Hell High (1987) User Reviews

Hell High

[Scarecrow-88 · 6/10 · 14 May 2011]

Christopher Stryker (who died of AIDS after this film)is a troublemaker named Dickens who seeks revenge against his biology teacher, Ms Storm (Mooney) after she slaps him for being an obnoxious tool, throwing test papers in the air as a means to make her angry. Christopher Cousins is Jon-Jon, an ex-football player who lost his girl to the team's star jock, joining Dickens' bunch of misfits for the hell of it. The other members of Dickens' brood are the slutty Queenie, aware of her appetite for sex and Smiler, the overweight stooge who is often shown stuffing his face. Dickens, who spends his time often contemplating what his next prank will be, decides to first peep on Storm and then gather up some slop from the nearby swamp for an epic tribute to his biology teacher, his unpleasant feelings for her unleashed with the kind of mischief he's famous for. What commences, the four involved, bombarding Storm's home with muddy swamp goo, bouncing on her roof with Halloween masks, drives the teacher over the edge, a night of murder resulting.

According to Joe Bob Briggs, the film was made in like 1985, only to be released as the slasher genre was on its' last legs, soon to stagnate until SCREAM brought a resurgence. Atypical of the genre, the four kids cause the teacher to go berserk, a psychological trauma from the past awakening the beast in the woman. For tits and violence, HELL HIGH delivers, but there isn't as much high school in the movie as you might expect. Stryker stands out from the cast as the burdensome sociopath, while the others lend support in their immoral behavior. No one, except Mooney's Ms Storm comes across sympathetically. Even Cousins, who only cares about his own hide, isn't a hero, smiling at the end when his framing of the football player works! Stone bashing to the skull, pencil to the skull, spike and fireplace poker impalements, even a throat knife slicing for good measure. Plenty of body double work during the nude scenes. Might be a sleeper for slasher fans looking for a movie that does stray from the formula at times. Most memorable scene could be when Dickens plans to rape Storm only for Queen to interrupt, showing him how to really grope a woman!

Teaching Mrs. Storm

[drownsoda90 · 6/10 · 23 December 2022]

"Hell High" follows a group of teenagers who decide to torment their domineering biology teacher by pulling a prank on her at her home late one night. Unfortunately for them, she is already disturbed from a double-murder she unwittingly caused as a child, and the teens are in for more than they bargained.

This late-'80s horror flick is an offbeat and unusual combination of teen exploitation with a heavy-handed revenge plot, as well as a few slasher-esque elements mixed in for good measure. The film opens with a bizarre and fairly disturbing scene in which the antagonist teacher, as a young girl, causes a horrific motorcycle accident that claims two lives in the bog behind her family home. This no doubt sets the tone for a slasher film, but "Hell High" instead opts to take the revenge horror route, predating similarly-themed films such as "Teaching Mrs. Tingle."

The teenagers in this film are, for the most part, very unlikable, which poses a bit of a problem from an audience perspective when they find themselves being hacked and slashed. While the biology teacher is not exactly an emblem of geniality, the teenagers and their actions grow progressively more twisted as the film goes on, which leaves the viewer in a conundrum as it's difficult to find allegiance to either here.

Despite this, the film is quite aptly made for a low-budget affair, with glossy cinematography and atmospheric locations, mainly the rural house where the majority of the film unfolds. Things ramp up to a breakneck pace in the last twenty minutes, leaving the picture feeling slightly backloaded, but there is a decent amount of suspense that precedes this, which prevents it from being a slog in the first three quarters. It also benefits from having a cynical and fitting conclusion.

Overall, "Hell High" is a fairly well-made horror film that leans more into teen revenge tropes than anything else. While the suggestive title may lead one to believe they are in for a school-set slasher, the film bucks those expectations quite swiftly. Though it has its share of structural issues, it is an offbeat and different film from many of its peers, and for that, it's worth watching. 6/10.

More people need to see this!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 31 October 2019]

I had no expectations of what this movie would be like when I discovered it on YouTube. I figured that it would be about a high school class menaced by some sort of slasher villain, but I had no way to prepare for the gritty and just plain weird film that I would be confronted with. This is an incredible feeling and why I keep writing this site, as I want to discover these experiences and share them with others.

