Review of Slaughter High (1986) by Dougal S — 10 Sep 2012

Nothing says 80s like a cheesy teen horror flick. One of the more obscure (and oft overlooked) entries into the genre this differs from it's peers by being a wholly British film. Not that it plays up to that - in fact it does everything it can to convince you it's an American flick, complete with a selection of terrible fake US accents from the main cast. What it does get right for is that it contains the usual bizarre plotting, predictable storylines, poor acting and cheesy dialogue that populate American films of this type.

When a group of high school kids play a prank on the class nerd he is badly injured, disfigured and hauled off to an institution. Fast forward five years and the gang are all invited back to their former school for a reunion only to find they are the only ones there and the place is deserted and run down. Despite this they break into the building and start to party when they discover a spread of booze and party food. As the evening progresses they realise they're not alone in the school and as they begin to be murdered one by one they realise they're trapped with a homicidal killer.

Despite it's cheesiness there's plenty to enjoy in this film for horror fans. The murders are all pretty inventive and it ticks all the requisite boxes that endears this sort of thing to some people. It's not going to win any awards for movie making but if it's a fun hour and a half with a few beers you're after then you could do a lot worse.