In a stroke of diabolical genius, the makers of "After-School Special" cast a group of twentysomething actors as junior high students. Perhaps they thought this gimmick would be good for a few laughs. Instead they've inadvertently unleashed some of the most disturbing images ever seen in the history of moving pictures. To this day, I still have nightmares about junior high. I often wake up in a cold sweat after forgetting my locker combination, bringing the wrong textbook to Math class and running afoul of the 300-pound, six-foot-tall, hairy-faced resident bully. Sometimes, the only way I can force myself to crawl out of bed in the morning is by reminding myself that I'm a grown-up now and these kinds of things can't happen to me anymore. But in "After-School Special," they do happen. And if full-sized adults just like these poor b***ards can suddenly find themselves reliving the horrors of junior high, I guess there's no hope for the rest of us, either.
"After-School Special" might be a charming, funny, creepy little movie. But director Aaron Baker should still be ashamed of himself.
"After-School Special" might be a charming, funny, creepy little movie. But director Aaron Baker should still be ashamed of himself.