Between working for Mr. Russ Meyer and directing Mr. Sid Vicious's "My Way" video, Mr. Rene Daalder contrived one of the classic drive-in films of the 70s. In gorgeous technicolor, masterfully cast from the familiar faces (and boobs!) to the utter unknowns, smothered in Marxist/nihilist commentary too vulgar to describe as 'subtext', this would have been the birth of punk rock if not for all those flutes. The new kid in town takes on the high school power elite, first with words then with highly inventive murder, only to see the underclass - peasant farmer, intellectual librarian, nerds, dyke-esques, fat kid, the gamut - form their own snooty hierarchy. What else can you do at that point but blow up the school? Very Sid Vicious, even if commerce prevented them from following things to their logical conclusion. WOW is it ever fun - the perfect mix of head and cheese.

I saw this film for the first time as an adolescent in the late seventies and it left a sizable impression on me from that time. Two reasons, first, the obvious one was Kimberly Beck's nude scenes on the beach and the nude scene on the mountainside with Lani O'Grady and Rainbeaux Smith, secondly, and I hope even more profoundly was the story about an outsider coming to a new high school and offered the role of being part of the in-crowd only to shun it and help those that were being mistreated but then - the mistreated when given the opportunity become just as bad as the in-crowd that lorded over them in the beginning. This film is allegorical, metaphorical, analogous, etc.. - it has some deep philosophic roots if you look for them and get past the schlocky teen elements enticing to teen audiences at that time: violence, nudity, etc... It is almost like a fairy tale of surrealism - except for the very end of the film there are no - I mean NO - adult actors, no cops, no parents, no teachers. Teens are dying from explosions, hand-gliding accidents, diving into cement pools sans water, pyrotechnic hearing aids, etc... and not one teacher do we see in a hall. Two girls are being raped, screams can be heard from the outside almost on a busy day of school - and not one adult do we ever see. This must have been done by design and if you except that this is not to be taken too literally - the film works on the level that people often become what they hate when given the opportunity. Man is basically evil and only interested in his own self-interest. Of course this message is dressed up with violence and nudity and a teen setting and teen actors. I have a very fond place in my heart for this film(and Kimberly Beck, Rainbeaux Smith, and Lani O'Grady). There are so many vivid images from the film that as I watched(very, very hard to come by a copy I can tell you)the film unfolded scene by scene in my head moments before it did on screen. It is, along with Twisted Brain, one of two films that held such fascination for me. Maybe it was the outsider element that appealed, the revenge on stereotypical high school cliques, or the neat, inventive deaths that were used. For whatever reason, Massacre at Central High lasted with me 30 years later and that must make it a pretty good film in my book. The acting is generally pretty sub-standard but not horrible. Andrew Stevens and Robert Carradine are in here - looking very young, and Derrel Maury does a serviceable job as the male protagonist. I really liked some of the performances by the supporting cast - particularly those of Rex Stevens Sikes and Dennis Kort as the library kid Arthur where a librarian day after day can never be found. They are fun performances. And the girls of course are not much for acting talent - though O'Grady has some indeed - but all three - especially Beck add some definite dimensions and high-points to the film(sad to see both Smith and O'Grady are no longer with us - what a real pity to go so very young). If you have not seen Massacre at Central High - give it a peek. It is nothing terribly great - except to those of us who sat through it at a more impressionable age, but it is a cut above many of the same films of its ilk from that era.

Massacre At Central High is a weird little teen revenge flick - there are many things in it that totally spotlight the low budget - endless shots of the boom mike in frame, in the reflections of some of the shinier cars you can see some of the camera crew, etc. The acting is all over the place - from understated to terrible over the top. And whether it is a conscious choice or not - there are NO adults anywhere to be found in the hallways of this "high school" - now whether that is symbolism for "when you are new in a high school, you are truly alone - there might as well NOT be any teachers or adults around to save you" OR the budget was so small they just cut out any parts for adult actors knowing they could pay these eager teen actors peanuts. Yes, Robert Carradine and Andrew Stevens went on to bigger and better things - but lots of this movie is just an absolute mess - from the opening soft ballad to jump editing to some awful acting BUT...there is something very real, very sincere in the revenge taking that definitely works, that definitely makes your skin crawl - so the movie is effective in many ways and the other powerful thing about it is it is no slasher film - there isn't some evil janitor or demented shop teacher going around and knocking off students - this is pure revenge and then after the revenge, pure, unadulterated human greed for power. Lots of stuff will stay with you. An interesting mid-seventies teen revenge flick to seek out - we saw it on a DVD but it was region-coded - so it came from another country outside the U.S.

(There are Spoilers) Arriving at Central High to begin classes David, Darrel Maury,is confronted with this gang of bullies, The Young Gestapo,lead by Bruce, Ray Underwood, who terrorize the students at the school. Mark, Andrew Stevens, a good friend of David's, from a previous high school, and member of "The Young Gestapo" wants him to join them and stuck his neck out to assure Bruce & Co. that he will but David is unmoved and unimpressed and tends to stays by himself. Keeping a safe distance between himself and the school bullies David for the most part is left alone with his friend Mark being more or less a buffer zone between them. It's when David see's Bruce and his gang grab Jane & Mary (Lani O'Grady & Cheryl Smith) and after dragging the girls into a deserted school room he jumps into action and makes short work of the bullies having them flee with their tails between their legs. Humiliated by the beating that David gave them and feeling that their control of the student body is slipping away the school bullies plan to get even with him but only after they offer David the "privilege" to join their gang and become one of them. Driving out one evening to the beach Bruce has Mark go out and talk to David about joining but he sees David and his girlfriend Theresa, Kimberly Black, skinny-dipping in the ocean. This has an upset and bitter Mark come back to Bruce and his fellow bullies Craig & Paul, Steve Bond & Damon Douglas, telling them that David refused to take them up on their offer. Finding David the next day fixing a car Bruce has the lift lowered on David's leg crushing it and leaving him a cripple. Mark who was mad at David for being with Theresa later found out from her that all they did was swim and nothing more, David refused to hurt his friend Mark by sleeping or having sex with Theresa, making Mark feel guilty for what happened to David. It's then when the movie takes a political and ultra-violent turn with David back in school, after recovering from his leg injury, and slowly and methodically putting away Bruce Craig & Paul. David does this by causing them to fall to their deaths from high places, like the heights of power that they were on. In the end David unknowingly creates a power vacuum that's filled by the very students that the "Young Gestapos" victimized and they turned out to be even worse, and more vicious, then the bullies that they replaced. Not your average teenager movie or a rip-off of "Rebel Without a Cause" "Massacre at Central High" shows what the saying "Power Corrupts" really means and uses the setting of students in a high school, not dictators or leader of nations, as the metaphor. David sees that he personally created a monster by ridding the school of Bruce's gang of bullies and thus slowly and quietly goes insane because of it. The only way David can make things right again is to the destroy the very system that he created, the new students bullies, and goes about it with even more determination and ferocity that he did against Bruce's "Young Gestapo". You know right away in the movie that this is not about teenagers in high school or another "Happy Days" like sitcom when you notice almost at once there's no teachers and adults in the cast except for the Alumni Ball at the end of the film. David's plans to blow Central High up with everyone there including Theresa, who he's in love with, who's the only person in the world who can stop David from doing it. Can in this situation Love overcome the hatred that David has for the new order that he created? Or has David's hatred of the monster he spawned by now gotten so far out of hand that even Theresa's death isn't enough to make David change his evil sick and destructive plan!