Hell High AKA Real Trouble is a trashy throwback to exploitation movies of the 70s, but with a distinctive late '80s vibe - it's part rape/revenge flick, part deranged psycho horror, and part juvenile delinquent/teen gang film, and it kicks off with what is one of the most jaw-droppingly ridiculous openings to an 80s horror that I can recall...
A little girl, in a pink frou-frou dress that even Shirley Temple would have felt embarrassed to wear, clutches her dolly as she makes her way to a dilapidated wooden hut, where she plays with her other toys. Her fun is interrupted by the arrival of a couple on a motorcycle. The little girl slips out of the shack through some loose boards, and watches as the couple enter and begin to make out, the guy roughly groping his girlfriend's breasts. However, the woman decides she's not willing to go all the way in a dirty old shack full of creepy toys, causing the guy to vent his frustration by yanking the head off one of the little girl's dolls. The couple then leave the shack and get back onto their motorbike. Angry, the little girl fills a bucket with mud and throws it at the couple as they ride past, making them lose control and hit a log. The man and woman are launched through the air and wind up impaled on some sharp poles, the blonde moppet looking on in shock. Cheesy, gory, with gratuitous nudity, and THAT dress, it's a hugely fun way to kick things off.
Sadly, the rest of Hell High, which takes place eighteen years later, isn't quite as hilariously bonkers as this prologue, but it has its moments, making the film a worthwhile time-waster for fans of '80s celluloid lunacy.
High school biology teacher Miss Storm (Maureen Mooney) finds her unruly students a handful, especially punk Dickens (Christopher Stryker) and his pals, Smiler (Jason Brill) and Queenie (Millie Prezioso). When Dickens pushes Miss Storm so far that she slaps his face, he swears to get even. Enlisting football team drop-out Jon-Jon (Christopher Cousins), Dickens drives to Miss Storm's house where they spy through her window as she soaps up her jubblies in the shower. Later, the whole gang returns to the teacher's home and, wearing rubber masks, scare the bejeezuz out of her, causing her to have flashbacks to a horrific incident from her childhood: that's right... Miss Storm is frou-frou girl all growed up, and just a bit mentally fragile.
When Dickens goes too far and tries to rape the teacher, she throws herself out of her bedroom window and is presumed dead by the dumb teens. While the gang tries to come up with a plan (which involves framing the school football team quarterback), Miss Storm - now totally deranged - grabs herself some weapons and exacts revenge. Queenie has her head caved in with a rock, Smiler gets a pencil rammed into his temple, and Dickens is tied up ready for dissection. Jon-Jon knocks Miss Storm down and unties Dickens, who, armed with a knife, leaps onto the crazed woman and cuts her throat; in doing so, he is skewered on the fire poker that the teacher is holding. Jon-Jon flees the house (remembering to plant evidence to frame the quarterback), but he's left more than a little bit disturbed by his experience.
Very violent, but too comical to be genuinely disturbing, with a decidedly sleazy undertone, Hell High is a fun piece of bottom-shelf straight-to-video nonsense that leaves one burning question: exactly what is that slime that Dickens and his pals scoop up in the swamp?
A little girl, in a pink frou-frou dress that even Shirley Temple would have felt embarrassed to wear, clutches her dolly as she makes her way to a dilapidated wooden hut, where she plays with her other toys. Her fun is interrupted by the arrival of a couple on a motorcycle. The little girl slips out of the shack through some loose boards, and watches as the couple enter and begin to make out, the guy roughly groping his girlfriend's breasts. However, the woman decides she's not willing to go all the way in a dirty old shack full of creepy toys, causing the guy to vent his frustration by yanking the head off one of the little girl's dolls. The couple then leave the shack and get back onto their motorbike. Angry, the little girl fills a bucket with mud and throws it at the couple as they ride past, making them lose control and hit a log. The man and woman are launched through the air and wind up impaled on some sharp poles, the blonde moppet looking on in shock. Cheesy, gory, with gratuitous nudity, and THAT dress, it's a hugely fun way to kick things off.
Sadly, the rest of Hell High, which takes place eighteen years later, isn't quite as hilariously bonkers as this prologue, but it has its moments, making the film a worthwhile time-waster for fans of '80s celluloid lunacy.
High school biology teacher Miss Storm (Maureen Mooney) finds her unruly students a handful, especially punk Dickens (Christopher Stryker) and his pals, Smiler (Jason Brill) and Queenie (Millie Prezioso). When Dickens pushes Miss Storm so far that she slaps his face, he swears to get even. Enlisting football team drop-out Jon-Jon (Christopher Cousins), Dickens drives to Miss Storm's house where they spy through her window as she soaps up her jubblies in the shower. Later, the whole gang returns to the teacher's home and, wearing rubber masks, scare the bejeezuz out of her, causing her to have flashbacks to a horrific incident from her childhood: that's right... Miss Storm is frou-frou girl all growed up, and just a bit mentally fragile.
When Dickens goes too far and tries to rape the teacher, she throws herself out of her bedroom window and is presumed dead by the dumb teens. While the gang tries to come up with a plan (which involves framing the school football team quarterback), Miss Storm - now totally deranged - grabs herself some weapons and exacts revenge. Queenie has her head caved in with a rock, Smiler gets a pencil rammed into his temple, and Dickens is tied up ready for dissection. Jon-Jon knocks Miss Storm down and unties Dickens, who, armed with a knife, leaps onto the crazed woman and cuts her throat; in doing so, he is skewered on the fire poker that the teacher is holding. Jon-Jon flees the house (remembering to plant evidence to frame the quarterback), but he's left more than a little bit disturbed by his experience.
Very violent, but too comical to be genuinely disturbing, with a decidedly sleazy undertone, Hell High is a fun piece of bottom-shelf straight-to-video nonsense that leaves one burning question: exactly what is that slime that Dickens and his pals scoop up in the swamp?