Returning to her old high school, the new vice-principal of an all-girls school discovers a series of incidents involving the student body there have direct ties to her own past including the rumored ghost said to be haunting the school and must help them unearth the cause of the situation before it's too late.
Overall, there's a lot to like with this one. Where it works best is in the setup involving the systemic abuse that takes place at the school. Rather than go overboard detailing the ghostly activities present to build up a sense of tension, instead, the focus is more on the treatment of the students. Major plotlines involving the need for acceptance, acting out with false claims of neglect and sexual harassment as well as abuse stemming from the rejection of unwanted attraction between a student and teacher manage to drive a lot of the running time. Even more so, when these allegations are proven true they're often met with skepticism and the need to turn a blind eye to the infraction out of fear that the incident with scar their reputation. When all of these factors are applied alongside the usual standard and drive from the teachers to get the best grades and citizenship out of their students, there's some chilling work here at times. Likewise, this one also has a lot to like with the slow advent of supernatural hauntings throughout here. With the main setup focused on the past haunting in the school following the vice-principal for what happened to them as kids, there are some genuinely creepy moments here. This flashback is quite creepy with the incident starting the hauntings in the rest of the film as well as getting the first few incidents involving the ghost stalking students as being quite creepy. These include the library encounter as well as the creepy chase through the storage room where the first clear sighting of the bone-chilling design of the ghost makes for a spine-chilling sight. Taking great advantage of the atmosphere involving the school and some fine jump-scares with the spirit coming for people when least expected, these elements all manage to provide a lot of enjoyable elements here. All that said, there are some issues with this that keep it down somewhat. This mostly comes along from the more pronounced focus away from the ghost for long periods of time to feature all the extracurricular activities on and off-campus. The emergence of the incident where one of the teachers filmed himself sexually abusing and then blackmailing several students with threats about who leaked what and who would be responsible creates the majority of the tension within. The resulting scandal and everyone reacts to it, from the students using it as leverage to exert their social status over everyone else, the faculty trying to keep it quiet for risk of damaging their reputation, and the guilty party resorting to whatever means possible to keep it a secret combine into an engaging time overall. However, none of these factors are enough to overcome the fact that the ghost isn't that prominent in the film. It shows up on only a few occasions and isn't a very big part of the film overall. Despite the scenes being creepy and chilling when they occur, far too much of this is spent sorting out the troubling accusations and scandals surrounding the student body. They seem to be well aware of the being and are openly searching for it at several points but it never goes anywhere and is dropped for long parts of the film's running time especially once a secondary reveal occurs in the final minutes involving a series of incidents in the past completely unrelated to the main storyline is revealed. The truth about what happened to the girls in the school and how the particular room in the school came to be haunted involves a secondary plotline that comes out of nowhere and ties into the teachers' trauma rather than explaining what's going on. Some might not be that turned off by these scenes since they're still fun and well-filmed, but for those wanting ghostly action it does come up short.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, and themes of sexual abuse.
Overall, there's a lot to like with this one. Where it works best is in the setup involving the systemic abuse that takes place at the school. Rather than go overboard detailing the ghostly activities present to build up a sense of tension, instead, the focus is more on the treatment of the students. Major plotlines involving the need for acceptance, acting out with false claims of neglect and sexual harassment as well as abuse stemming from the rejection of unwanted attraction between a student and teacher manage to drive a lot of the running time. Even more so, when these allegations are proven true they're often met with skepticism and the need to turn a blind eye to the infraction out of fear that the incident with scar their reputation. When all of these factors are applied alongside the usual standard and drive from the teachers to get the best grades and citizenship out of their students, there's some chilling work here at times. Likewise, this one also has a lot to like with the slow advent of supernatural hauntings throughout here. With the main setup focused on the past haunting in the school following the vice-principal for what happened to them as kids, there are some genuinely creepy moments here. This flashback is quite creepy with the incident starting the hauntings in the rest of the film as well as getting the first few incidents involving the ghost stalking students as being quite creepy. These include the library encounter as well as the creepy chase through the storage room where the first clear sighting of the bone-chilling design of the ghost makes for a spine-chilling sight. Taking great advantage of the atmosphere involving the school and some fine jump-scares with the spirit coming for people when least expected, these elements all manage to provide a lot of enjoyable elements here. All that said, there are some issues with this that keep it down somewhat. This mostly comes along from the more pronounced focus away from the ghost for long periods of time to feature all the extracurricular activities on and off-campus. The emergence of the incident where one of the teachers filmed himself sexually abusing and then blackmailing several students with threats about who leaked what and who would be responsible creates the majority of the tension within. The resulting scandal and everyone reacts to it, from the students using it as leverage to exert their social status over everyone else, the faculty trying to keep it quiet for risk of damaging their reputation, and the guilty party resorting to whatever means possible to keep it a secret combine into an engaging time overall. However, none of these factors are enough to overcome the fact that the ghost isn't that prominent in the film. It shows up on only a few occasions and isn't a very big part of the film overall. Despite the scenes being creepy and chilling when they occur, far too much of this is spent sorting out the troubling accusations and scandals surrounding the student body. They seem to be well aware of the being and are openly searching for it at several points but it never goes anywhere and is dropped for long parts of the film's running time especially once a secondary reveal occurs in the final minutes involving a series of incidents in the past completely unrelated to the main storyline is revealed. The truth about what happened to the girls in the school and how the particular room in the school came to be haunted involves a secondary plotline that comes out of nowhere and ties into the teachers' trauma rather than explaining what's going on. Some might not be that turned off by these scenes since they're still fun and well-filmed, but for those wanting ghostly action it does come up short.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, and themes of sexual abuse.