Deadly Detention

The camera work and the actual look of everything was well done for a movie with what I assume was a shoestring budget. The premise is fairly simple, bit of 'Breakfast Club' in a prison attempt where the students are all hunted by an unknown assailant. And that's about all there is to the plot.

The problem is everything else. It's hard to criticize the acting because the dialogue and actions they say and do are so...juvenile and stupid that I don't think any actor would have been able to make them work. It's obvious the writers have no idea how modern teens talk or behave. They're supposedly arch-type teenagers but they're archetypes lifted from like a 2005 Nickelodeon sitcom. Nothing that happens ever has any real impact, there's no emotional connection to any of these characters because they're all sort of unbearable and annoying. There's no sense of dread or fear. It's just a group of "teens" making stupid quips as they wander around a prison until one of them supposedly dies.

I say supposedly because you never actually SEE anything that happens. Literally all the violence, if there is any, happens off screen. You never actually see what happens to a character when they're killed off. You see them being approached, a scared face, and then the scene is over and the story has moved on already.

Basically if this is a horror, comedy, and drama genre movie without any actual horror, comedy, or drama in it...then what is it? That's the feeling this movie leaves you with. It's nothing. It's not offensive really, there's just no point to watching it. It's just some fairly well shot unimaginative boring nonsense with a couple funny lines. Can't recommend it.

Not sure if this was suppose to be a horror or comedy or both. Terrible acting and story.

Deadly Detention otherwise known as The Detained is a comedy horror following a spate of detention themed horror movies (Arguably the best being Detention of the Dead (2012) )

It tells the story of 5 students who must serve detention in an abandoned prison while their school is dealing with a rabid opossum infestation. As is the way these things go things go south quickly and it becomes a fight for survival.

The cast are your stereotypical teen characters, you have the rich kid, the bible basher, the weird girl, the jock girl and the popular but promiscuous one. Oddly enough for a bunch of unknowns they do a really quite good job and I'd love to see the majority again especially the actresses who played Lexi and Taylor.

The film is your pretty generic slasher flick with lots of running away and people picked off until the big finale revelation. The trouble is that the kills are dreadful, in fact you have to question whether their really are any since they're all camera cutaways. I really hate that nonsense, then to make it worse the structuring is weird and the movies protagonist isn't who you think it is.

If you like your slashers distinctly PG then this might be one for you. Come for the decent performances, stay for the happy Disney-like atmosphere.

The Good:

Decent cast

The Bad:

Weirdly structured

Awful deaths

So let's see, five high school teens have been naughty and go to Saturday detention in an abandoned prison (say what?). There's the conceited hottie, the athletic female jock, the manly skateboarder, the male hottie, and the gay black boy. Put them together with the school principal and some are bound to die, right? Maybe, maybe not.

I guessed who the so-called killer was about 10 minutes in. So why did I bother watching? I was hoping to see some good old fashioned horror scares, some light-hearted comedic banter, and perhaps a little skin thrown in as a bonus...but no such luck.

Is it a worthwhile watch? Nope.

Something centred so closely on a small group of people in a restricted space needs very strong characters and spot-on dialogue, neither of which feature here. Also, just wondering, if the prison is deserted, how come the car-park is full?