Coventry Review of Student Bodies

Student Bodies (1981)

Predates "Scary Movie" with nearly 20 years AND it's funnier!

[7/10 · 25 December 2008]

"Student Bodies" is already a fairly good and successful cinematic satire, but it even gets better when realizing the film actually got released in 1981. In other words, when the trend of prototypical 80's high school slashers still had to be launched properly, this movie already parodied all of its trademarks! The script of "Student Bodies" deliberately intended to spoof the pioneering classics of the slasher sub genre (such as "Black Christmas", "Halloween" and "When a Stranger Calls"), but by doing so unwarily also ridicules the vast majority of slashers that still have to be made throughout the entire 80's decade. "Student Bodies" is basically one giant collection of gags that can be placed in three main categories. First and foremost, there are many slapstick jokes that aren't necessarily related to the horror genre in particular. Following the tradition of films like "The Kentucky Fried Movie" and "Airplane", these are simply brainless absurdities causing you to laugh out loud whether you want to or not. A fine example to illustrate this type is, for instance, a student throwing a overripe tomato at the intercom in his classroom and then subsequently the camera cuts towards the principle's office where the tomato hits the speaker in the face. It's extremely stupid, yet so inventive you simply have to laugh! Then there's the specifically horror related jokes that are either (1) brilliantly witty or (2) fall painfully flat. Most of the jokes that are meant to emphasize the clichés of the genre and to point out the stupidity of stereotypical horror characters are hilarious and very effective. Whenever an empty-headed character does something really dumb (like leaving the door unlocked or wanders off by herself), an arrow appears on screen in order to make it even clearer. There's even a tally to keep us informed about the increasing body count and the killer him/herself has a heavy breathing problem, like cinematic stalkers often do. Unfortunately, however, the misfires are numerous as well and these are usually the longest-running jokes. In between all the craziness, there's also some room left for a textbook horror movie story. High school student Toby's friends have the annoying habit of showing up barbarically murdered, strangely enough always immediately after having sex. When suspicion falls upon her, Toby has no choice but to investigate what's going on herself and there are plenty of potential culprits to choose from; including the perverted janitor, the angry shop teacher, the sneering school counselor and even the principle who insists that his school is one of the best run in the county. In spite of having a small but loyal fan base, "Student Bodies" is a relatively unknown and underrated movie. I remember when "Scary Movie" got released a good 8 years ago, many people acted as if it was the first comedy ever to parody the slasher genre. For all those people, and of course for everyone who enjoys a good laugh as well, please grab the opportunity to check out this pleasant little gem.