meddlecore An old gang of highschool bullies- responsible for a humiliating series of pranks-gone-wrong that saw the school nerd get horribly disfigured in a fire- are invited back to town for their ten year highschool reunion.However, it seems like they are the ones getting pranked this time...because when they show up, the whole place is locked down, and there is no one to be seen.They manage to break in, but can't break their way back out...and now they're dropping one by one...What starts off like a low budget Breakfast Club ripoff...quickly takes a twisted turn in the direction of American Horror Story: Cult.There are some great kills in this! While they are lacking in the gore and special effects departments, they make up for it with sheer cleverness and imagination.The whole thing seems to be a bit of an homage to Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse...as there is an identical kill. Not to mention, they are confined to a house- laden with boobytraps- from which they cannot escape...as they are picked off one by one...more or less the same concept.However, this film has a triple twist at the end- which switches things up a bit, and sets itself up for a sequel (that never came to fruition).Originally, it was supposed to be called April Fool's Day- but Fred Walton's film beat them to the punch, so they were forced to rename it.however, this cult gem- from first time filmmakers George Dugdale, Mark Ezra & Peter Litten- is wonderfully twisted! Despite the (at times sketchy) American accents...this is a British feature...that feels a lot like a Frank Hennenlotter flick.6 out of 10.

Uriah43 This movie begins with a nerd named "Marty" (Simon Scuddamore) being maliciously pranked by several students at his local high school. Yet when they are caught and subsequently punished, rather than being contrite and apologetic, two of them decide to continue their harassment of him. Unfortunately, their joke goes much too far and as a result Marty is hurt and seriously disfigured because of it. Years later they go to their 10th high school reunion and soon discover what it feels like to be on the other end of a bad joke gone wrong--and Marty has no sense of humor. Now rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie turned out to be pretty much what I expected in that it followed the standard format for slasher films produced during this period. Unfortunately, unlike some of the earlier films of this type, it suffers from a rather predictable plot and weak ending. To it's credit, however, it certainly benefits from the presence the beautiful Caroline Munro (as "Carol") and to a lesser extent that of Josephine Scandi (as "Shirley"). Even so, that simply wasn't enough for me to rate this film any higher than I have. Slightly below average.

Aaron1375 Watched this film on a collection with some other horror movies. Not like the collections where you get 50 public domain horror films, the ones on here are a bit more mainstream. They are not all that great mind you...just more mainstream. This one is the second film I have viewed in this collection. Last year I watched "The Unholy" which is also on this collection. Yes, I said last year...I am very behind on my movies and video games at the moment thanks to a stint on third shift at work. Well this one had some good kills, but unfortunately, it makes a whole lot of mistakes and these mistakes doom this film to being just another bad, but tolerable to watch horror film. Happens all the time, I think I am going to watch a horror film that is going to be pretty good, but then it goes in a wrong direction or something.The story starts with a bunch of high school kids pulling a very cruel series of pranks on a nerdy guy. Of course, this was par for the course in those days, as there was not a multitude of anti-bullying movements back then. Things were a lot rougher, but these days bullying consists of calling a pretty girl various names and thus it generates more outrage. Basically, popular kids could dish it out, but these days are proving they cannot take a much weaker bullying. Back on topic, well the nerd gets scarred and we flash years later where the obnoxious friends are going to their class reunion where they find a deserted school and no other students other than themselves (all the ones in on the prank). Soon, someone is stalking them...could it be Marty, the kid they not only humiliated, but also disfigured? Yes...basically the most obvious killer ever.The film tries to be funny, but for the most part the comedy did not really work for me. With about 15 or 20 minutes left in this one they seemed to ditch any attempts at comedy...they also didn't seem to know how to end their film. The only saving grace of this one are a few good kills. About 40 minutes into this one I was wondering if there were going to be any kills as no one had died yet, but finally the kills come fast and furious. To fast and furious as we are left with one girl all too quickly considering we were 40 minutes in before we had kill number one! The highlights both involve acid and both are nasty. A pretty good lawnmower death too, but it could have been messier.The film has enough in it to prevent a person from being bored. It is entertaining in a way, just tried to be too clever in parts and not clever enough in other parts. A nice couple of kills just cannot save this one as Marty roams the halls of his old high school to get his revenge as they just do not seem to know how to end a horror film from a certain point in time up till now. The best ending to a horror film I think I have seen is in Vincent Price's, "House On Haunted Hill". It ended in a satisfactory way, it did not try to confuse a person or say, "It was all a dream." Which to me is more like, "Screw you...this is the only thing we could come up with."

