Customer Rating:  
Summary: APRIL FOOOOOLS!!!!!!
Comment: SLAUGHTER HIGH
Take a trip through the halls of horror
There's horrors in the halls...lynching in the lunchroom...
murder in the metal shop. Welcome to SLAUGHTER HIGH where the students are dying to get out!
Marty was the nerd everyone made fun of. All the jocks and pretty girls teased, taunted, and tortured him mercilessly. Things went too far when one of their jokes backfired disfiguring Marty for life!
Its five years later and Marty is throwing a reunion for all his high school "friends"-does he have a surprise for them! The prom queen, the jock, the class clown, the busybody, the rebel, and a few "select" others have all been invited to Marty's gala of gore. Five years ago Marty got mad...now he's gonna get even-in one riot of a reunion!
Starring Caroline Munro, with Simon Scuddamore as Marty, Carmine Iaanacone, Billy Hartman, Gary Martin, Kelly Baker, Sally Cross, Michael Saffran, John Segal, Josephine Scandi, Donna Yeager, Marc Smith, Jon Clark, & Dick Randall as Manny.
A Steve Minasian and Dick Randall presentation
A George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, & Peter Litten film
Music by Harry Manfredini
Director of Photography Alan Pudney
Editing by Jim Connock
Produced by Steve Minasian and Dick Randall
Written by George Dugdale, Mark Ezra & Peter Litten
Directed by George Dugdale
Ok though Slaughter High was a low budget comical slasher film, its still a film to get and watch. The plot of the high school nerd kills his classmate wasn't done like it should have to me. The pranks played on him were mean but isn't that just typical for a nerd to get picked on like that in high school?
But how could anyone trick someone thinking he's gonna lose his virginity with the pretty girl in the girls locker room? Especially since its his birthday on April Fools Day? How mean! Have some kind of sympathy! I guess kids can be really mean to the underdog. The last one they did to him was very cruel backfiring and getting his face burned, though they said it wasn't their fault yes it is!
They drove him mad after that last prank Marty is now pist at them he ain't joking. No more give the nerd a swirly, jabbing him with a javelin, giving him an electric shock, hosing his private parts, all done while on video camera,-cruel if u ask me, now Marty's gonna get even with his classmates. Well the same bullies meet up at a class reunion five years later but someone is waiting for them not for a friendly welcome but a night of gore, revenge is sweet!
The end was ridiculous because I thought it was going to be more than that. Simon Scuddamore played Marty Rantzen the nerd real good, sad that he committed suicide though. I wonder if he was picked on like that in high school? You never know. The music was not even scary it was actually funny. Where did Harry Manfredini find that music at?
George Dugdale I know you could have directed this film better come on now. Why was it shot in England and not America? I thought it was America when I first saw it as a teenager but its actually a British made movie, with most British actors and few American actors like Simon Scuddamore and Marc Smith who played the high school coach. The killings weren't even scary.
You can hear the Friday the 13th music in Slaughter High though. Did the makers of Friday the 13th really produce Slaughter High? I never saw Mark Ezra, Peter Litten or George Dugdale as producers of Friday the 13th. Nor Steve Minasian or Dick Randall's names are mentioned. Only Harry Manfredini who is the music producer of Friday the 13th but no one else.
But anyway I think they should have a remake of Slaughter High and a sequel maybe and folks will like it better. When will this movie be released on DVD? I haven't seen that as yet only copies are available. If they decide to release it on DVD, a tribute to Simon Scuddamore should be made, and the making of Slaughter High. Incase some of you didn't know Slaughter High was originally titled April Fools Day.
Slaughter High aka April Fools Day is not a good horror slasher movie but you can still look at it, not that cheesy like others I've seen. Its the typical revenge of the nerd slasher flick! Pick on the underdog you will get bitten!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Late 1980s b-horror cult fave...
Comment: Was originally supposed to be titled April Fool's Day (watch the flick and you'll understand why), but since another film with the same title came out first, this movie had to go with the more direct 'Slaughter High' (catchy title, eh?). Sort of typical in that virtually none of the actors look young enough to BE in high school, and it has a plotline and concept heavily borrowed from National Lampoon's Class Reunion. A little bit of nudity and some gore here and there, although overall it's more ridiculous and laugh-inducing than scary.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies of all time!!
Comment: ...In fact, it is my absolute FAVORITE only after George Romero's original "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). A bold claim to make, I know, but you know there's something special about a movie that isn't even available and yet has (to date) 42 enthusiastic Amazon reviews. And if reading these reviews isn't evidence that "Slaughter High" is a love it or hate it movie, I don't know what is. And I for one LOVE it.
The slasher movie is considered to be a largely North American phenomenon but alas, the Brits come up with my favorite one of all time. It's as if the writing/directing triple threat of Peter Litten, George Dugdale, and Mark Ezra sensed in 1985 that all of the formulaic cliches of 1981-era slashers had all been done to death when played straight and an entry of a more trashy tongue-in-cheek nature was in order. And they succeeded brilliantly in creating the best one possible.
The opening 20 minutes or so are priceless. I think that anyone who was ever the victim of some type of cruel hazing in high school or middle school will identify with Marty and love this portion. Simon Scuddamore shows comic genius in this role. Even the fact that Marty gets over the initial shower stunt so quickly and seems not to take the haranguing seriously when confronted again by the louts at his locker, shown by the fact that he even accepts their dubious offer for a "wonder joint," keeps with the comic tone of the early part of the film.