Unlike the typical slasher, this film finds itself spending time with the victim - high-school science teacher Miss Brook Storm (Maureen Mooney), who is barely keeping it together after some repressed childhood trauma. It's also about a former quarterback named Jon-Jon who grows sick of the game and his sinister teammates, so he falls in with the delinquents like Dickens, Queenie and Smiler.

Speaking of that childhood trauma, it starts the film. In a swamp, a man and a woman are making love when he decides to start beating her with a doll that belongs to a little girl. The little girl watches and grabs some mud, waiting for the two to leave the swamp. As they do, she throws it in the man's eyes and he wrecks, sending the man and woman into poles which impale them as the little girl stares at the accident she's caused. Yes - that's Ms. Storm and this murder has now become an urban legend as some believe a swamp monster is the real cause of these two killings.

As Jon-Jon becomes part of this new gang, they decide to ruin the football game by driving on the field in the middle of a play and stealing the game ball. It might seem like this movie has become a teen sex comedy at this point, but don't worry. Soon, it will stop meandering and get even stranger.

The gang now puts on Halloween masks and belts Ms. Storm's home with swamp mud before the shenanigans turn into full-blown sexual assault on her. You'd think that Queenie, the lone girl in the gang, would be against this, but even she joins in, subverting the very slasher nature that you expect from this film.

Hey, but don't take it from me how weird this movie is. Joe Bob Briggs himself did the intro to the DVD release of this film. And he featured it on his old Drive-In Theater show, too.

I agree with Joe Bobs' commentary here. This is an amazingly original slasher that more people need to see. Please watch it and let's talk about it.

Embarrassing to see with your mom

[servicedevice · 29 August 2002]

But that's what i did. We were at the mall, having just come from my orthodontic appointment, and I was supposed to go back to school. However, once the title "Hell High" caught our eye, we had to see it. I remember a goofily inane, low-budget horror movie that featured a scene of a beautiful teacher becoming vocally aroused just taking a shower (because when women soap up their breasts, they are helplessly turned on.) And that's almost all I remember. But I guess I fared better than a friend who, a few years previous, had seen Revenge of the Nerds with his little, old grandmother. And, thinking on it now, I saw Clash of the Titans when I was like eight or something with my grandfather. A chaste shot of a woman leaving a bath was pretty exciting then. Later on, at dinner, my sister yelled out that I had told her there was a "tushie" in the movie. I was mortified. I could hardly deny I had said it, after all, as her knowledge of said tushie was proof enough. A shadow fell over my grandfather's face and not another word was said for a long time. A horrible memory.

Yecccccch!

[capkronos · 2/10 · 16 May 2003]

A little blonde girl accidentally kills a couple on a motorcycle for breaking her doll. "18 years later" she's a reclusive high school biology teacher (Maureen Mooney) with a pack of obnoxious students who hate her. After she slaps a punk named Dickens in the face for tossing test papers on the ground, he informs his gang friends "I'm gonna stick it to that bitch!," so one day after a football game they show up at her secluded home wearing masks, watch her take a shower, throw swamp sludge on her and try to rape her. She snaps and tries to kill herself by jumping out of a window, then recoops and gets revenge. Bloody and in her lingerie, she sticks a pencil in a guy's head, attacks with a butcher knife, plots a dissection and beats a girls face to a bloody mess with a rock. End of movie.

This is sort-of like a teen version of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE--a boring, no-thrills revenge movie with some T&A, a little gore, annoying characters and a relentlessly boring opening hour where nothing happens.

Score: 2 out of 10

80s fun.

[jeremysapunk · 5/10 · 12 August 2005]

I thought this movie was really laid back, boring for the first hour or so, but if you like the 80s (like myself) and horror (like myself) then I would say this movie is worth watching! I dig the soundtrack and the scary 80s beats when death arrives, and the Queenie is definitely poster-child of the 80s! Shes got style shes got grace, shes got beaten to death by a rock in her FAACE!! MWAH HA HA HA! If you're bored, watch it! There needed to be a bit more action and gore but for the most part its pretty enjoyable if you like the horror films that are pretty dark all the way through. You don't grow any attachment to any of the characters, its pretty much just a cheesy horror film of the 80s! And mind you, those are the best.

The beginning is quite fantastic, who doesn't love a young little girl in a scary little pink dress who kills off some teenagers who try to have sex in her playhouse!? lol.

