Review of F (2010) by Kriss T — 02 Aug 2013

A group of teachers must defend themselves from a gang of murderous kids when their school comes under siege after hours.

I have been waiting a ridiculously long time to see this film when it was originally called F, which was more than 3 years ago! The film was finally released On Demand this year, which made me very excited and the wait was not really worth it but the movie still turned out to be pretty good.

The film starts with a high school teacher Mr. Anderson, whose daughter Kate is also in his class, handing out passing and failing papers to students. One male student in particular gets upset and angry with him for giving him a failing grade, resulting in the student punching Mr. Anderson. The teacher clearly gets shaken by this and is forced to take three months vacation to avoid being sued by the parents of the student. Robert is affected by the incident and a couple of months later; he is emotionally disturbed, alcoholic and separated of his wife Helen. The daughter Kate moves in with the mom and is now distant and angry with the dad.

Mr. Anderson comes back to work and is now looked down upon, with staff upset over a mass email he sent regarding school violence. On the first day back he doesn't have the command he once had, making it a struggle and easy target for students. While he was teaching someone throws a huge wad of paper at him, which triggers his emotions on that day the student attacked him. He goes down the aisles to find out who did it, while the students giggle including his daughter Kate, he turns to her and sees she is reading a magazine and makes her do detention with him after school.

From there she is very upset with him and when she is in detention with him they have a heated argument and he slaps her across the face and she storms off. All the while sadistic hooded youths stalk the employees once the sun sets, slowly killing them one by one in a gruesome fashion.

This one comes close to being this year's Them but there were several plot holes and not enough scares to equal or surpass that film. It is though a terrifying film that is purposively based on a true story. The film has several suspenseful cat and mouse chase and stalk scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat. The film is simplistic in its delivery, going for what you don't see is more terrifying approach, which I dug, but it does have its share of brutal moments and reveals. I thought they took advantage of the school setting, which I always think is a good setting for a horror film especially a slasher. Makes you never want to stay at school after hours again. The could have been much longer with a much better ending, with more fight back action, because it ends on a very anti climatic note, and if it wasn't for the ending it could have been a great slasher than a pretty good one.

The performances were pretty good with David Schofield giving a gripping performance as Mr. Anderson and Eliza Bennett giving a solid performance as Kate Anderson, who both get trapped in the building and fight for survival and a way out that to brings them closer together. Like most slashers the other characters didn't really stand out and were pretty much there to be killed and weren't developed that much at all, but Roxanne McKee, who plays Nicky sure is eye candy, she has though the most shocking and nastiest death of all of them.

Director and writer Johannes Roberts is off to a pretty decent start as a director and I have yet to see Storage 24, which is his latest film but it is definitely now on my list of movies to see after my experience with this one. He knows how to handle suspense and atmosphere and makes the viewers use their imagination on what's happening and about to happen than getting in our faces with gore and scares. It felt like an old school slasher film before torture porn and that's what I liked about this movie, the restraint. The writing on the other hand could of been better and seemed rough and rushed with plot holes, he should of repolished the film and delivered a better ending with the three long years of waiting for distribution, but that's just me. He has a lot of potential though of being a horror director to look out for in the future.

Overall, The Expelled isn't a flawless slasher film, but through most of it I was intrigued and on the edge of my seat, and is one of the very few slashers that is relevant and could actually happen, making it a mostly effective film. The performances are better than most slasher, but the development of characters and story needs some retooling. It is though one of the better slasher films I've seen recently that's worth a recommendation and at least one viewing. 6.9 out of 10.