Slaughter High

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slaughter High
Film poster for Slaughter High
Directed by	George Dugdale Mark Ezra Peter Litten
Produced by	Stephen Minasian Dick Randall
Written by	George Dugdale & Mark Ezra & Peter Litten
Starring	Caroline Munro Simon Scuddamore Carmine Iannaccone Donna Yeager Gary Martin Billy Hartman
Music by	Harry Manfredini
Cinematography	Alan Pudney
Editing by	Jim Connock
Distributed by	Vestron Pictures
Release date(s)	November 14, 1986 (USA)
Running time	90 min. Unrated version: 95 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Slaughter High is a 1986 slasher film written and directed by George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, and Peter Litten. It was shot in England, and many of the actors use fake American accents. Simon Scuddamore, who plays the film's slasher, committed suicide shortly after the film's release. The original music score was composed by Harry Manfredini.

Producers initially intended to call the film April Fool's Day, but renamed it after learning of Paramount's same-titled slasher film scheduled for release the same year.

[edit] Plot synopsis

The day begins with a popular student, Carol Manning (Caroline Munro), jokingly asking Marty Rantzen (Simon Scuddamore), the school nerd, to have sex with her in the women’s locker room. Marty, at first, is afraid of getting caught, but winds up accepting the offer and agrees to undress in the shower, claiming he's had sex many times before.

After he removes his clothes, Marty is surprisingly exposed to a group of students who tease him in several ways, including jabbing at his crotch with a javelin, giving him an electric shock, and dunking his head into a toilet bowl. This prank ends when the students’ coach comes in to find out what is happening.

The several students are disciplined by the coach, forced to perform a vigorous workout for him in the gymnasium. Still, a few of the students manage to pull a larger prank on Marty. Two students give Marty a marijuana joint laced with poison, which he smokes in the science lab where he is working on a project. The joint makes him so sick he runs to the men's room to vomit. While he is gone, Skip, one of the popular kids, rigs his experiment to explode in Marty's face.

Upon Marty's return, the set-up works, causing a great fire to erupt in the lab to his dismay. In the struggle, Marty accidentally bumps into a shelf and a jug of acid shatters on his head, leaving him horribly disfigured. The sound attracts the attention of the students, who stand by the door in shock.

Years later, those behind the prank are invited back to the school for a reunion. Upon arriving, they discover that the campus was shuttered years ago and the building is in disrepair, awaiting demolition. They begin to think that one of the former students was behind the invitations, but everyone denies it.

They decide to go into the school to hang out and drink alcohol, and come across a room containing their old school lockers, which to their surprise are filled with their old belongings. They notice Marty's old locker, and the alumni begin questioning what happened to him after the prank-gone-awry. Skip tells tells them that Marty is doing fine and probably forgot all about what happened. He has supposedly been in a mental institution.

Soon thereafter, the friends begin to die in gruesome ways at the hands of a mysterious killer dressed like a jester. One's stomach explodes, one melts away in an acid bath, one is impaled on a javelin. They quickly come to believe it is Marty, deranged and bent on revenge. All the former students wind up dead, and the film closes with Marty apparently going insane. He wakes up in a mental hospital, restrained to a bed and wearing bandages on his face, and had in fact dreamed the events of the massacre.

The film ends with Marty strangling the nurse, jamming a syringe into the doctor's eye, and peeling a chunk of skin from his own face.