Dismal

[Gafke · 1/10 · 31 July 2004]

This is the stupidest film I've seen since "Zombie Nightmare."

A little girl with blond pigtails and a frilly pink dress (The Bad Seed, anyone?) accidentally kills a teenage biker and his girlfriend by throwing swamp mud into their faces while they are driving. The two are thrown and impaled on some conveniently placed stakes and the girl runs away, forever scarred and guilt ridden. Fast forward about 20 years and the pigtailed little cretin is now a science teacher at a local high school. Her students are unruly and disrespectful and when she slaps one arrogant jerk across the face, he vows revenge. He and his loser friends - cast an overweight nerd, a slut and a dumb jock - attack the teacher in her house one night, throwing handfuls of green swamp muck against her windows and dancing on her roof whilst wearing Halloween masks. Of course, they take the whole thing Too Far and the already mentally fragile teacher snaps, running around the rest of the movie in a silky nightie with a machete in one hand.

This really isn't a typical slasher, if you want the truth. The terrorized teens all deserve what they get, displaying no morals whatsoever and basically proving themselves to be every bit as psychotic as their teacher. There are some nice touches to be found here: the killer is a woman, the slut swings both ways and the one guy with a thin moral streak is only Doing The Right Thing to save his own bright future. This film doesn't suffer from unoriginality - it suffers from painful stupidity. The script is horrible, the cast can't act worth a damn and the situations that arise are so utterly implausible that you'll be wondering if this was set in some parallel dimension where common sense doesn't exist. For example: the proper reaction upon finding your next door neighbor covered with mud and crouched in front of her broken window with a machete in her hand is NOT to force feed her some 'ludes and then leave! Good gods, who wrote this? A 5 year old with ADD?

Once again, Joe Bob Briggs and his comedy commentary make this a much more bearable viewing experience. Otherwise, this is a terrible 80s slasher, filled with all of the hideous fashions of that depressing decade. A couple of graphic murders may impress gore fans, but sitting through the other 70 odd minutes just isn't worth the effort. I've seen more interesting toilet bowl stains.

'What do you want to do tonight?'

[Nightman85 · 7/10 · 28 December 2005]

A little known, low-budget horror flick, Hell High actually has more in common with the vengeance exploitation films of the '70's than with the teen slashers that were so popular during its time.

When trouble making teens decide to terrorize their teacher, they go over board with some murderous consequences!

With a compelling story, moody atmosphere, and a good cast, Hell High (which has little to do with its title) is a horror film that manages to over come the limitations of its low budget. Even still, the film is pretty well made for a B horror flick. The music score and filming locations aren't bad either.

The cast of unknowns is pretty good. Maureen Mooney does a good turn as the tormented teacher. Christopher Cousins isn't half bad as a reluctant teen assailant. Best of all though is the late Christopher Stryker (who died of AIDS before the film could be released). He makes for a great teen bad boy and a surprisingly merciless villain! Stryker could have easily went on to bigger films.

Criticize it for what you will, but Hell High is one of the better 'lost' horror flicks of its day. It's 80's horror that takes a refreshing break from the slasher film conventions.

*** out of ****

Blame it on the nameless Quarterback!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 28 December 2008]

This strangely offbeat and unusual late 80's slasher starts off vile and promisingly, but soon degenerates into a prototypically dumb and exaggeratedly implausible flick. Some people – more specifically its very small but devoted fan base – tend to describe "Raging Fury" as reminiscent to the gritty revenge-themed exploitation efforts of the late 70's, but I hardly see any connections. Nope, this is merely just another cheap and uninspired flick that actually insults the viewer's intelligence with all its impossibly far-fetched story twists. The highly entertaining opening sequences show a little girl "accidentally" killing a young biker couple in the swamp near her parental house because they destroyed her dolly. Enjoy this intro with its nasty make-up effects and glorious sleaze as much as you can, because it's all downhill from here… 18 years later, the little girl – Brooke Storm – grew up to become a biology teacher in a standard American high school, but she obviously still suffers from a very unbalanced mental condition due to her traumatic childhood experience (which makes you wonder how she ever managed to finish her own teaching studies). Elsewhere in the school, the popular jock all of a sudden decides it's time for a personality change and joins the school's gang of bad kids (again, the most common thing in the world). As some sort of initiation rite for Jon-Jon, the clique decides to terrorize Miss Storm in her own house. They even set up a plan to frame the football team's quarterback in case anything goes wrong! Needless to say the nightly attack causes Miss Storm to go totally bonkers again and the thugs get a whole lot more than they bargained for. "Hell High" is a bunch of senseless nonsense without tension or horrific atmosphere. The film only evokes unintentional laughs (when the police actually do come to arrest the quarterback, my mates and I were laughing tears) and sentiments of pity. Not surprisingly, the cast and crew list only exists out of nobodies. Director Douglas Grossman as well as most of the actors and actresses never worked on any other film again. Lead star Christopher Stryker even died of AIDS before the film's release. I know it's not a very nice thing to say but I doubt it was a big loss for the cinema industry.

