The first Missed the Bloody Cut horror selection of this 2024, here are some more horror movies that did not meet my strict criteria (a rating of 7.0 or higher). . . but are still entertaining films (horror fanatics may enjoy) that do not deserve to be fled from like a creature walking more slowly than a senior with a walker – and that are definitely worth a watch (just maybe not several re-watches).
Welcome to Horror High circa 1973, where the bullies look like 30 year old National Football League linebackers, the teachers and staff are worse than the above mentioned jerks, and the school just leaves vats of hydrofluoric acid open in the science classroom. Over the years, it has also been known as Twisted Brain and Kiss the Teacher… Goodbye!.
Directed by Larry N. Stouffer, this early prototype of the slasher genre follows Vernon Potts (Pat Cardi), a bespectacled science whiz kid (and shy guy) who by 1970s standards would be called a nerd. Looking for every opportunity to avoid all his other classes and spend as much of his time as possible in the chemistry lab (the only teacher with any kindness toward him); it’s no wonder, as English teacher Miss Grindstaff (Joye Hash). . . she doesn’t look like she’s been grinding the staff for many a year, chops up his beloved science report (after he hands it in by accident), creepy janitor Mr. Griggs (Jeff Alexander) allows his cat to terrorize his guinea pig experiment (and then beats him up not long after), and bullish Coach McCall (three time all-pro NFLer John Niland), who picks on him ruthlessly, all take their turns abusing the poor teenager.
Just to make matters worse, he is football star Mike McHenry’s (Roger Davis) punching bag. . . as the jock doesn’t take kindly to him being friends with his gal Rosie Holotik (Robin Jones) – who is utterly impressed with Vernon’s super-powered mind and sweet demeanor.
With nowhere to turn, as his father travels for work and mom has passed away, an unexpected accident. . . where the custodian forces Vernon to drink his own science experiment, turns him into a Jekyll and Hyde-like beast (it is quite clear that this is the main inspiration for the film. . . as even the book they’re reading in English class is the “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), giving the weakling a newfound strength.
Soon, Vernon’s foes start turning up dead, bringing Miami Vice-like detective Lieutenant Bozeman (Austin Stoker) onto the scene. . . running roughshod over the school and its grounds with his fellow officers – played by Dallas Cowboys players Billy Truax, D.D. Lewis, Craig Morton and Calvin Hill. As he comes across like such an angel, Bozeman takes Vernon under his wing, asking for his opinion on how the school runs – unbeknownst to him, he’s talking to the beast himself. Can the two-face complete his hit list, get the girl, and make up his English credit so that he can graduate (now that he’s killed the teacher)? Can we root for someone that is bullied who then becomes the bully himself? And might he have a shot at getting a job on the force with Bozeman’s stamp of approval?
A drive-in movie shot in a short two week period on a shoestring budget of $67,000.00, it’s stiff as Vernon, who walks with a gimp, but fun because of its rough around the edges charm. The school can’t have more than an enrollment of four dozen students, which makes for a barren landscape perfect for the kid to wreak havoc on the only four teachers that seem to work there. With each of the murders having a very different tone, one looks like it belongs to a slasher film, the next – a hilarious rehearsal for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, while the third could be a Joe Don Baker Walking Tall scene gone bad.
Worth seeing for its early take on a horror sub-genre that would soon explode, this one brings silly lows to secondary school highs. So, don’t Hyde from the horrors that await, but they might not come from just the violence.
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You know you’ve got quite the Rush Week (1989) on your hands when a cadaver has been stolen, an axe murderer has gone on quite the killing spree, a kinky nude photo scandal has secretly spread throughout the college despite a coverup, and a prostitute has been booked for a fraternity night!
A slasher flick released in the waning days of the horror sub-genre, director Bob Bralver takes us onto the Tambler College campus where new journalism major transfer Toni Daniels (Pamela Ludwig) is trying to work on the new piece assigned to her by Professor Cosmo Kincald (Gregg Allman – yes, that Gregg Allman)– an article that will be exploring the rush week experience at Tambler.
Delving into the secret underbelly of the frat houses on campus, she links up with the butt of all groups, the posh but unluckily abbreviated GAE, before a prank forces her to abandon that plan and join the party place extraordinaire, BDB – which has been renamed Booze, Doobies, and Bimbos because of the shenanigans they get up to. Rather ominously, BDB’s head, Jeff Jacobs (Dean Hamilton), often wields the axe featured in their rush festivities, and also has a major crush on the journalist.
She also gets some time with Dean Grail (Roy Thinnes), whose daughter was dating Jeff one year earlier when she was brutally murdered – suspicious. But don’t worry, there are several other suspicious individuals, including a perverted cook and part-time photographer named Arnold (John Donovan) – who we first see shooting Julie Ann McGuffin in the nude and then paying her with cash that has a hatchet drawn onto it; Jeff’s best friend Byron (Donald Grant) – who always seems to take things too far; and a wandering grunt worker for the University (Dominick Brascia) – that makes the above mentioned Arnold look like a saint.
As Toni gets closer to the still unknown killer, her life becomes more in peril. Threats come by way of the computer, breathy calls that lead to hang-ups, and what seems like some suspicious stalking. Can Toni break the story wide open and solve the ever growing number of cold cases in town? Might it be Ramblin’ Man Cosmo. . . he’s a Midnight Rider if I’ve ever seen one. Is frat boy Jeff too easy of an option, or is that what they want us to think? Or is that girl named McGuffin all a plant for something much more insidious?
Rush Week is a motion picture that looks better than expected (in a glossy, competently finished tv movie sort of way), is decently acted, and enjoyable enough, but it just has that feel of being a part of something that is coming to an end – as the 80s slashers were writing their final chapter. It is most definitely formulaic, lacks the gonzo go for broke vibe of the early slice and dice days, and is surprisingly lacking in gore (until the very end). So, just whose heads will roll in this slasher flick. . . you’ll have to do your own research to find out.