Review of Student Bodies (1981) by Robin W — 24 Aug 2009

It's always interesting to uncover an obscure film from many years ago that isn't actually that good, but still earns your admiration for being WAY ahead of its time. Nearly twenty years before the "Scary Movie" franchise became a huge success, "Student Bodies" was spoofing all the cliches and conventions of the slasher film in an equally raunchy fashion.

The movie does have its funny, clever moments (a highlight being an appearance by the executive producer, who randomly yells "fuck you" at the audience just to garner the film an "R" rating!), but a lot of the gags fall flat and the whole thing runs out of steam long before the end; I think its biggest obstacle may be that a lot of the slasher films from that time period that it wants to parody are actually funnier, albeit in an unintentional way.

However, as a whole, the film is still better than most of the "Scary Movie" sequels and the awful Jason Friedberg/Aaron Seltzer spoof comedies of today.