Hell High

[cleartrampoline · 7/10 · 4 February 2006]

Hell High is one of your typical, bad, 80s horror films, and then again there are many things in it that are not so typical. For instance, none of the characters are likable or even sane. Usually you find at least one sane person in a slasher movie but not here. Everybody is pretty much crazy. At any rate that doesn't really matter, it still delivers good fun. I recommend renting the DVD with the Joe Bob Briggs commentary and don't even bother to watch it without the commentary, Joe Bob Briggs brings humor and fun facts into the viewing reminiscent of MST3K. His commentary really brings your enjoyment of the film up a notch by giving some where are they now comments, as well as commentary on why this film is different from the typical teen slasher. I give it a high rating based mainly on this commentary track.

Disappointing

[Stevieboy666 · 4/10 · 3 May 2022]

Hell High aka Raging Fury starts off very promising. A young girl is playing with her doll in an outbuilding when two teens start making out in an adjoining room. The boy breaks the doll, in retaliation the little girl forces the pair off a motorbike to their grisly deaths. So far so good. Sadly it's downhill for the next 50 minutes or so. Forward 18 years and said little girl is now Ms Brooke Storm, high school biology teacher. Four of her students pay her an unexpected night time visit in retaliation for her slapping one across the face in class. They wear horror masks which I have to say looked very cool. She soon becomes aware of their malicious intentions, she has a 'phone but why oh why did she not think to call the cops before it was too late!!?? One of numerous dumb decisions and actions throughout. Often billed as a slasher movie but really it is more of a home invasion/revenge thriller, a much watered down "I Spit on Your Grave". The acting is unremarkable, the dialogue is often awful and the musical score is overdone. The four intruders are all loathsome, played by actors who were probably pushing 30. Nothing much happens for the bulk of the running time, only the first five and last twenty minutes can be considered horror. Some of the gore is OK though the death by pencil in the head was poor. A bit of female nudity does little to liven things up. I watched a VHS download of this, the movie is getting a Blu-ray release but I won't be buying it. Little known movie that deserves to stay that way.

Choice 80's teen horror exploitation trash

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 13 June 2013]

A gang of obnoxious teenagers led by vicious sociopath Dickens (a marvelously odious portrayal by Christopher Stryker) decide to play a cruel prank on uptight biology teacher Miss Brooke Storm (a fine and credible performance by Maureen Mooney). However, when said prank goes awry, Storm exacts a harsh revenge on the kids for messing with her. Director Douglas Grossman, who also co-wrote the clever and blithely nasty script with Leo Evans, relates the mean-spirited premise at a steady pace, maintains a rough gritty tone throughout, generates a good deal of suspense, and delivers a nice smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity as well as several jolting outbursts of savage violence (the pencil in the head gag rates as the definite gruesome highlight). Moreover, the characters are believably drawn and the plot has a few neat unexpected twists that tweak the standard slasher formula in a crafty and surprising way. The solid acting by the game no-name cast helps a lot: Christopher Cousins as meek jock Jon-Jon, Millie Prezioso as wicked, yet enticing slut Queenie, Jason Brill as gross fat jerk Smiler, Kathryn Rossetter as the sympathetic Coach Sandy Hand, and J.R. Horne as the ramrod Coach Heaton. Steven Fierberg's fairly polished cinematography offers a few pleasingly atmospheric shots. Both the roaring trashy rock soundtrack and the funky-throbbing score by Rich Macary and Chris Hyams hit the right-on pulsating spot. Good warped fun.