happyendingrocks Slaughter High is one of those slasher offerings that pretty much announces with its name that we're dealing with a very specific kind of movie. We have to give the film-makers extra credit for basically summing up the film in the title ("Slaughter" at a "High" school pretty much covers it), but in most other aspects, this derivative little gem gets a failing grade.This isn't to say Slaughter High isn't an entertaining romp, and its ineptness certainly creates the atmosphere for an enjoyably brainless splatter film. Every element fans of C-grade slasher films could hope for is here: atrocious acting, gratuitous nudity, several bloody murders, etc. What it's missing is anything resembling horror, and unless you're viewing this film as a comedy, the rewards are fairly meager.The generic plot is launched when a high school prank gone awry leaves a maliciously tormented geek named Marty hideously disfigured. We can't help but feel for the kid, and it's hard to tell why he is so unfairly singled out, since if you took his glasses off he wouldn't look any nerdier than the rest of the cast (his outcast status is especially strange since the popular quarterback character is named Skip). Ten years later, Marty stages his revenge by inviting the responsible parties to a reunion. When the clueless twenty-somethings arrive for the fête, they discover that their high school is now abandoned and condemned, at which point they do what any sensible group of adults would do: They break in to the building and proceed to get blitzkrieg drunk. This is where the fun begins in earnest, and I don't think you'd be reading this if you didn't already know that they're going to get hacked off one by one (no, "Slaughter High" is not a metaphorical title).This band of victims not only eschews making sensible decisions to save themselves, they seem to actively seek out being murdered. When the collective discovers with absolute certainly that they are being stalked by a sadistic killer, there are six of them left standing, yet instead of sticking together they still opt to wander off alone and greet their fates with open arms. Two particularly unfettered attendees break away from the group to have sex (because nothing stirs the libido like watching someone's guts explode out of their belly and finding the body of a friend whose flesh has been completely deleted by acid). Conveniently, despite the locale they find a bed to cozy up in, and we start to realize that this is one of the most progressive and accommodating high schools in the country. This seems to be confirmed earlier in the film when one of the girls wanders into one of the locker rooms to take a bath (because high schools are apparently routinely equipped with bathtubs).One of the best nonsensical leaps in the film is the assertion by one of the characters that "April Fool's Day ends at noon" (Wait... Are you sure, dude?). He's so convinced of this, in fact, that his entire survival plan involves merely holding up until then, at which point, ostensibly, the killer will leave them alone. Even better, once this is established it becomes the mantra of the remaining survivors.If you catch the unrated version, some of the deaths supply some fairly graphic gore, the best bit in the film being a particularly sadistic bit of tractor blade trickery. Other kills make zero sense, such as one that befalls a latecomer, in which the entire set-up is dependent on us believing that when Marty was preparing his cycle of revenge, he had the forethought to enlarge one of his high-school photos (a full body shot, mind you) to poster size and cover a door with it.The silly jester mask Marty wears throughout is by far one of the lamest articles of killer garb you'll find in the genre, and when the film-makers try to use the sound of the jingling aluminum balls on the tips of his crown to summon suspense, this is invariably a lost cause.Much of the music in the film is brazenly lifted from the Friday The 13th franchise (I don't mean it SOUNDS like it, I mean they literally re-used that same music), but the song that adorns the opening credits and repeats several times during the film is an original beast all its own, and it must be heard to be believed.Further supporting my assumption that all of the characters in Slaughter High actually want to be killed, the lone survivor's final showdown with Marty reaches a new high point of idiocy. When our heroine comes face to face with the man responsible for murdering no less than 9 of her friends, she hits him twice with a baseball bat... then drops the bat at his feet and runs away. A few moments later, when she manages to wrestle a spear from him, she throws him to the ground... then drops the spear at his feet and runs away.The final twist is particularly stupid (blatantly lifted from Maniac, which Caroline Munro also starred in, strangely enough), and the film ends with a resounding thud. Although, to be fair, nothing we've seen in Slaughter High up to this point seems to suggest that there's going to be a sensible conclusion, so perhaps the ending is perfect in the scope of this movie.Such a ludicrous outing can only rightfully be recommended for the most forgiving fans of '80s splatter. There were certainly worse films than this made during that very prolific era, but even the marginally effective offerings of the period provided something more than a noteworthy scene or two. Slaughter High isn't quite bottom of the barrel, but it definitely has the bottom in sight.