Saturday, February 01, 2025

Slaughter High (1986) produced by Dick Randall, starring Caroline Munro

From Dick Randall and Stephen Minasian—the geniuses behind such trash classics as PIECES and DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS—comes this bonkers high school revenge tale complete with Brits awkwardly trying to play Americans and Harry Manfredini phoning it in with a recycled FRIDAY THE 13th score.

SLAUGHTER HIGH (filmed under the title APRIL FOOL’S DAY) opens at a high school where a group of “teens” prank Marty, a poor nerd whom they abuse and humiliate. Not content with scarring the poor kind emotionally, they give him a laced joint and sabotage his science experiment—resulting in actual scarring and disfigurement. (Tragically, Simon Scuddamore, who stars as Marty, committed suicide shortly after production wrapped. SLAUGHTER HIGH is his only credit.)

Fast forward 10 years and the pranksters—including 35-year-old Caroline Munro and the peep show girl from DON’T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS—return to the clearly-not-American high school for a reunion only they were invited to. It doesn’t take long before an unknown killer starts taking revenge for their abuse of Marty, offing them with poisoned beers, tractors, and electrified bed frames.

Despite the obviously English setting, total lack of any mystery, and the courageous attempts at American accents, SLAUGHTER HIGH is a sleazy slice of 80s trash complete with the nudity and gore missing from more big-budget genre entries of the day. — Dan Taylor

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