Pros and cons

[benjyboom · 7/10 · 6 February 2020]

Pros: Very weird protagonists, very different from characters in similar movies Great soundtrack, original and otherwise Shot well, focus on interesting objects or characters in each scene Decent acting, felt stiff but it works Unintentionally hilarious

Cons: Spots of weird editing Really minimal plot Poorly written antagonist

Best part: driving a car on the football field Worst part: tying up Dickens but he gets freed before he can get cut up, just a good indicator of the cheesy, coincidental horror aspect of the movie

Interesting premise, wasted potential

[acidburn-10 · 5/10 · 7 January 2022]

This movie had so much potential to be far better than it was, not that it wasn't bad or anything it just left me wanting more with much of its effort of telling a decent story was squandered with unnecessary scenes of pointless character interactions that barely furthers the plot led by an antagonist who you don't feel a lot for with very little actual history behind our main villain as he and his gang feel entirely stock, yet the teacher played by Maureen Mooney did give a pretty decent performance.

The plot follows 4 teenagers who decide to play a prank on their emotionally unstable Biology teacher, not content with that they decide to terrorize her some more until she snaps & jumps out a window. Thinking she's dead, the crazed teacher begins to pick them off one by one.

This really takes on a rollercoaster ride, but the underlying idea had such promise, but the filmmakers really screwed things up with so many bad decisions like for instance it takes way too long for the revenge part to kick in & the final confrontation was a huge let down. Okay to a certain degree this film is slightly above the usual cheesy slasher flicks of the 80's.

However this movie tries to balance way too many genre elements without ever really being successful & the acting is way too amateurish for you the viewer to be fully invested. Perhaps if this was a lot more focused then it could have stood out amongst the glut of slasher movies from this time period, because as it stands it has a decent premise, but wasted potential.

Bad. Really bad.

[BillyBC · 13 March 2003]

(* out of *****) The Blockbuster Video Guide gave this movie three stars -- I'm thinking everyone involved in the Blockbuster franchise must have undergone mentally-corruptive radiation treatments in the '70s. Boy, is this movie stupid! It's your typical cruel prank/revenge/slasher plot, except it looks even cheaper and bored me even more than usual. Some mean (and over-aged) high school kids throw rocks at their mean teacher's house and then sexually molest her, so she jumps out the window. Well, of course she's not dead, and of course there's a traumatic incident from her childhood (she `accidentally' threw a bucktful of mud onto two libidinous motorists, causing them to fly off the bike and impale themselves on wooden stakes in a scene that I assume was supposed to be shocking, but, instead, had me laughing for a good five minutes), and, next thing you know, she's hopping mad and homicidal. Character motivations are weak and absurd, at best, and the plotting is almost transparent in this sick turkey. I loved the scene where the former football star and his friends drive a car onto the field in the middle of a game and intercept a pass while cheesy, triumphant music swells -- were we supposed to feel uplifted here and like this guy or something because he's not quite as cruel and sadistic as the other guy, he's just too much of a coward and a doofus to not go along with him? It stars -- well, really, who cares?

Lowlight: Oh dear, so much to choose from.... There's the tacky scene where the teacher's out cold and undressed on her bed and the slutty girl's showing her dopey ex-boyfriend how to properly touch a woman. But, no, let's just stick with the opening scene where the kid throws the mud at the bikers and they lose control and somehow land on those sharp wooden stakes. I'm sure there are even `better' scenes, but I'd have to rent the movie and watch it again to refresh my memory, and I'm just not ready to do that.

Worst Movie Ever but has a place in my heart

[rudefish2000 · 4/10 · 12 November 2007]

If you want to see a movie with a plot, don't watch Hell High. If you want to see a movie and not spend 2/3 of it scratching your head, don't see Hell High. In fact, if you grew up anywhere in the world other than Scarsdale, New York, DO NOT SEE HELL HIGH!!! It is the worst movie imaginable. But I will say, it does have one amazing redeeming quality. If you attended Scarsdale High School, I do recommend seeing it because about 8 minutes of the film are shot in the hallways and a science classroom. The feeling of seeing your high school in a "professional" horror movie is really cool and probably worth it for that if for no other reason. If you do not meet the one criteria I offered, It's the biggest waste of money EVER. You might as well take your 5 dollars and put them in a Cuisinart.

