Massacre at Central High (1976)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There were two movies that came out in 1976 that portrayed high school as a living hell; one was CARRIE, the other was MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH. The first is now regarded as a classic, the second one should be, although it certainly has achieved cult status. Danny Peary wrote an insightful essay about it in his excellent book, Cult Movies 2.I first saw MASSACRE on VHS back in the early 90's when it was already a relic from a bygone era, that era being the Dazed and Confused mid 1970's. It had that grainy look so dear to exploitation flicks of the time, and the actors often recited their lines as if there had been absolutely no rehearsal or read through-which is probably true, since Massacre was made in three weeks at a small California college. It even has an ultra cheesy theme song (You're at the Crossroads of Your Life) over the opening and closing credits.But what MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH lacks in polish and sophistication, it more than makes up for in story, theme, and pay-off. For starters, what other teenage revenge film has its main character, David, be both the hero and the villain of the piece. And Central High itself seems to exist in some hellish alternate universe where there are no teachers, parents or adult authority of any kind; here, the kids are in charge, and that's just as bad as it sounds.David, a long distance runner, is the proverbial new kind in town; a transfer to Central High, where a friend from his former school, Mark, is now in with the three rich brutal jocks who rule the halls with iron fists, terrorizing those too poor or too weak. Nice guy David has a chance to join Mark and the three tyrants in their circle, but he prefers to go his own way and quickly runs afoul of the bullies when he puts the beat down on them while preventing a classroom rape. He is then betrayed by Mark (who mistakenly thinks David is putting the move on Mark's pretty girlfriend, Teresa)and has his leg crushed in retaliation by the three bullies. David, now crippled and bitter because he can no longer run, exacts bloody revenge on his tormentors, killing all three and making it look like accidents; only the guilt ridden Mark and Teresa realize that David is responsible.Once the bullies are gone from the halls of Central High, life for the formerly bullied improves and everybody is every one's friend...but only for awhile. Soon the hearing impaired librarian, the fat kid, the poor guy who drives a jalopy, the stoner and his two girlfriends are all trying to enlist David's help so that they can grab power over the others; fights and arguments break out and David's killing spree resumes. It all climaxes at an alumni dance (the only time adults are seen in the movie) where Mark and Teresa finally confront David. Is MASSACRE a political allegory about revolutionary societies? That's what Peary says in his essay; maybe, but I prefer to think it's simpler than that: it's about the cost of doing nothing when faced with evil (the three bullies), the price of revenge (David morphs from hero to villain) and the weakness of human nature (the bullied become bullies themselves).The cast features some actors who went on to have more or less successful careers: Andrew Stevens, Kimberly Beck, Lani O'Grady, Steve Bond, Rainbeaux Smith and Robert Carradine (as Spoony), but the excellent Derrel Maury, who plays David, seemed to have disappeared in the years since MASSACRE came out, but according to IMDb, has made a living as an acting teacher. Director Renee Daaldar was a Dutch camera man and a protégé of Russ Meyer; maybe that's why MASSACRE has some great 70's style nudity along with the violence. If the finale seems familiar, that's because it was used again in HEATHERS, thirteen years later. Watch that film now and compare it to MASSACRE and you'll see just how much meaner the culture got in a very short time.

