Review of Detention (2012) by Jordan C — 15 Oct 2012

To look at the poster for Detention it would not be unreasonable to jump to the conclusion that it is going to be a low budget, Breakfast Club meets Scream, teen slasher movie, released now to capitalise on Josh Hutcherson's new found, Hunger Games fame. The actual truth is that you couldn't be more wrong because Detention is a film that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the phrase "game changer.".

The film's first big surprise is just whom it has come from. This is director Joseph Khan's second feature film. His first was 2004's Torque, a film which managed to achieve almost incomprehensible levels of awfulness. Something must have happened to Khan in the intervening seven years though because Detention is one of the most clever, intricately plotted, well written films to come along in a long while.

To write a story synopsis into this review will not get over any of what watching Detention can but here goes, merely to fill in a few gaps. Riley is a school oddball as Grizzly Lake high who lusts after Clapton, who is going out with her former best friend Ione. At the same time, a killer taking the guise of a horror movie character called Cinderhella is going on a bit of murderous rampage with Riley their number one target. That doesn't sound like much of anything new but it's really only scratching the surface of what becomes a vast tale of end of the world type proportions. Khan has constructed a multi-layered movie that will have fans of the complexity that Donnie Darko presented us with rolling around in delight.

And with laughter too possibly as Detention is a very witty film too. Using a multitude of on screen graphics and a frantic pace, Khan's script delivers classic lines hand over fist. It's the kind of writing that makes you feel you want the film again almost immediately to see which ones you might have missed but also to try and memorise a few to make yourself look cool on Twitter. We've had so many films now that have routed themselves in 80s culture that it's all getting a bit old. Detention is one of the first to move on to the 90s and celebrate that decade instead. Turns out there was plenty to poke fun at there too. Khan doesn't stop at the 90s though. Detention takes on a whole bunch of noughties quirks leading right up to date with the obsession of watching downloadable material on phones.

It helps that Khan has managed to find himself a great leading actress. Shanley Caswell as Riley Jones is both super cute and hysterically hyperbole, yet she makes us believe that everything she doing is what her character would do. Josh Hutcherson plays Clapton with a laid back wit and some dreadful wardrobe too, while Dane Cook's school principle is a real treat.

Detention is a very unique film. Khan has made a name for himself since Torque in music videos and their three minute storytelling feel is all over his film. It moves at such a fast pace that unless you're ready for it, chances are you will hate the movie. So please, be ready because the reward is so worthwhile. This year has already seen one game changing movie in the shape of Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods. Now, we have two.