Average at best.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 24 September 2006]

Hell High starts with a young girl named Brooke Storm (Amy Beth Erenrich) playing down the local swamp (!) when two lovers (Webster Whinery & Karen Russell) unexpectedly turn up on a motorbike, the guy wants sex with the girl but she says no & in his frustration he rips Brooke's doll apart as she looks on... Jump forward '18 Years Later' & Brooke (Maureen Money) is now a biology teacher who is having a hard time with a student named Dickens (Christopher Stryker) & his gang, Queenie (Millie Prezioso), Smiler (Jason Brill) & the gangs newest recruit ex-football star Jon-Jon (Christopher Cousins). Dickens decides to play a prank on Brooke & after finding out where she lives the gang fill plastic bags with mud from the swamp & splatter Brooke's house & pour it over her head as they jump on her roof. Brooke is understandably upset & after Dickens tries to rape her she decides to take revenge on her tormentors...

Co-written, co-produced & directed by Douglas Grossman & also known as Raging Fury I thought Hell High wasn't anything special. The script by Grossman & Leo Evans is your basic tale of revenge although it takes a while to get to it, you can practically fast forward the entire first 45 minutes as virtually nothing happens, after that point they play the prank on Brooke & things all of a sudden become a lot more interesting as the exploitation elements kick in. Unfortunately I found the whole thing a bit on the tame side, sure someone throwing a bag of swamp mud over you would be upsetting but would it really turn you into a cold blooded killer? Don't forget that Dickens never actually rapes her either so that cannot be used as any reason. It's certainly nowhere near as exploitative or sleazy as some other revenge films such as the terrible I Spit on Your Grave (1979) or the utterly brilliant Angel of Vengeance (1981) which is how a film like this should be done, I mean the viewer needs to feel for the female victim & understand the motivations for what she's doing for the revenge part to have any real impact. The character's are OK but you never really care for anyone which is a problem, the dialogue is functional & nothing else. It's one of those films which is OK to watch to pass the time but if your looking for something outstanding than you won't find it here. I'd imagine I'd have totally forgotten it by the middle of next week.

Director Grossman does an OK job on what must have been a low budget, while it isn't going to win any awards for technical achievement it looks OK & occasionally has a nice sleazy atmosphere, it just doesn't sustain it for long enough. There are a few scenes of nudity but nothing that memorable & there's not much in the way of blood or gore either, two people are impaled on spikes, someone has their head bashed in with a rock, someone has a pencil stick in their head, someone is impaled on a poker & someone has a knife cut their throat & none of it is that graphic or shocking.

Hell High (a title which makes no logical sense) is quite well made considering it's low budget roots although the music was quite good. The acting was OK but nothing special & Mooney is dull & forgettable as Brooke while lead villain Stryker died of AID's almost two years before the film was eventually released as it was shot in 1986 but not released until 1989.

Hell High isn't a particularly good film but at the same time I don't think it's a particularly bad one, it's just all very average & uninspiring. There are much better revenge films out there, watch only if you've got nothing better to do.

had a more putrid stench than the fat guy must have had

[movieman_kev · 3/10 · 12 May 2005]

As a kid, Brooke, inadvertently causes the death of two college kids when she throws mud on them (I don't know either). 18 years later she is the high school teacher with unruly students. After bitch slapping one, the kid and his three friends (They include the token slut, fat geek, and 'rebbelious' outcast) attack her in her home. The teacher goes crazy (crazier). The optional commentary by Joe Bob makes this slightly more bearable. Whereas seeing this on it's own is almost a complete travesty. Who knows maybe I was too sober for this flick. But I highly doubt it.

DVD Extra: Intro by Joe Bob Briggs; Joe Bob Briggs commentary; second commentary with director Douglas Grossman; Interview with Grossman; Writer Leo Evans interview; red band theatrical trailer; 2 TV spots; Trailers for "Blood Shack", "Flesh Eaters", "Faceless", and "The Hollywood Strangler meets the Skidrow Slasher"

Eye Candy: Karen Russell goes topless (the only real ones in the flick); Mauren Mooney shows ass, the breasts are a body Double (BOOOO!!!!); and another body double for Millie Prezioso (double BOOOO!!!)

