Deadly Lessons (1983)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There's a hint of cinematic exploitation in this made for TV movie about a boarding school full of pretty rich girls stalked by a phantom killer. Enter Diane Franklin as the new girl, taking everything in with a naïve, vulnerable expression and meeting each character along with the audience. There's Ally Sheedy as a rich girl and a host of others, including Bart Simpson's voice Nancy Cartwright, most getting picked off by a mysterious killer within the Southern plantation style campus.The mystery aspect works good – it's hard to tell who the culprit might be. Perhaps Bill Paxton as a seemingly kindhearted horse-trainer or the classy French teacher. Our only hope in stopping the killings, which occur mostly off screen (if you don't jot down each victim's names you'll forget who dies or lives), is Larry Wilcox as a local plainclothes investigator with a chip on his shoulder and a particular dislike for pompous school owner Donna Reed.An intriguing body count premise where the spoiled beauties, like in any horror film template, are put through the ringer. And the "who done it" finale turns out somewhat creative.For More Reviews: www.cultfilmfreak.com

This kind of a holy grail among both slasher films and TV movies because it is BOTH a slasher film and a TV movie, which means that as a slasher film it is much harder to find than the cinematic ones which are all getting the deluxe DVD treatment these days no matter how godawful they are, and as a TV movie it is one the few that is NOT totally worthless. Needless to say there is very little blood and no nudity here, but its gratifying to read that Donna Reed still considered it "sleazy" (that's as good as "thumbs up" from Ebert and Roeper for me).The very familiar plot involves mysterious murders at a prestigious girl's school run by Donna Reed. The most familiar actor is probably Bill Paxton, who also appeared in the cinematic slasher "Mortuary" before making it big with "Weird Science" and "Aliens". The lead is the chronically cute Dianne Franklin, who is not great here but sure is easy to look at and highly stalk-able. She was not in nearly enough movies. The same can not be said, unfortunately, for her main co-star Ally Sheedy, but you'll be glad to know she ends up bound and gagged at one point here (two more thumbs up!). Then, even more obscure than Franklin, there's Krista Erickson who played the original "mean girl" in the summer camp classic "Little Darlings" and also enjoyed a brief career as a really nice piece of acting talent in the kind of movies that play late at night on cable television.Unfortunately, the only way to see this movie right now is to also catch it late at night on one of the Turner Stations (which is how I saw, but unfortunately didn't record, it). But, hey, if anyone reading this is a mover and shaker at Turner, this would be a great choice for a DVD release.

It's great to see at least a few posts on this good little t.v. slasher. I still pull out my old VHS of the NBC premiere just to see what television was like especially considering the current, sad state of the tube now where commercial blurbs are at the bottom, top and sides of squashed, mashed and castrated film & program credits and huge bylines slapped across the screen to remind you of what you are watching! Well, I can't really add to what's been said about this film except that it got some great play time on TBS in the late '80s and in an interview shortly before she died, Donna Reed lambasted the film as 'very cheap and on the sleazy side'! Nothing of the sort, I actually double featured this with Wes Craven's Scream for a couple of friends of mine and they really got into it. When will tele-flicks like this get their due?

Not bad "slasher" Movie with a great cast. It's about a psychopath who stalks an exclusive girls' school headed by Donna Reed. Among the ill-fated students are Diane Franklin (Better off Dead), Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club, Maid to Order), and Renee Jones (Friday the 13th Part 6). Larry Wilcox plays the cop hot on the murderer's trail, whoever he may be.