Hell High starts with a young girl named Brooke Storm (Amy Beth Erenrich) playing down the local swamp (!) when two lovers (Webster Whinery & Karen Russell) unexpectedly turn up on a motorbike, the guy wants sex with the girl but she says no & in his frustration he rips Brooke's doll apart as she looks on... Jump forward '18 Years Later' & Brooke (Maureen Money) is now a biology teacher who is having a hard time with a student named Dickens (Christopher Stryker) & his gang, Queenie (Millie Prezioso), Smiler (Jason Brill) & the gangs newest recruit ex-football star Jon-Jon (Christopher Cousins). Dickens decides to play a prank on Brooke & after finding out where she lives the gang fill plastic bags with mud from the swamp & splatter Brooke's house & pour it over her head as they jump on her roof. Brooke is understandably upset & after Dickens tries to rape her she decides to take revenge on her tormentors...Co-written, co-produced & directed by Douglas Grossman & also known as Raging Fury I thought Hell High wasn't anything special. The script by Grossman & Leo Evans is your basic tale of revenge although it takes a while to get to it, you can practically fast forward the entire first 45 minutes as virtually nothing happens, after that point they play the prank on Brooke & things all of a sudden become a lot more interesting as the exploitation elements kick in. Unfortunately I found the whole thing a bit on the tame side, sure someone throwing a bag of swamp mud over you would be upsetting but would it really turn you into a cold blooded killer? Don't forget that Dickens never actually rapes her either so that cannot be used as any reason. It's certainly nowhere near as exploitative or sleazy as some other revenge films such as the terrible I Spit on Your Grave (1979) or the utterly brilliant Angel of Vengeance (1981) which is how a film like this should be done, I mean the viewer needs to feel for the female victim & understand the motivations for what she's doing for the revenge part to have any real impact. The character's are OK but you never really care for anyone which is a problem, the dialogue is functional & nothing else. It's one of those films which is OK to watch to pass the time but if your looking for something outstanding than you won't find it here. I'd imagine I'd have totally forgotten it by the middle of next week.Director Grossman does an OK job on what must have been a low budget, while it isn't going to win any awards for technical achievement it looks OK & occasionally has a nice sleazy atmosphere, it just doesn't sustain it for long enough. There are a few scenes of nudity but nothing that memorable & there's not much in the way of blood or gore either, two people are impaled on spikes, someone has their head bashed in with a rock, someone has a pencil stick in their head, someone is impaled on a poker & someone has a knife cut their throat & none of it is that graphic or shocking.Hell High (a title which makes no logical sense) is quite well made considering it's low budget roots although the music was quite good. The acting was OK but nothing special & Mooney is dull & forgettable as Brooke while lead villain Stryker died of AID's almost two years before the film was eventually released as it was shot in 1986 but not released until 1989.Hell High isn't a particularly good film but at the same time I don't think it's a particularly bad one, it's just all very average & uninspiring. There are much better revenge films out there, watch only if you've got nothing better to do.
... View MoreA little known, low-budget horror flick, Hell High actually has more in common with the vengeance exploitation films of the '70's than with the teen slashers that were so popular during its time.When trouble making teens decide to terrorize their teacher, they go over board with some murderous consequences!With a compelling story, moody atmosphere, and a good cast, Hell High (which has little to do with its title) is a horror film that manages to over come the limitations of its low budget. Even still, the film is pretty well made for a B horror flick. The music score and filming locations aren't bad either.The cast of unknowns is pretty good. Maureen Mooney does a good turn as the tormented teacher. Christopher Cousins isn't half bad as a reluctant teen assailant. Best of all though is the late Christopher Stryker (who died of AIDS before the film could be released). He makes for a great teen bad boy and a surprisingly merciless villain! Stryker could have easily went on to bigger films.Criticize it for what you will, but Hell High is one of the better 'lost' horror flicks of its day. It's 80's horror that takes a refreshing break from the slasher film conventions.*** out of ****
... View MoreBut that's what i did. We were at the mall, having just come from my orthodontic appointment, and I was supposed to go back to school. However, once the title "Hell High" caught our eye, we had to see it. I remember a goofily inane, low-budget horror movie that featured a scene of a beautiful teacher becoming vocally aroused just taking a shower (because when women soap up their breasts, they are helplessly turned on.) And that's almost all I remember. But I guess I fared better than a friend who, a few years previous, had seen Revenge of the Nerds with his little, old grandmother. And, thinking on it now, I saw Clash of the Titans when I was like eight or something with my grandfather. A chaste shot of a woman leaving a bath was pretty exciting then. Later on, at dinner, my sister yelled out that I had told her there was a "tushie" in the movie. I was mortified. I could hardly deny I had said it, after all, as her knowledge of said tushie was proof enough. A shadow fell over my grandfather's face and not another word was said for a long time. A horrible memory.
... View MoreWell the film doesnt really have much to do with a high school. It has had many tittles. One tittle was called raging fury. Quess it didnt sound horror enough, and another was to be called real trouble! sounded like an after school special. But the low budget film was made in 1986 but wasnt released until 1989. I saw it on cable. Its a strange movie about a girl who accidently killed 2 kids back in the 1960s as a little girl. Speed up to 86 and shes a teacher at a high school where some of her loser students like to torment the poor woman. One thing leads to another, they stalk and accidently cause the woman to fall out of her own window. Then she awakes to kill the teens one by one. In this film the herione is a guy, an ex jock who falls in with this bad crowd. The ending is kinda disturbing. But it has definetly aged. I first saw this film on HBO in 1990, but never heard of it before that! Maybe a better tittle would have been- NIGHT OF THE BLOODY TEACHER!
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