My Grade: D

This movie was great

[indigoazure · 6/10 · 9 August 2008]

I thought this film was funny. No worse than any other 80s horror movie. It is what it is. I also thought it was funny that they tried to pass off such old looking talent as high schoolers. I mean that chick looked like she was almost 40! Hahahaha I read on here the teacher who killed as a kid was pregnant during the movie. You could see that in one of the shots when she's out of the shower. Also you could tell they used a body double in the shower too. The skin was more tan and you could see the body double's long pony tail when the teacher had short hair. Also I think the teacher got a bum deal in the movie. I mean why did she have to get killed just because she went crazy. She went crazy for a good reason.

Raging Fury

[LordLucansGhost · 3/10 · 27 December 2023]

I don't really know where to start with this one. I'm not going to pretend this isn't a bad movie, but it's not a 'so bad it's good' movie either, so it has the unfortunate disposition of being somewhere in between - the kind nobody loved or remembers!

The plot is sort of plausible. It's about a disgruntled student who, with his pals, stalk and terrorize a teacher from their high school. This probably has happened somewhere, kids can be pretty cruel and calculating, after all. In this movie however, the kids go too far and the teacher starts mutilating the intruders. This most likely 'didn't happen somewhere' and that is when things get ridiculous, but it's just one of those movies you have to accept for what it is.

There are a couple of good actors in this film, without whom, this movie would grind to a brain crushing halt, because the rest of the cast, while I have seen much worse, are pretty lame.

Talking about implausible moments, there's a scene where Jon Jon goes to steal a 'piece of evidence' from the school quarterback who is at a restaurant dining with two friends. Jon Jon steals a jersey and is spotted by the trio as he drives away from the restaurant. So what do they do? They immediately leave, without paying their bill, to chase Jon Jon. The quarterbacks tyre is flat so two of them take a motorbike and leave one of the friends, a girl, behind standing outside at the restaurant! Why? How is this normal? There are several moments like this in the movie which you'll just have to roll with.

The film does have some good ambient music in parts, but nothing spectacular and in addition, there were actually several songs written for this film. You can't Google them, because they don't exist, but as you might expect from a low rent horror of this period, it's the sort of cheesy 80s synth pop that fortunately died out before the 90s came around.

This film then? It's so devastatingly bland that you forget sometimes that you're not watching a home movie!

I remember watching it as a teenager, so I guess it IS sort of memorable! Sort of!

Unpredictable obscure mid-80's revenge/horror

[Wuchakk · 6/10 · 22 October 2022]

Four outcast high schoolers in the Northeast play a prank on their biology teacher at her home on the weekend, but the fun turns into murderous trouble.

"Hell High" was shot in 1985, copyrighted in 1986, but not released until 1989. It's also known as "Raging Fury" and "Real Trouble," which are more accurate titles. I was thinking it was a slasher, but it's really high school thriller/horror meshing the milieu of "Carrie" (1976) and "Christine" (1983) with the revenge exploitation of "I Spit on Your Grave" (1978). It only cost $188,000, but seems more polished than "I Spit," which cost $650,000.

The flick effectively takes you back to the high school days and the various cliques and types, such as the troublemaking leader of the outcasts, the hot girl that hangs with the misfit dudes, the goofy guy, the quarterback and his cheerleading babe, as well as the guy who's an inbetweener (Christopher Cousins). The agitator, played by Christopher Stryker, died of AIDs at the age of 27 before the movie was released.

It's relatively serious, but there's a little camp, e.g. The football coach. The best thing is you don't know where it's going. Don't expect a typical 80's slasher.

On the female front, Millie Prezioso is interesting as Queenie while Maureen Mooney plays the biology teacher and Kathryn Rossetter the girls' coach. The brunette girlfriend of the quarterback is worth a mention, but I can't tell from the credits if she's Victoria Andahazy (Mink) or Karen Russell (teen girl). As usual with this genre, there's a bit of harmless nudity.

The movie runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot in Westchester, Bronx, which is just a couple miles east of The Bronx Zoo with the high school interiors done in Scarsdale, New York, which is located eight miles north of The Bronx.

GRADE: B-

Hell No

[saint_brett · 4/10 · 24 October 2023]

This is the one where the students torment the school teacher at her house in creepy masks, right?

There's no appeal to the DVD cover with a bunch of preppy kids in Daddy's car looking like it's from a Charles and Eddie music videoclip.

The title is bogus as well; what's so hellish about it? I think it should have been called 'Hell Students' instead.

And what the hell is the opening score supposed to convey - that we're on a merry-go-round?

