''Return to Horror High'' is a 1987 American
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as ...
written and directed by Bill Froehlich and starring
Vince Edwards
Vince Edwards (born Vincent Edward Zoine; July 9, 1928 – March 11, 1996) was an American actor and director. He was best known for his TV role as doctor Ben Casey and as Major Cliff Bricker in the 1968 war film '' The Devil's Brigade''.
Ear ...
, Brendan Hughes,
Scott Jacoby, Lori Lethin,
Philip McKeon, and
Alex Rocco. Told in a
nonlinear
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many othe ...
format, the plot follows a film production crew who begin to disappear while shooting a movie based on an unsolved killing spree that occurred in a high school. The film features supporting performances from Al Fann, Panchito Gómez, Richard Brestoff,
Maureen McCormick
Maureen Denise McCormick (born August 5, 1956) is an American actress. She portrayed Marcia Brady on the ABC television sitcom ''The Brady Bunch'', which ran from 1969 to 1974, and reprised the role in several of the numerous ''Brady Bunch'' ...
, and
George Clooney.
Plot
In 1982, the town of Crippen was rocked by a series of murders at Crippen High School. The killer was never caught. Several years later, Cosmic Pictures, headed by sleazy producer Harry Sleerek, arrives in Crippen to make a
biographical movie about the crimes titled ''Horror High''. To maximize the production's low budget, the cast and crew temporarily move into the real Crippen High School, where they are to film
on location; the lead actress, Callie Cassidy, is hired to play multiple roles. In the midst of the film shoot, multiple disappearances and murders occur, which are subsequently investigated by police Chief Deyner and Officer Tyler. While the bodies are recovered from the school, Chief Deyner and Officer Tyler interview the film's screenwriter, Arthur Lyman, outside, and he recounts the events on-set:
Some days prior, lead actor Oliver informs director Josh Forbes that he is dropping out of the production. Before leaving, he is murdered in an empty wing of the school. Harry immediately replaces Oliver with Steven Blake, a real-life police officer and former Crippen High student. Tensions on set rise when Harry insists Callie show on-screen nudity, while Arthur is forced to repeatedly make script changes to accommodate Harry's requests for more gore. One day, an
extra
Extra or Xtra may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Film
* ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film
* ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film
Literature
* ''Extra'' (newspaper), a Brazilian newspaper
* ''Extra!'', an American me ...
is murdered, followed by Choo Choo, a special effects assistant. Shortly after, cast member Richard Farley is caught in a
booby trap that drags his body into a steel-blade industrial fan.
While wandering the high school in-between scenes, Steve recounts to Callie his relationship with his high school girlfriend, Kathy; her father, Crippen's Principal Kastleman, is on-set serving as a
technical advisor
In film production, a technical advisor is someone who advises the director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a ...
, but Steve has not seen Kathy in years. Meanwhile, Callie begins noticing that cast and crew are disappearing. Fearing the killer has returned, she and Steve begin their own private investigation. Callie's discomfort is compounded one day while watching the filming of a brutal scene in which the school biology teacher, Richard Birnbaum, is dissected.
Later, Steve notices a photo of Kathy on the set; when he inquires to Principal Kastleman about Kathy's whereabouts, he claims she is in
graduate school
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree.
The organization and stru ...
. That night, Steve and Callie find a trail of blood in the hallway, and discover Harry and Josh's corpses, as well as a trapdoor leading to a basement. In the basement, they find a classroom full of the decomposed victims of the 1982 massacre, all posed in desks. They are confronted by Amos, the school janitor, who attacks Steve. During their fight, Steve inadvertently removes a latex mask from Amos's face, revealing him to actually be Principal Kastleman in disguise. Kastleman explains how years ago, Kathy discovered she was pregnant with Steve's child, after which Kastleman murdered her in a rage and hid her body in the school basement before killing multiple students. Callie and Steve manage to overpower Kastleman, impaling him with a
javelin.
