, they all break into the school - which appears abandoned - another thing to be suspicious at which none of them appear to be.

The gang finds a party all set up just for them. The problem is, it's April Fool's Day - and they're about to be punked.

The film is silly, and the characters are mind bogglingly stupid. Who has sex after one of their friends dies in front of them? Who jokes around after one of their friends dies in front of them and then it becomes clear they're unable to get out of the house? Who pranks someone who's using dangerous chemicals? Ah, stupid people in movies that just deserve to die. That's who.

On a side note, Simon Scuddamore, who plays the film's slasher, committed suicide shortly after the film's release.

The music is epic.

** out of *****