13 Asesinatos y medio

I stumbled upon this flick by accident. I was more interested in the other side of the Commander USA double feature. I just figured this was some lame 80s slasher flick. To my surprise, it was an Airplane style spoof of the slasher flicks of the late 70s/early 80s. In fact, it almost plays like a parody of "Scream", years before it came out. Everyone tries to figure out who the killer is that is picking off the students. The killer calls up and breathes heavy. Every horror fan should check this out!

Part of me thinks that, if the ever-reputable Criterion Collection can put out a 2-disc special edition of crap like "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas," they certainly could throw a bone to a sharp-witted parody like "Student Bodies," which nails the genre better than the 3 "Scream"s (which eventually went down the route of self-parody anyway) and the 4 (and counting) "Scary Movie"s. So why, then, has this cover-all-bases send-up been relegated to a word-of-mouth cult item since its 1981 release? Distributor Paramount, which hit paydirt with "Friday the 13th" the year before (and its sequels in the years following), likely saw "Bodies" as an opportunity to take a satirical jab at a genre that really only "began" with the breakout success of John Carpenter's "Halloween" (1978). The result? A film so ahead of its time that the audience didn't know what to make of it--relatively goreless and sex-free (our killer offs his teen victims BEFORE they get a chance to score), "Student Bodies" approaches an "Airplane!"-style level of pull-all-stops humor (albeit on a shoestring budget) that remains surprisingly tasteful, even in the midst of cracks about necrophilia and a farting corpse. The opening 15 minutes alone stuffs in references to "Halloween," "When a Stranger Calls," "The Prowler," and even Dario Argento's gialli (our killer's gloved hands figure heavily into the plot); the filmmakers superimpose a helpful "body count" tally plus other deliciously obvious mistakes the characters make (a door kept unlocked, for instance). I only have one major complaint about the film: even at a scant 86 minutes, it goes on for too long, halting to a crawl during a prom sequence that unwisely tries to build some suspense to accompany the humor (though I will give the climax credit for successfully managing to lampoon "Carrie," "Psycho," and even "The Tenant"). That being said, "Student Bodies" is a fine, funny horror lampoon, even more resonant in the fact that, despite its early placement in the slasher pantheon, it still manages to nail all the clichés that have afflicted the genre ever since.

The first 20 or so minutes of the movie are pretty funny. Sure, there are some cheesy gags in there, but there is a jovial spirit that makes even these lamer gags ones that make you giggle. However, after that part of the movie ends, the frequency of the gags that work grows slower and slower. Eventually, the laughs totally stop and the remaining portion of the movie is somewhat painful to sit through. I suspect that the major production problems that happened during filming are the chief culprit here, not only explaining the drop in humor but also how some things don't make any sense even for a goofy comedy. (It would also explain how some additional gags seem to have been added in the movie during post-production.) There are laughs here - even a few that would be considered classics of some kind - but nowhere enough. Actually, considering how many visuals of the Dr. Pepper logo that are displayed, maybe it was intended as a commercial instead of an actual movie!

If you can, I strongly recommend to watch this movie with a good friend because it's probably hilarious that way. Watching it alone, I found it hard to laugh at most of the jokes because they are so constant and over the top they are just not funny to me. If you liked the movie "Airplane!", you will probably like this movie and have a good time. While I acknowledge the effort and good ideas in the movie, I personally didn't laugh a lot, but never the less I think the movie deserves it's share of praise for parodying horror genre clichés. Acting is also really great and, all in all, I give "Student Bodies" 6/10! It's definitely worth a watch both to hardcore genre fans and casuals alike. Just make sure to enjoy it in company!

Those who are not sold on this movie have not seen it with friends. The biggest laugh-getting slumber party movie of all time. Take off your thinking cap, don't take yourself seriously and do not watch alone! It pokes fun at how stupid the acting and plot points are of slashers. The original teen horror comedy has become one of the most seminal movies ever - dozens of Student Bodies imitations try to duplicate the sick and disturbed humor, but those are contrived wanting to copy. This is the most genuinely disturbed comedy of them all. It should be... look at the teenage snuff films they ridicule. It deserves the Nobel Prize. Ahead of its time. But watch with friends. "Individually, the audience is an idiot. collectively, it is a genius." - Samuel Goldwyn.... SO WATCH WITH FRIENDS! No one is qualified to judge until they do.