Hell High

Moviecut—Raging Fury

source: Raging Fury

This movie had so much potential to be far better than it was, not that it wasn't bad or anything it just left me wanting more with much of its effort of telling a decent story was squandered with unnecessary scenes of pointless character interactions that barely furthers the plot led by an antagonist who you don't feel a lot for with very little actual history behind our main villain as he and his gang feel entirely stock, yet the teacher played by Maureen Mooney did give a pretty decent performance. The plot follows 4 teenagers who decide to play a prank on their emotionally unstable Biology teacher, not content with that they decide to terrorize her some more until she snaps & jumps out a window. Thinking she's dead, the crazed teacher begins to pick them off one by one. This really takes on a rollercoaster ride, but the underlying idea had such promise, but the filmmakers really screwed things up with so many bad decisions like for instance it takes way too long for the revenge part to kick in & the final confrontation was a huge let down. Okay to a certain degree this film is slightly above the usual cheesy slasher flicks of the 80's. However this movie tries to balance way too many genre elements without ever really being successful & the acting is way too amateurish for you the viewer to be fully invested. Perhaps if this was a lot more focused then it could have stood out amongst the glut of slasher movies from this time period, because as it stands it has a decent premise, but wasted potential.

Pros: Very weird protagonists, very different from characters in similar movies Great soundtrack, original and otherwise Shot well, focus on interesting objects or characters in each scene Decent acting, felt stiff but it works Unintentionally hilarious Cons: Spots of weird editing Really minimal plot Poorly written antagonist Best part: driving a car on the football field Worst part: tying up Dickens but he gets freed before he can get cut up, just a good indicator of the cheesy, coincidental horror aspect of the movie

Hell High starts with a young girl named Brooke Storm (Amy Beth Erenrich) playing down the local swamp (!) when two lovers (Webster Whinery & Karen Russell) unexpectedly turn up on a motorbike, the guy wants sex with the girl but she says no & in his frustration he rips Brooke's doll apart as she looks on... Jump forward '18 Years Later' & Brooke (Maureen Money) is now a biology teacher who is having a hard time with a student named Dickens (Christopher Stryker) & his gang, Queenie (Millie Prezioso), Smiler (Jason Brill) & the gangs newest recruit ex-football star Jon-Jon (Christopher Cousins). Dickens decides to play a prank on Brooke & after finding out where she lives the gang fill plastic bags with mud from the swamp & splatter Brooke's house & pour it over her head as they jump on her roof. Brooke is understandably upset & after Dickens tries to rape her she decides to take revenge on her tormentors... Co-written, co-produced & directed by Douglas Grossman & also known as Raging Fury I thought Hell High wasn't anything special. The script by Grossman & Leo Evans is your basic tale of revenge although it takes a while to get to it, you can practically fast forward the entire first 45 minutes as virtually nothing happens, after that point they play the prank on Brooke & things all of a sudden become a lot more interesting as the exploitation elements kick in. Unfortunately I found the whole thing a bit on the tame side, sure someone throwing a bag of swamp mud over you would be upsetting but would it really turn you into a cold blooded killer? Don't forget that Dickens never actually rapes her either so that cannot be used as any reason. It's certainly nowhere near as exploitative or sleazy as some other revenge films such as the terrible I Spit on Your Grave (1979) or the utterly brilliant Angel of Vengeance (1981) which is how a film like this should be done, I mean the viewer needs to feel for the female victim & understand the motivations for what she's doing for the revenge part to have any real impact. The character's are OK but you never really care for anyone which is a problem, the dialogue is functional & nothing else. It's one of those films which is OK to watch to pass the time but if your looking for something outstanding than you won't find it here. I'd imagine I'd have totally forgotten it by the middle of next week. Director Grossman does an OK job on what must have been a low budget, while it isn't going to win any awards for technical achievement it looks OK & occasionally has a nice sleazy atmosphere, it just doesn't sustain it for long enough. There are a few scenes of nudity but nothing that memorable & there's not much in the way of blood or gore either, two people are impaled on spikes, someone has their head bashed in with a rock, someone has a pencil stick in their head, someone is impaled on a poker & someone has a knife cut their throat & none of it is that graphic or shocking. Hell High (a title which makes no logical sense) is quite well made considering it's low budget roots although the music was quite good. The acting was OK but nothing special & Mooney is dull & forgettable as Brooke while lead villain Stryker died of AID's almost two years before the film was eventually released as it was shot in 1986 but not released until 1989. Hell High isn't a particularly good film but at the same time I don't think it's a particularly bad one, it's just all very average & uninspiring. There are much better revenge films out there, watch only if you've got nothing better to do.

