Horror High

The tormented shy brain, Vernon Potts. A polite, unassuming, eyes-to-the-floor student who is of constant ridicule, mistreatment, bullying, classless punishment at his school. The literature teacher decides to give him an F on a report of Robert Louis Stevenson because he accidentally turned in a Biology report he spent the Summer working on (his passion is Biology/Chemistry; she believed he needed to give as much dedication to her class as the others; she is a control-bitch who wields the power at her disposal towards “the unruly” or anyone else that might not quite satisfy her need for total devotion to their studies and the high standards of proper behavior in class), the janitor gets angry because he shoos away a cat trying to get at his pet project guinea pig, and then, not to be left out, you have the major antagonist, Roger, the cruel fellow student (dating Vernon’s desired girl-of-choice, Robin (played by the adorable Rosie Holotik), a bubbly, easily-approachable, and earnestly sociable student at his school and his only true friend) who nicknamed Vernon, “The Creeper”.
**½

When I watch a film like Horror High, the news of today creeps in (to pardon a pun) and I shake them off. School shootings, alienated youth who suffer from the indignities of being unpopular and *different*, bullying, ostracized kids who are condemned as social misfits, often a result of bloodshed and an eruption of violence. I wish I could just watch a film like  this and not think of recent tragedies that currently plague America. It is getting harder to. For instance, we see Vernon, forced by his tough-guy coach to “suit up” for PE although he’d rather work in the Biology Lab. Roger leads a charge of heckling and an onslaught of mockery, stealing his project notes-book, ripping out the pages as the congregation laughs in unison, and it is highly effective because, sadly, it gives a face to the reasoning behind Vernon’s rage, revenge, and outpouring of inclement psychosis.

An experiment Vernon is working on parallels the Jekyll/Hyde story spoken about at the very beginning, physical changes brought about by a particular formula. When his cat is killed by the guinea pig, the janitor insists, through violence, that Vernon drink it or else, producing a number of changes in the young man that will not bode well for those who piss him off.

This, I did notice, was listed on a Horrible Horrors set, and Horror High is not exactly heralded as an example of prime excellence in storytelling and performance. I can’t really make excuses for the sketchy acting or the rather familiar storyline, but I didn’t consider it a total waste of time. Director Larry N Stouffer decides to shoot his cast of characters in ways to give them sinister or unnerving effect. Lots of titled camera angles and disorienting compositions, close-ups that call on the actors to bring their best, and it all is a way to create a type of strange experience. As antagonists, an actress like Joye Hash (as the purposely difficult literature teacher, Mrs. Grindstaff, who will probably be best remembered for her dependency on that damn paper cutter) or an actor like Jeff Alexander (as the brutish, uncouth janitor, Briggs, who uses a white flashlight to bludgeon a guinea pig, its squeal a constant echo in my brain after his nasty attack on it, because of his cat’s demise), never had careers that went anywhere but gave in performance enough to their characters that we understood just why Vernon would slip into Hyde and  mete out punishment upon them.

The film does indeed allow Vernon to mete out justice to all who had frustrated his life, whether it was Coach McCall’s (John Niland) demand that he allow arch nemesis Roger (Mike McHenry, with the kind of smile that makes your skin crawl, and a personality that exudes the constant impulse to abuse the weaker just for the hell of it) to cheat off his chemistry paper (or else fail him for PE; in this film, teachers use their authority to fail to get what they want and seem comfortable doing so) or Roger, the sports star with the kind of toxic presence that instantly leaves a bad taste.

For my money, the finale inside the darkened, shadowy school with Vernon, no longer able to contain the beast that wishes to arise, trying to catch a horrified Robin, is the best overall sequence in Horror High. I figure some might argue Vernon’s grisly attack on Coach McCall, using a pair of blue sneaker cleats, constantly stomping on his torso, the police (led by the film’s most identifiable actor, Austin Stokes, of Assault on Precinct 13, over the case of the high school murders) finding the corpse hanging upside down (the director even includes a shot from the ground underneath McCall’s swinging body, a blood trail going splat), is the money scene, and their advocacy has merit…his screams, as Vernon repeatedly (and savagely) slams each foot stab, ring in your ears. When McCall goes silent, the police finally arriving—albeit, too late—it certainly establishes the need of the police to put a stop to Vernon before innocents with no ill will towards him become endangered. This is evident with the final chase of Robin; she’s his ally, even kissing Vernon as they study for a test, making her intentions of romance quite clear.

The cut of the film I watched was in dire straits. Missing bits perhaps due to bad film, along with spots and marks that became tiresome after a while, I would love to see (but can’t imagine we will due to the shitty economy and a lack of courage in lending a digital transfer to critically unexceptional fare deemed too poor to give up a budget in restoring) a quality print of this film. Horror High might just be of interest to slasher fans always in search of the next obscure film, and with its (peculiar) release on, of all things, the Sci-fi Set you can find at Walmarts, this is accessible now, where it was a bit difficult, at one point, to find. The Vernon character (even if the Jekyll experiments are not) is a realistic portrait of the disregarded student, while smart and kind, he’s also alone, on an island in need of support and encouragement, instead victimized and always jerked around by those his own age (but primarily) and adults. The violent bits are quick-cutted and include a paper cutter taking off fingers, a victim taking a face-first dip in a vat of acid, and a victim pulled through a window and pummeled. Plenty of blood, though.