This movie is delightfully FUN. It has that raw mid-'80s trash feel of say "Bad Girls Dormitory" (also 1985) that can never be reproduced. Those responsible for the final prank and hence severely burning Marty are invited to a party in their alma mater and that's just what this movie is, one big party in low budget slasher heaven. There is abundant gore, sex, nudity, beer drinking, weed toking, and even harder drug use to boot. (It is assumed that you're viewing the authentic UNRATED version. Accept no substitutes. I myself own a still-sealed VHS copy of it that I will preserve forever, as well as a more common beat-up ex-rental copy to watch.) This movie was a rose among thorns of crowded 1987-era video store horror movie shelves.
It's low budget to be sure, but the gore effects, handled by co-director Peter Litten and his Coast To Coast Productions, are top notch. The killings are so fun; from the grinding splatter via tractor trailer to the belly bursting to the electrocution during lovemaking, this delivers the goods.
And I just LOVE Harry Manfredini's music! It's got that cheesy mid-'80s post-punk synthesizer feel that brings you back to the time this one was made.
And, as a guy, one reason I have to confess that I keep coming back to "Slaughter High" time and time again is because it features perhaps the most beautiful girl in the world, the young British lass Kelly Baker (who appeared in the earlier British slasher "Don't Open Till Christmas" (1984), also a Dick Randall/Steve Minasian co-production). She appears here as nice girl Nancy, and is introduced most prominently about 20 minutes into the movie, when she is picked up by head goofball Skip (Carmine Iannaccone) on the way to the reunion. She is admittedly filled out but is far more beautiful than the anorexic waif models of today. As an American, I adore her quaint British charm and gorgeous golden hair and dazzling smile. If I had the resources, I'd probably start a Kelly Baker fan site.
Finally, some have criticized the ending but I think it shows that the movie is all in good fun and that the killings were not meant to be taken seriously.
It's great to see showings of a relatively obscure slasher like "Slaughter High" turning up today on mainstream outlets like On Demand. I myself first came to appreciate this film when TNT showed it on "Monstervision" (with legendary Texan drive-in critic Joe Bob Briggs) in the late '90s. Will someone just please wake up and give this movie its long overdue DVD release? It truly is a classic.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An unintentionally hilarious treat for lovers of bad horror movies
Comment: Slaughter High has everything you're looking for in a comically bad horror film: a horrible script, a veritable plague of bad acting, terrible cinematography (it's not uncommon for the screen to go completely black for 15-20 seconds at a time), some enjoyable and even halfway creative killings, a little gratuitous nudity (although very little, in the case of this film), and of course a patented "they should have ended the movie five minutes sooner" ending. Slaughter High is also quite informative. Did you know, for example, that April Fool's Day ends at noon?
Let's begin at the beginning. Marty Rantzen (Simon Scuddamore) is a nerd; there can be no doubt about that. I was a nerd in high school too, but Marty is in a league of his own. He actually believes class babe Carol Manning (Caroline Munro) when she leads him into the girls' locker room and tells him she wants to - well, you know. The poor dope. It's just a setup, of course, resulting in one of the most embarrassing moments imaginable. Unfortunately, that's just the warm-up act for Marty on this particular day. The pièce de résistance leaves him physically and mentally scarred for life. A few years later, all of Marty's tormentors return to the school for a high school reunion. Despite the fact that no other classmates show up at the old, abandoned school house, this gang of friends waits outside all day before finally breaking into the building to reminisce, drink, smoke weed, and sniff lines. Like roaches in a roach motel, they check in but they don't check out. For reasons I certainly cannot explain, they find themselves trapped inside the building - and with a homicidal maniac, at that. One by one, they all meet grisly ends as Marty exacts his revenge for what they did to him. A couple of the killings, as I've mentioned, are actually rather impressive - especially given the film's obviously low budget. They are not overly graphic, though, so you don't have to worry about turning away if you're squeamish - and you certainly don't have to worry about feeling any remorse for the victims because they are all as unlikeable as they are shallow. I was rooting Marty on all the way.
Why these dolts don't find one of the school's many windows and break the glass to escape is just one of many oddities in the story. Why, for example, is a custodian still taking care of the place several years after it was abandoned - and why would he be roaming the halls so late on the night in question? Why does the building still have power and water? Why is there a bathtub in the ladies' locker room? Then there's the whole April Fool's Day ends at noon thing. These people actually convince themselves, with no debate whatsoever, that they'll be safe if they can just hold out until noon the next day. This whole noon rule certainly wasn't in effect the day they ruined Marty's life back in high school, as all of those pranks took place after the school day was over. It's almost as if the actors are making things up as they go along - they really say and do some pretty inane things.
As you probably know, there are two kinds of bad movies, and Slaughter House is definitely of the "so bad it's good" variety. It's a definite "must see" for lovers of bad horror movies, and that is the sole reason I'm giving it four stars. One can only hope that the film will finally be released on DVD at some point.
Customer Rating:
Summary: HAHAHA so bad it rocks!
Comment: Don't get me wrong.. This is an awful movie. Me and my buddy were sitting around the house drinking some beers cookin' chili and we watched this movie on On Demand. We laughed and made fun of it all the way through but you can't take a movie like this seriously. It's a good movie to make fun of. I've got to buy right now.
|