Christopher Stryker (who died of AIDS after this film)is a troublemaker named Dickens who seeks revenge against his biology teacher, Ms Storm (Mooney) after she slaps him for being an obnoxious tool, throwing test papers in the air as a means to make her angry. Christopher Cousins is Jon-Jon, an ex-football player who lost his girl to the team's star jock, joining Dickens' bunch of misfits for the hell of it. The other members of Dickens' brood are the slutty Queenie, aware of her appetite for sex and Smiler, the overweight stooge who is often shown stuffing his face. Dickens, who spends his time often contemplating what his next prank will be, decides to first peep on Storm and then gather up some slop from the nearby swamp for an epic tribute to his biology teacher, his unpleasant feelings for her unleashed with the kind of mischief he's famous for. What commences, the four involved, bombarding Storm's home with muddy swamp goo, bouncing on her roof with Halloween masks, drives the teacher over the edge, a night of murder resulting. According to Joe Bob Briggs, the film was made in like 1985, only to be released as the slasher genre was on its' last legs, soon to stagnate until SCREAM brought a resurgence. Atypical of the genre, the four kids cause the teacher to go berserk, a psychological trauma from the past awakening the beast in the woman. For tits and violence, HELL HIGH delivers, but there isn't as much high school in the movie as you might expect. Stryker stands out from the cast as the burdensome sociopath, while the others lend support in their immoral behavior. No one, except Mooney's Ms Storm comes across sympathetically. Even Cousins, who only cares about his own hide, isn't a hero, smiling at the end when his framing of the football player works! Stone bashing to the skull, pencil to the skull, spike and fireplace poker impalements, even a throat knife slicing for good measure. Plenty of body double work during the * scenes. Might be a sleeper for slasher fans looking for a movie that does stray from the formula at times. Most memorable scene could be when Dickens plans to rape Storm only for Queen to interrupt, showing him how to really grope a woman!

I thought this film was funny. No worse than any other 80s horror movie. It is what it is. I also thought it was funny that they tried to pass off such old looking talent as high schoolers. I mean that chick looked like she was almost 40! Hahahaha I read on here the teacher who killed as a kid was pregnant during the movie. You could see that in one of the shots when she's out of the shower. Also you could tell they used a body double in the shower too. The skin was more tan and you could see the body double's long pony tail when the teacher had short hair. Also I think the teacher got a bum deal in the movie. I mean why did she have to get killed just because she went crazy. She went crazy for a good reason.

I thought this movie was really laid back, boring for the first hour or so, but if you like the 80s (like myself) and horror (like myself) then I would say this movie is worth watching! I dig the soundtrack and the scary 80s beats when death arrives, and the Queenie is definitely poster-child of the 80s! Shes got style shes got grace, shes got beaten to death by a rock in her FAACE!! MWAH HA HA HA! If you're bored, watch it! There needed to be a bit more action and gore but for the most part its pretty enjoyable if you like the horror films that are pretty dark all the way through. You don't grow any attachment to any of the characters, its pretty much just a cheesy horror film of the 80s! And mind you, those are the best. The beginning is quite fantastic, who doesn't love a young little girl in a scary little pink dress who kills off some teenagers who try to have sex in her playhouse!? lol.

I saw "Hell High" a while ago but I still remember how cheesy it is. It's about a band of "misfits" at some high school planning a night of harassment on this one teacher. The teacher still remembers something horrible that happened when she was little. The flashback of the accidental murders of two motorcycling teens is really odd and freaky. And the rest of the movie is crappy. After some teenage "antics," the four head to the teacher's house for a night of "terror." It totally goes downhill after that when the accidentally kill the woman. Yet, she's not really dead. She's...a zombie! Oh, what a surprise. So, one by one, the losers get it. In this movie, though, there is a good guy instead of a good girl, and he gets away, never telling the story but remembering the story. In the end, he goes crazy, and it's the only really scary part of the film. I definitely don't recommend this. It's really bad.

(* out of *****) The Blockbuster Video Guide gave this movie three stars -- I'm thinking everyone involved in the Blockbuster franchise must have undergone mentally-corruptive radiation treatments in the '70s. Boy, is this movie stupid! It's your typical cruel prank/revenge/slasher plot, except it looks even cheaper and bored me even more than usual. Some mean (and over-aged) high school kids throw rocks at their mean teacher's house and then sexually molest her, so she jumps out the window. Well, of course she's not dead, and of course there's a traumatic incident from her childhood (she `accidentally' threw a bucktful of mud onto two libidinous motorists, causing them to fly off the bike and impale themselves on wooden stakes in a scene that I assume was supposed to be shocking, but, instead, had me laughing for a good five minutes), and, next thing you know, she's hopping mad and homicidal. Character motivations are weak and absurd, at best, and the plotting is almost transparent in this sick turkey. I loved the scene where the former football star and his friends drive a car onto the field in the middle of a game and intercept a pass while cheesy, triumphant music swells -- were we supposed to feel uplifted here and like this guy or something because he's not quite as cruel and sadistic as the other guy, he's just too much of a coward and a doofus to not go along with him? It stars -- well, really, who cares? Lowlight: Oh dear, so much to choose from.... There's the tacky scene where the teacher's out cold and undressed on her bed and the slutty girl's showing her dopey ex-boyfriend how to properly touch a woman. But, no, let's just stick with the opening scene where the kid throws the mud at the bikers and they lose control and somehow land on those sharp wooden stakes. I'm sure there are even `better' scenes, but I'd have to rent the movie and watch it again to refresh my memory, and I'm just not ready to do that.