In the present, after Arthur finishes recounting the events to Chief Deney and Officer Tyler, the police enter the school to investigate. While they do so, Arthur calls out "all clear" outside, upon which all of the victimswho have been laid in the grass and covered in sheetsrise; they have in fact been alive all along. In reality, Callie and Steve uncovered in their research that Kastleman was in fact the true killer in the 1982 massacre, and killed him in the basement. Harry decided to capitalize on this by devising a mock massacre centered around the revelation as a
publicity stunt
In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...
to help promote the film. In the basement, police find Kastleman, still impaled by the javelin, but alive; he lunges at them, leading them to shoot him multiple times. When they return outside and find the bodies of the film crew inexplicably gone, they assume there is still a killer on the loose.
Later, Arthur sits at a typewriter to compose a new screenplay he has called ''The Return to Horror High'', which he intends as a sequel. A framed photo of Principal Kastleman sits on his desk. An unseen figure enters the room and stops at Arthur's typewriter, dripping blood on the pages being typed. Arthur looks up at the unseen figure and says, "Dad?"
Cast
Production
Filming for ''Return to Horror High'' took place in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, California at John Hughes Junior High School in Woodland Hills, and Clark Junior High School in Glendale.
The production budget was $1 million.
[ In order to avoid an ]X-rating
An X rating is a rating used in various countries to classify films that have content deemed suitable only for adults. It is used when the violent or sexual content of a film is considered to be potentially disturbing to general audiences.
Aust ...
, the scene-within-a-scene sequence in which the biology teacher's heart is dissected had to be pared down in post-production.[
]
Release
The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by New World Pictures
New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 19 ...
on January 9, 1987. The release expanded in April, with its widest release being 227 theaters.[ It grossed $1,189,709 at the U.S. box office.]
Critical response
Michael Wilmington of the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' wrote that the film is "laudably offbeat" with "a rich premise," but added: "True life or nightmare, recollection or schlock—each level of "reality" has the same camera angles, the same fake gore, and the same ''Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
''-in-the-Charnelhouse style acting. And the triple-twist climax is so wildly unlikely, and depends on such cretinous inattention from some of the cast, that you could only accept it in a drunken stupor." Lou Cedrone of ''The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
'' wrote: "As horror films go, this one is not all that gory, but it does well enough to displease the people who don't go for this sort of thing. Are there many of us left?"
Two years after the film's release, an article in ''Cinefantastique
''Cinefantastique'' is an American horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine.
History
The magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset printed quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor ...
'' noted: " 'Return to Horror High'' isa slasher pastiche that garnered significant critical acclaim even as it came close to succumbing at the boxoffice because of what Sims called New World Pictures' inept distribution and promotion." The ''Blockbuster
Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to:
*Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived.
Corporations
* Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain
** Bl ...
Video Guide'' characterizes the film as an "Ambitious low-budget affair, with a film crew making a movie about gory high school murders caught up in a bunch of real slayings. tnever really takes off due to slack direction."
In his book ''150 Movies You Should Die Before You See'' (2010), film critic Steve Miller writes: "The narrative threads of this low-budget spoof of slasher films are more tangled than the cocaine-fueled fever dreams of Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
. As the end credits start to roll, we start to wonder if this was a movie about real killings or a movie within a movie based on real-life killers. Or... well, you get the idea."
Home media
The film was released on DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
by Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures and Starmaker Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company. It was a subsidiary of Starz Inc. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and sold feature films, television se ...
in 2002.
References
External links
*
*{{Rotten Tomatoes, return_to_horror_high
1987 films
1987 horror films
1980s slasher films
American comedy horror films
American high school films
American satirical films
American slasher films
Films about filmmaking
Films about screenwriters
Films shot in Los Angeles
New World Pictures films
American nonlinear narrative films
American police detective films
Self-reflexive films
Films set in 1982
1980s English-language films
1980s American films