High school nerd Marty is humiliated and badly mauled in an April Fool's Day prank at his high school. Ten years later, his group of tormentors are invited to a high school reunion at their now-abandoned school which they come to find is due for demolition. It seems no one is inside-at first.This late-eighties British-American co-production is one of the weirder slasher offerings because it has its hand in multiple baskets: It's a slasher, but it's also a quasi-spoof in some senses; self-aware, self-reflexive, and chock full of references to its numerous contemporaries. Why, exactly, I'm not sure, as it doesn't seem to do anything this-the allusions and references are just sort of dropped in there with what seems to have been little forethought-and that's kind of how the whole film feels.Part of "Slaughter High"'s lopsidedness may have to do with the fact that it was made by a trio of filmmakers who shared both writing and directing duties; it feels a bit all-over-the-place, and I assume this is why. The first half of the film is really full of nonsense, supported by stilted dialogue delivered in a melange of bizarre caricatures of American accents. The cast is full of rather attractive men and women, but the characters are profoundly unlikable from the first scene on. Bond girl Caroline Munro, who is known to horror fans for her role in the seminal American grindhouse flick "Maniac," is the only semi-tolerable character (which is good, as she's the final girl), but the fact that she's supposed to be playing a 28-year-old and yet has the hair and dress of a 55-year-old Southern divorcee is admittedly distracting. After the film kicks into its second act, the murders come on fast and strong, and some of them are gruesome and silly, but there is an ever-persistent tongue-in-cheek sensibility about them that leaves the threat ultimately non-threatening.Despite everything I've said which may lead one to believe I despise the film, I really don't-I do not love it, but I do believe it has two key elements that are fantastic: The first is its setting, which is a sprawling, Gothic, rundown "high school" (it was apparently really a sanitarium, which makes far more sense)-it's a phenomenally scary location that is used rather well. Unfortunately, the overall tone of the film belies its strong atmosphere and set. The second thing that I feel avenges the film is its last ten minutes, which are legitimately well-played-downbeat, surprising, and utterly weird, erring into "Carnival of Souls" territory. Again, it doesn't make much sense, but the logic of "Slaughter High" is not one to necessarily be made sense of. In any event, I found myself paying more attention at this stage in the film, possibly because it finally seemed like something interesting was happening-and it was, though I'm not quite sure what, or why.Overall, "Slaughter High" is a bit of a bricolage slasher flick that, though amusing at times, doesn't seem to know what it wants or what it's doing. What makes it worthwhile is its stellar setting and surprising conclusion, both of which demand far more attention from the audience than anything else in it. Mildly fun, though not endlessly watchable. 6/10.

An old gang of highschool bullies- responsible for a humiliating series of pranks-gone-wrong that saw the school nerd get horribly disfigured in a fire- are invited back to town for their ten year highschool reunion.However, it seems like they are the ones getting pranked this time...because when they show up, the whole place is locked down, and there is no one to be seen.They manage to break in, but can't break their way back out...and now they're dropping one by one...What starts off like a low budget Breakfast Club ripoff...quickly takes a twisted turn in the direction of American Horror Story: Cult.There are some great kills in this! While they are lacking in the gore and special effects departments, they make up for it with sheer cleverness and imagination.The whole thing seems to be a bit of an homage to Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse...as there is an identical kill. Not to mention, they are confined to a house- laden with boobytraps- from which they cannot escape...as they are picked off one by one...more or less the same concept.However, this film has a triple twist at the end- which switches things up a bit, and sets itself up for a sequel (that never came to fruition).Originally, it was supposed to be called April Fool's Day- but Fred Walton's film beat them to the punch, so they were forced to rename it.however, this cult gem- from first time filmmakers George Dugdale, Mark Ezra & Peter Litten- is wonderfully twisted! Despite the (at times sketchy) American accents...this is a British feature...that feels a lot like a Frank Hennenlotter flick.6 out of 10.

Slaughter High is one of those 80s slasher films that has a cult fan- base who are determined to convince the rest of us that it's a misunderstood classic. It simply isn't. Regardless of if the awful acting and jovial tone is actually meant to be of parody nature, the film is just dull from start to finish, even repugnant in its tacky simplicity.Plot basically finds a group of unlikable high schoolers, led by Caroline Munro who is in reality in her mid 30s and older than some of the teachers at the school, prank bullying the school nerd Marty Rantzen (Simon Scuddamore) on April fools Day, to the point where he inevitably ends up in a horrific accident. Fast forward a few years and the said group of unlikable characters have gone back to the school for a reunion, only to find the school derelict and that someone is intent on killing them one by one...Yee Haw! Jester's "Not" Dead.What follows is the standard formula as each one of the group is offed, cue much shrieking, some blood, some bickering and some insultingly dumb decisions taken by members of the group. The derelict school setting should be frightening, but it isn't, the English location shoot is obvious and nullifies the weak attempt at being an American horror, while the dialogue is just awful. Forget tension or suspense, those are horror attributes sorely lacking here.The Jester mask donned by the vengeful killer has impact, and yes some of the "kills" are at least inventive for the time film was made. But it's hard to care about bad actors playing bad characters when you are not sure if you are meant to be laughing or not! It's a bad film, one that has been lent a macabre interest value as poor Simon Scuddamore committed suicide shortly after the film was wrapped. A sad postscript for sure, for what is just a sad exercise in horror film making. 3/10

This is a largely unknown slasher film but if you are a true slasher geek you probably would've heard of this one. The plot is that Marty Rantzen, a high school nerd, gets picked on by a group of jocks and girls. One of their pranks go wrong resulting with nitric acid burning Marty's face. 5 years later all the bullies are invited to a school reunion at their old school. When they get inside the school the bullies are killed off one by one by Marty, who sent the invitations and is out for revenge. Now some of the acting is pretty bad and most of the actors in this film have had very little film roles (Except for Caroline Munro). The music is also a bit repetitive but enjoyable. However, Simon Scuddamore's role as Marty is great and he looked like he had a lot of fun with his role. Sadly, this was Simon's only film role as he committed suicide right after the film was made. But overall Slaughter High is a pretty good horror movie and it is worth watching.