Review of Massacre at Central High (1976) by Paul F — 21 Sep 2004

The two kids (or possibly three, depending on who you believe) who shot up their classmates in Columbine a few years back have a lot to answer for, and not just the deaths of some of their peers. Thanks to them, there's this overwhelming idea that schools are suddenly terribly violent places and that any given glee club meeting could instantly erupt into an explosion of bullets. Good going, guys. You've ruined it for everyone else.

Of course, schools have always been violent places, and filmmakers have been making movies about school violence ever since 1955's [i]The Blackboard Jungle[/i], generally regarded as the first major "teen" movie. Mark Lester's [i]Class of 1984[/i] (made in 1982, and taking place in the then-"near future") is essentially a pure exploitation variant of the earlier film, with punks, or at least the studio equivilant thereof, in place of tough-talking, leather-jacket wearing juvenile delinquents.

Perry King plays Mr. Norris, a new music teacher at a school that's essentially controlled by a gang of punks headed by future "Master Ninja" Timothy Van Patten. Van Patten begins tormenting Norris, even harassing his wife, but Norris can't do anything because he never gets proof. Science teacher Roddy McDowall and bright-eyed teen Michael J. Fox try to help, but just end up in the crossfire.

It's all pretty routine stuff with plot twists you'll be able to see coming, but it's well paced and features some standout sequences, such as an amazing sequence where Roddy McDowall, pushed to the edge, forces his students to answer test questions at gunpoint. It's predictable but entertaining, and it's got a satisfying conclusion when Norris is finally allowed to go apeshit on his bad students.

It's too bad that the "punks" themselves are so goofy they wouldn't look out of place in a Troma film. Lester tries to infuse at least their leader with a personality (in one of several off Hitler references, he's a piano prodigy), but the rest of the gang are as cardboard as they come. Still, as drive-in fodder, it's fun.

Rene Daalder's [i]Massacre at Central High[/i], made several years earlier, starts off with a basic exploitation premise and manages to become something much more, coming off as a forerunner to [i]Heathers[/i]. Derrel Maury is David, the new kid in town, who meets up with his old friend Mark (future erotic thriller vet Andrew Stevens) and is instructed by Mark how to blend in. Mark's one of the gang of four guys that run the school, bullying those below them on the social ladder and generally acting like dickweeds.

David's not too keen on this, prefering to act like himself and be nice to everyone. When he walks in on the other guys attempting to rape a female student, David beats the hell out of all them. In retribuition, they yank they jack out from his car while he's working on it, crushing his legs. David returns to school with a hefty limp, determined to have his revenge...

That's just the first half of the film. Without going into too much detail, the rest of the movie goes deeper than the "vengeful teen slasher film" it seems to be becoming and delves into issues of social order that most teen films don't go anywhere near. In the end, it almost becomes a statement about the necesity of bullies as David becomes confronted by Mark and the girl that comes between them.

[i]Massacre at Central High[/i] is a low-budget film, but the acting is surpisingly good, especially by the lead, Stevens and a young Robert Carradine. While many of the characters in the film come off as somewhat stereotypical, they work well with the confines of the plot, making it similar in theme to Heathers, though its' tone is completely different. Shame that the print used for the long out-of-print VHS is scratchy as hell--this is a title really in need of a good DVD release.

Oh, and here's the plug. I'll be showing both of these movies this Friday night at Odd Obsession Films on 1659 N. Halsted at 11:00 p.m., so if anyone out there lives in Chicago, stop on by. There'll be trailers, shorts, and two pretty nifty flicks.

That was subtle.