What looks like the little girl with the skipping rope from the Freddy movies or just Little Girl from 'Chainsaw 3' takes a stroll down the Green River Killers driveway, and I remember this scene. She throws a bucket of slops at the abusive biker fella from 'Porky's.' (I always thought he looked like Martin Brody.)

We're then introduced to a bunch of immature twenty-somethings in biology class who all think anything they say and do is hilarious.

Apparently, we're stuck with them as leads. (If they're high school students, then I'm a senior citizen.)

I don't know what this "Bud Light" tip tap music is they've gone with.

Is that the backpacker from 'American Werewolf in London?'

A body double is used in this shower scene for the Cynthia Nixon lookalike. (That's a different body, trust me.)

Boy, what's the unusual music they've gone with? It's not a John Hughes movie.

A football game between the Vikings and the Washington Red Commanders brings the community together.

There's no 'Wanderers' intensity about it, and no Ducky Boys invade the pitch either, but the preppy twits in Daddy's car do so without impunity or yellow flags.

Do I detect John Carpenter music?

The immature four, a strange odd mix indeed, gather bags of moss water from the Green River Killers property and go on some hazing ritual to induct the biology teacher in 'Hell High's' class of '86.' She's given the Nickelodeon treatment, and they don't miss the target. SPLAT.

Petty torment, break and entry sees Cynthia Nixon terrorized like it's a 'Last House on the Left' movie. She throws a wrench in the mix and turns the tables on the home invaders by diving out a two-story window, leaving the intruders under the impression that she bought it.

Feigning death Nixon is raised from the dead, and the movie transitions into 'I Spit on Your Grave' where she starts stalking and murdering twits.

This all came about because one sensitive baddy, Dickens, was asked to collect term papers. What build-up to seek retribution! And what was with his mouth?

You can't stick a pencil through someone's temple. Bone is as hard as rock.

Everyone kills each other at the end, and the American Werewolf fella frames a star quarterback for it all by planting his jacket at the crime scene.

He howls at the end in school for some reason to close proceedings out.

This is not a movie to watch at Halloween time.

None of the actors are likeable.

I wouldn't recommend it.

I would probably go with 1981's 'Bloody Birthday' instead.

'Like 'Class of 1984' with bad hair, and better boobies, y'all be spittin' on your own grave if you miss out on 'Hell High'!!!'

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 27 December 2022]

'Stink-haunted Bogs'!!! Bodacious Boobie Doubles!!! Teacher Terrorizing Teens!!! Sexy Sinister Synths!!!! All Topped up with some grisly, profoundly edifying estrogen-soaked savagery!!! If THAT doesn't wet your warped whistle then you certainly won't dig on gnarly 80s swamp slime spattered High School horror shocker, 'Hell High'!

The conspicuously cruel, prank-playing student, Dickens (Christopher Stryker), wanted to give his uptight teacher a fearsome fright, but upon that fateful bloody night, the vengeful, Miss Storm (Maureen Mooney) put up a hellacious fight, and promptly switched off his f'n lights!!!!!' Douglas Grossman's engaging, and surprisingly atmospheric High School screamer is a FAR better watch than its relative obscurity suggests, and winningly has one of 80s horror most spectacularly creepazoid climaxes!!! 80S horror has always been one of my more relentless obsessions, and the exploitation enthusiasts at Arrow Video have done splatter mad hatters like me a great service by lovingly restoring this hysteria-laden home-invasion gem to its former gory!

That opening scene!

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 11 July 2022]

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?

Terrible 80s shlock

[WritnGuy-2 · 22 June 1999]

I saw "Hell High" a while ago but I still remember how cheesy it is. It's about a band of "misfits" at some high school planning a night of harassment on this one teacher. The teacher still remembers something horrible that happened when she was little. The flashback of the accidental murders of two motorcycling teens is really odd and freaky. And the rest of the movie is crappy.

After some teenage "antics," the four head to the teacher's house for a night of "terror." It totally goes downhill after that when the accidentally kill the woman. Yet, she's not really dead. She's...a zombie! Oh, what a surprise. So, one by one, the losers get it. In this movie, though, there is a good guy instead of a good girl, and he gets away, never telling the story but remembering the story. In the end, he goes crazy, and it's the only really scary part of the film. I definitely don't recommend this. It's really bad.