Transfer student David (Derrel Maury) starts a new school where he finds that an old friend, Mark (Andrew Stevens), has fallen in with a gang who use fear and intimidation to rule the roost. Being a friend of Mark's, David is given the opportunity to become a member of the group, but after seeing how they operate, decides that he would rather show the underdogs that it is possible to stand up to their persecutors.Displeased with David's decision, head bully Bruce (Ray Underwood) and his cronies decide to teach the new guy a lesson by dropping a car on his legs. Crippled, and more than a little miffed, David responds by arranging fatal accidents for his enemies, freeing the other students from their life of oppression in the process. However, with Bruce and his pals gone, a new generation of bullies comes to the fore, and so David continues his murderous activities, ultimately deciding to blow up the entire school...Bit of a strange one this: Massacre at Central High starts off with it's protagonist David as a hero, valiantly standing up for the weak, but then gradually sees him transform into a twisted murderous psycho and the real villain of the piece. For a while, this is all fairly entertaining stuff, made all the more enjoyable by the presence of gorgeous Kimberly Beck as Andrew's curvaceous babe of a girlfriend Theresa (who provides not one, but two nude scenes!); sadly, once David slips into revenge mode, matters get just a little too unbelievable, writer director Rene Daalder seeming more concerned with conveying his political message rather than telling a viable story: the accidental but suspicious deaths attract no interest from the police; the scenes involving the previously bullied pupils becoming the school's new bullies are clumsily handled and rather laughable; and the further blatant murders appear to alarm no-one in the slightest (they even go ahead and hold the school prom, despite several unexplained explosions!).

School's out forever for a brutish and reprehensible gang of snobby stuck-up preppie bullies who maim rebellious iconoclastic new kid Derrel Maury (who gives a superbly intense and subdued performance). Maury bumps off the vile troublemakers in assorted clever ways only to see the other previously oppressed adolescents rise up and take their place. The vicious cycle never seems to stop.Writer/director Rene Daalder offers a provocative social allegory on the failure of revolution, the abuse of power, and how violence basically begets more violence with no real end or change in sight. Furthermore, Daalder ingeniously shows how easily victims can become victimizers if given the opportunity to do so. The high school setting in this sublimely sharp, smart and subversive winner is nothing less than an insightful microcosm of society at large with its rigid caste system and power plays and exploitation of one group by another group being brutally played out by teenagers sans adult supervision (the grown-ups are conspicuous by their glaring absence throughout most of the picture, thereby suggesting how unimportant they are to kids trying to figure out what they are going to do with the rest of their lives after high school ends). This downbeat and shocking 70's exploitation masterpiece further benefits from its stand-out B-movie cast: the ubiquitous Andrew Stevens, the star and producer of countless cheesy 80's and 90's direct-to-video trash features, Robert Carradine, the ever-lovely and charming angelic blonde goddess Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith, future daytime soap opera star Steve Bond, "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" heroine Kimberly Beck, and "Eight Is Enough" sitcom regular Lani O'Grady. The late 80's cult black comedy "Heathers" ripped this movie off a lot, right down to the main story and literally explosive ending. Still, the original remains untouched and unequaled to this very day. And the incredibly mawkish theme song really must be heard to be believed!

Massacre at Central High is one of the earlier exploitation/slasher films to feature a school full of thirty-something's getting bumped off, but that's not to say it's a cut above the rest of the genre. The film stands apart from others like it because it features a social commentary to go along with the bloodshed, but it's largely ill-conceived, and doesn't work the way it was obviously intended to. That's not to say that the social commentary isn't a good idea; these sorts of themes have worked well in many more professionally made films, but the inane dialogues and poor production values of this film make it too difficult to really take seriously, which doesn't do the social commentary any favours. The plot focuses on David; a new student at a high school in America. David was once friends with Mark, who is in a clique with the school bullies. They rule the school with an iron fist, but they get more than they bargained for when they decide to cowardly injure David under a car. Now crippled, he decides to take his revenge on the gang that did it.Aside from the none too successful social commentary, this film also suffers because it's never all that interesting. The seventies style is there, but other than that, the film can be a bit dry. The murder scenes are more inventive than your common slasher fare, but they're not very gory and are mostly extremely unlikely. None of the performers succeed at convincing the audience that they're young enough to even go to school, and it's all rather wooden as well. This isn't always a problem with trashy low budget cinema, but there's little distraction with this film. The fact that the film was shot on a low budget is evident throughout, as the locations are often very bare, the cinematography is bland; and as mentioned, they couldn't afford any capable actors. One thing that writer-director Rene Daalder does succeed at, however, is putting the focus squarely on the society at the centre of the film at all times, and this is done by only showing the school "kids", and no adults. Overall, this might appeal more to the kind of people that enjoy slashers and the like; but I found this film very lacklustre.