Killer High

I am totally NOT a fan of horror movies, especially not the gory kind, or the stupid spoofs of more recent years (Scary Movie, Disaster Movie etc). I was in the hospital recently and had nothing to do but watch SyFy channel's horror movie marathon, so I ended up watching it. I loved it! I actually cared about the characters and the plot, and laughed the whole way through. It's not a straight up spoof, it's the kind of movie where the characters take the situation as completely genuine, but the movie is not taking itself too seriously (think Ghostbusters).

The acting was perfect for this type of movie, overly dramatic, but not so forced it was annoying. The characters were true to the stereotypes of high school and the behavior/conversations were spot on for school reunions. The plot was silly, but there actually was one that was well thought out and they stuck to it. There were some really cool visuals that would have fit in with a serious action movie, but were made to fit this kind of comedy to perfect effect.

Side note: The scene with the chocolate balls had me laughing so loud my nurse came to check on me. :D

Bottom line, if you're going in to this expecting a serious horror movie (Texas Chainsaw Massacre type) you're going to hate it. If you're going in expecting a straight up parody (Scary Movie type), you may enjoy it, but it's not going to be what you're after. But, if you're looking for something like Little Shop of Horrors or Ghostbusters (this is definitely more gory, comedic gore, but there is still a lot of blood and entrails etc), this is going to be what you're after.

Participating in a scavenger hunt, a group of teens unwittingly release a giant warthog-like creature that stalks a group of friends attending their high-school reunion at the school years later, forcing the class president and her entourage to fight off the deadly, bloodthirsty creature.

This one ended up being an absolute blast of an effort and had a lot to really like about it. One of the biggest selling points here is the incredibly enjoyable atmosphere created throughout here. The abandoned school where it all takes place in is a perfectly creepy setting, offering all the gloom of a darkened, left-behind location covering the bleachers or the floors, the broken doors and walls with the endless corridors that works even better with the reunion centered in the gym which is full of all the neon lighting and decorations which all come together into a fun overall setting. There's also the fact that this one features the gloriously practical giant warthog creature that runs wild which gives this one a great feel. It's imposing and quite creepy, managing to score rather nicely not only with its design but also the ferocity of the creature's actions as it leads into some rather fun attack scenes here. Due to the unexpected nature of it's appearance at the school, these scenes of the creature running loose offer up a lot to like from the opening ambush on the pranksters that starts this one to the first attacks on the outside of the party and the first instances of the creature being on the premises during their party that she tries to hide from everyone offers up the kind of rampaging creature feature action that works nicely. Once the full extent of the creature's revealed to all, a spectacular series of bodily dismemberments against the rest of the patrons at the party in a full-on frenzy of severed limbs, blood-spray and total chaos that turns it into a fantastic action scene and setting the stage for the final half where it turns into the relentless series of confrontations with the survivors not only realizing the creatures' origins and intent but also getting into some highly enjoyable tactics to outwit the creature. Combined with the fine blood and gore through the kills involved here, this one offers enough to like to hold out over it's few minor flaws. The main problem here is the series of cliches utilized in the storyline which make it quite obvious what's going on. The idea of keeping it hidden from the party guests is completely nonsensical as that's criminally negligent of keeping them in harms' way against the creature and simply keeping the running storyline of her need for perfection to continue on. Still putting people in danger to allow the creature the opportunity to kill as many as it does during the big massacre when it didn't need to had it simply dropped the idea of running into these cliches when it didn't need to. The other flaw is the rather confusing nature of including the slow-motion captures of the attack scenes showing the layout of the scene with the creature interacting with the bodies and seeing their reactions, a rather irritating tactic when it's constantly repeated during each of the big scenes that the setup is featured. Alongside the rather curious nature of bringing up the asthma condition of the creatures' human host that never gets utilized making it's inclusion a question mark in that sense, there's not a whole lot really wrong here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

If I had to describe every aspect of this movie in three words it would be 'surprisingly not bad'. I'm not saying that it's good, I'm just saying that it's surprisingly not bad. The acting, sound, cinematography, and effects are all better than what you would expect. The story itself isn't great, but it's a decent setup to what is essentially an excuse for cheesy jokes and bloody kills. I really could have done without the handful of pointless freeze-frame scenes. I'm not sure if they were trying to be stylish here but it just doesn't work.

Overall, it's very mediocre. But for a SyFy original, you could certainly do much worse. If you feel like turning your brain off for a little while and enjoy some cheesy practical effect horror, with copious amounts of fake blood, it's a decent watch. Just don't expect too much. 5/10

Reading the premise, which is hardly a novel one (not even close) but it did intrigue me somewhat, is enough to know what exactly to expect from 'Killer High'. What is expected to anybody even just a little intrigued into watching it is a lot of silliness, a good deal of camp and far from high quality production values, to not expect too much really and to not take it too seriously. If a film has all of that and has those expectations yet executes its components not very well it is to me not very easy to excuse it.

'Killer High', when seeing it for myself with an open mind, was not awful (have seen far worse films and worse wastes of potential recently and in general) and it was more or less what was expected. Would hesitate though to call 'Killer High' a great film, would hesitate to even call it a good film as there are elements not executed well. It is easy to see why some will find it guilty pleasure fun, it is also easy to see why others will find it bad.

There were things not done too badly. The best thing to me was the acting which was better than average, with Kacey Rohl carrying the film with ease and conviction. The audio is suitably eerie without being too loud or obvious. The monster has its moments, it may look goofy but there is a degree of menace.

Parts, though they came too few and between, did bring a smile to my face, coming over naturally and not really making me cringe. It also didn't bore me out of my skull at least.

Not much was done bringing much new to familiar territory however, predictability was very high and the camp silliness did get excessive that it actually became hard to not take it seriously. There is very little that's scary here and the suspense levels are even less. Wouldn't have said no to less use of gore as some of it was not really needed and cheapened scenes that only would have needed the suspense (again not enough) and sound to make it unsettling.

Despite not expecting the production values to be great, they didn't need to be this cheap or limited. The script mostly lacked sharpness and lacked personality and tightness, too much of the humour is silly pushed to breaking point and the cringe factor present quite a lot of time gets too much and takes away from the enjoyment. The characters are played well but just have too little to them in the writing, little more than genre stereotypes.

On the whole, tricky one here with it not being bad but not particularly good either. Less humour, and more subtlety in it, and more scares and suspense would have made things better. 5/10

If you're in the mood for over the top, gory fun, this movie delivers the goods. It's colorful, the actors are all game, especially the lead (Sabrina), and the creature (a sort of giant Razorback puppet in most scenes) is grotesque enough to be impressive. I had fun watching it, and as long as you're cognizant of what you're going to get from a movie with this title, you won't be disappointed. Special mention goes to the lady in the wheelchair. In fact, everyone on camera is giving it their all, and that elevates this movie to a higher level than expected. The movie involves teens and a cursed high school. The body count is astronomical. The backstory is ridiculous and inexplicable. What more do you need to know? Nothing, really. Just enjoy the zany ride.