Massacre At Central High is a weird little teen revenge flick - there are many things in it that totally spotlight the low budget - endless shots of the boom mike in frame, in the reflections of some of the shinier cars you can see some of the camera crew, etc. The acting is all over the place - from understated to terrible over the top. And whether it is a conscious choice or not - there are NO adults anywhere to be found in the hallways of this "high school" - now whether that is symbolism for "when you are new in a high school, you are truly alone - there might as well NOT be any teachers or adults around to save you" OR the budget was so small they just cut out any parts for adult actors knowing they could pay these eager teen actors peanuts. Yes, Robert Carradine and Andrew Stevens went on to bigger and better things - but lots of this movie is just an absolute mess - from the opening soft ballad to jump editing to some awful acting BUT...there is something very real, very sincere in the revenge taking that definitely works, that definitely makes your skin crawl - so the movie is effective in many ways and the other powerful thing about it is it is no slasher film - there isn't some evil janitor or demented shop teacher going around and knocking off students - this is pure revenge and then after the revenge, pure, unadulterated human greed for power. Lots of stuff will stay with you. An interesting mid-seventies teen revenge flick to seek out - we saw it on a DVD but it was region-coded - so it came from another country outside the U.S.
Review of Massacre at Central High
