Student Bodies

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For the Canadian-produced television series, see Student Bodies (TV series)
Student Bodies

Theatrical release poster.
Directed by Mickey Rose
Michael Ritchie (uncredited)
Produced by Allen Smithee
Written by Mickey Rose
Starring Kristen Riter
Matthew Goldsby
Cullen Chambers
Cinematography Robert Ebinger
Editing by Kathryn Ruth Hope
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) August 7, 1981
Running time 86 minutes
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Student Bodies is an American comedy film first released on August 7, 1981, written and directed by Mickey Rose. It is a spoof of slasher horror films such as Prom Night, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. The film's style of humor can be compared to other spoof films, such as Airplane! and The Naked Gun (the latter 3 of which were also made by Paramount Pictures). For example, every time somebody dies, an on-screen body count appears.

Michael Ritchie produced the movie, but later took his name off the picture and used the well-worn pseudonym Allen Smithee instead. One of a group of movies directed towards teenaged audiences during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Student Bodies had little box office success when it was originally released. However, the film developed a cult following when it was released on home video, and shown on cable television. The DVD was released on June 3, 2008.

Aside from Richard Belzer, Joe Flood, and Cullen Chambers, a large number of the cast contains completely unknown actors and actresses, most of them having appeared only in this film. Even IMDb holds nothing of their biographies.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Student Bodies is about a serial killer who stalks female students at Lamab High School, while at the same time, voyeurisitcally watching them. The killer calls himself "The Breather", presumably because the killer is always breathing heavily.

The Breather enjoys stalking victims over the telephone, and, much like Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th movies, he hates seeing youngsters having sex. The Breather used many unusual objects to kill his female victims such as a paper clip, an eraser, and a horse-head bookend. He killed his male victims by placing them in trash bags alive.

It is initially suspected that the school's principal is the killer. While the principal has a killing instinct, that theory was later proven wrong, as he became the 12th victim when he slipped on marbles and impaled himself while trying to attack a student with a trophy won by the school typewriting team.

[edit] The Stick

One of the film's oddest aspects is a character called Malvert, a creepy-looking janitor (itself a familiar trope in slasher movies), who does bizarre things like urinate in trash cans and move about in a herky-jerky fashion. Malvert is played by a tall, double-jointed comedian known only as The Stick [1], who never made another film and passed into obscurity. (The Stick's real identity, or if he is even still alive, remains a mystery.) Several on-line reviews give the film itself a mixed reaction but praise The Stick's performance. [2] [3] [4]

[edit] Movie cast

  • Kristen Riter as Toby
  • Matthew Goldsby as Hardy
  • Richard Belzer as The Breather
  • Joe Flood as Mr. Dumpkin
  • Joe Talarowski as Principal Peters
  • Mimi Weddell as Miss Mumsley
  • Carl Jacobs as Dr. Sigmund
  • Peggy Cooper as Ms. Van Dyke
  • Janice E. O'Malley as Nurse Krud
  • Kevin Mannis as Scott
  • Sara Eckhardt as Patti
  • Oscar James as the Football Coach
  • Kay Ogden as Ms. Leclair
  • The Stick as Malvert the Janitor
  • Brian Batytis as Wheels
  • Cullen Chambers as Charles Ray
  • Joan Browning Jacobs as Mrs. Hummers
  • Angela Bressler as Julie

[edit] Filming locations

  • Lamar High School (Houston, Texas) — known as Lamab High School in the film. Lamar High is perhaps better known for its use in the film Rushmore; the "Grover Cleveland High School" scenes were filmed there.

[edit] Parodies

[edit] External links

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