Review of Bad Kids Go to Hell (2012) by Jesse O — 19 Aug 2014

It's OBVIOUS that this is a horror film inspired by Breakfast Club. They even went out of their way to cast Judd Nelson, one of the main characters of Breakfast Club. Of course, the twist is that there's some supernatural goings-on here that add a little wrinkle so that it isn't a shameless ripoff.

It's definitely paying tribute to that film I think, even if it borrows the setting and the fact that it follows six characters from dysfunctional families. But that's where the similarities end.

Unfortunately, however, the movie never really clicks. It's just all over the place tonally. It's not funny enough to be a comedy, nor is it gory, or scary enough, to be a horror. All this would be fine if the film had some campy laughs, which it does, but not nearly enough of them to make truly justify watching it.

The plot is a bit of a mess with the final reveal of why everyone was in detention being a bit silly and hard to believe. The inkblot tests, otherwise known as the Rorschach tests, triggered a response in each of the students that made them do something beyond their control.

I thought it was a little silly, but it is what it is. Like I mentioned, the film doesn't really find a consistent tone to follow through on, so it's really jarring to go from comedy, to horror, to camp, to social commentary.

At least the film attempts to have something underneath all the silliness, since it focuses on the plight of Native Indians, I refuse to call them Native Americans, they were forced out of their lands and killed by the pilgrims and you want to name them after the people that killed them AND stole their land? I refuse to do that.

Anyway, there's a bit of that and the film goes about it in a funny way because there's this constant reminder that, as much as the school/library has a Native Indian theme, there are, in fact, no Native Indians to speak of in the film.

Prior to the prom Tricia is chosen, or choose to dress herself as, an Indian princess, despite the fact that she very likely does not have an Indian in her. So, at least, the film has something deeper at its core, even if the themes don't always really work.

The story also goes to some dark places as it sees the parents of these kids set their own kids up to die in order for their involvement in a pretty shady deal to not be revealed. The film is, very obviously, cheaply made.

You can see that from the special effects in the film. But it has some bright spots, Judd Nelson has some funny lines calling a physically handicapped kid a retard, but there's not enough of this to make the film work.

This would've been better off as a short movie if I'm completely honest. It's certainly got a good idea but the execution is an absolute utter mess. I'm sure the comic/graphic novel is much more of an improvement over this.

I just think that its ideas and characters would be better developed. This is a bit of a mess, with cliched characters, but it's got a good concept and some pretty decent moments, so it's not as much of a disaster as my review makes it out to be.