My thoughts on Horror High-First a few observations and then I will report what I discovered about the History of this film.Observations:* Austin Stoker played Lieutenant Bozeman in this film, Last year in the YT Horror Movie Discussion Group we watched the movie "Ruby" and Austin Stoker played the police officer/brother-in-law in that movie. *Austin Stoker's Lieutenant Bozeman plays the worst game of cat and mouse with the main character, Vernon Potts. His Columbo-style questioning of Vernon leads the viewer to believe that if Stoker's character really suspected Vernon as strongly as the questions he asks seem to indicate, then this case could have been cracked a lot earlier if Lt. Bozeman had just assigned a police officer to track Vernon's whereabouts. * Some people may think that Vernon is a somewhat sympathetic monster. Think again. Why does the whole school start the movie calling Vernon "The Creeper". What did Vernon do prior to this movie to earn that nickname? Vernon was only forced to drink the chemicals once. Every other time thereafter, Vernon willingly drinks the chemical concoction to solve some rather trivial and minor problems in his life with murder. *The janitor, Mr. Griggs, must be a complete idiot. After beating Vernon viciously and then forcing him to drink what could be deadly chemicals, Mr. Griggs tells Vernon that he is going to beat him some more and then take him to the police. Who would the police arrest in that scenario? *Please tell me that somebody else noticed the bushy mustached white police officer angrily twitch his mustache when Lt. Bozeman tells him that he can't "tie up" Coach McCall.Short History of the Movie:*Lots of 50 and late 40 year olds have seen this movie. But many remember the movie being titled with a different name. This movie was popularly shown on late night monster television shows in the early 80's under the title "Twisted Brain". *This movie began production in 1973 during a time when Independent movie productions were becoming popular. This movie was not made by a big Hollywood studio but instead by a company, Horror High Ltd. that was formed by James Graham, the producer of this film. James Graham may have produced this movie soley as a vehicle for his hot girlfriend, Rosie Holotik (plays Robin Jones), to advance her acting career. Rosie was a Playboy cover model in 1972, acted in Horror High in 1973 along with two other B-horror films in 1973 and then never acted again. *This movie seems to provide the same local pride to Irving, Texas (where the movie was filmed) that Pittsburgh feels for "Night of the Living Dead". This movie was filmed exclusively in Irving, Texas during a fast two week shooting schedule. The school used as the setting was a High School for unwed mothers according to a Pat Cardi (Vernon) interview and the actors were not allowed to talk to the students or even look at them for fear of losing the location. *James Graham took advantage of the fact that a lot of professional football players that had went to college in Northern Texas lived in the Irving area. Mean Joe Green, Joe Niland (Coach McCall), Abner Haynes, Calvin Hill (Cleveland Browns RB), Billy Traux, D.D. Lewis, and Craig Morton (Broncos QB in Super Bowl XII) all played characters in this movie. This made filming difficult as fans hung around the sets for autographs. According to Pat Cardi (Vernon), Joe Niland (Coach McCall) would have young Pat Cardi over to his Irving mansion after shooting ended for the day where he had "babes running around the place like hot and cold running water" and young Pat Cardi would get so drunk that it would disrupt shooting the next day. *The movie cost $100,000.00 to make and only made less then $20,000.00 when it was originally released in and around the Dallas area in 1973. James Graham's High Horror Ltd. entered into a distribution agreement with Crown International Pictures and that allowed the movie to travel far and wide so that Variety magazine reported in May of 1974 that it "hit top grosses nationwide". The movie was pushed by Crown International Pictures for the next decade as it was a frequent second feature at drive-ins all the way into the early 80's. One practice employed by Crown International Pictures was to re-release old movies with new titles (Independent producers complain that this was an effort to hide box-office receipts), so this movie was released in different parts of the USA and worldwide with different names: "Kiss the Teacher...Goodbye!", "The Devil's Bible", "The Devil's Beast", "Experiment of the Death Devil's Beast", Werewolf Massacre". *Early promotion for this movie had a Drugsploitation angle. The early tagline for this movie was "Watch Vernon turn on...and then kill". Later once Austin Stoker enjoyed some success in the cult classic "Assault on Precinct 13" the marketing shifted and the tagline became "The man who survived Precinct 13 is Back!" But former child star, Pat Cardi (Vernon), wishes that the movie would have been promoted more along the angle of "I was a teenage Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde", which it never was promoted in that fashion.

I can not believe the average rating is over 5. However everyone is entitled to their opinion. The acting is terrible, the plot is terrible, the filming is terrible, need I go on?? I couldn't even finish this garbage. I quit after Ms. Grindstaff, what a name huh, got offed. There is nothing that is redeeming about this film in my opinion. Kill everyone who dissed you or did even worse to you I can understand but for goodness sakes do it in a watchable manner. The cat that started it all was just lying on top of the guinea pigs cage and there was no real reason to hit at it with a broom. The pig was in a wire cage, the cat was not attempting to get in to the cage and the janitor is an idiotic character who gives inbred hillbillies a bad name.

"Horror High" aka "Twisted Brain" is as bare-bones as any seventies independent flick can get. This is not a very good film, by far not, yet it might be an enjoyable watch for fans of obscure exploitation horror. It's basically a cross between an avant-la-lettre slasher movie (because of the high school setting & the systematic killings) and a contemporary re-imagining of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous "Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" story.For the biggest part the screenplay of "Horror High" sticks to its guns, which is good. And it's a simple story: Vernon Potts is the nerdy high school whiz kid that gets picked on by everybody (teachers & students alike). Since he's good at chemistry & biology, he invented a potion that occasionally transforms him in a murderous maniac. Thus Vernon has the abilities to exact his bloody revenge. The killings are mildly amusing and the overall atmosphere of the film is gritty enough. However, at one point the screenplay takes a sudden and completely unnecessary side-jump introducing Vernon's estranged father & his girlfriend. A completely redundant padding scene that goes on for too long, since the father character is never mentioned again afterwards. Vernon also gets an obligatory love-interest thrown his way: The girlfriend of a bullying jock student. She falls for Vernon's intelligence, naturally."Horror High" is a curious effort altogether, not only because the film is so obscure, but also because it foreshadows many high school slasher films to come over the next decade. At the time, the 'slasher rules' of contemporary horror cinema weren't even established yet. Sadly the execution of the film, as well as the acting, is severely below par. Not a lot of talent & money were involved. But there were a couple of other elements that made this viewing more interesting to me, like the use of many bizarre sound effects (e.g. shredding distorted guitars). The soundtrack itself also becomes funky & rocky at times. Every now and then inventive camera angles were used and the use of conveniently placed flashbacks (re-use of footage) to 'enhance' the narrative provided some amusing chuckles throughout. Again, I can't call this a good movie by any means, but I can imagine it a worthwhile watch to lovers of strange & vintage, moody & atmospheric exploitation horror. Don't expect nudity in this one, though.

I happened upon this obscure gem late one Friday night back in 1979 and have NEVER forgotten it. When it was finally released as part of the Horrible Horrors Volume 1 collection, I was practically beside myself with glee. Of course the actual print used in the DVD has much to be desired, but until the fully authorized disc comes out, this is the best we have. In some ways, the faded, dirty print used for the DVD (which itself seems to be an OLD VHS master and not an actual copy of the film itself) perfectly emulates the way I first came across it lo those many moons ago.Low budget? No disputing that. That doesn't automatically make it a turkey, however; far from it. In my humble opinion, HORROR HIGH is one of the better low budget movies of its time. If it were not...would so many of us still remember it, years after it has been broadcast on television or available on tape? :-) Just don't get me started on paper cutters...