Previously posted on blog and written by B. Demeter
Detention (2011)… Where in the holy hell did this come from?!
This film defies categorization. Not because it is avant garde- there is just too going on to put it into a single category. It’s a slasher flick and a teenage love story. There is gore and time travel. This is either the dumbest movie I’ve seen all year or one of the best.
The only way I can describe this movie is that it is a feature length music video. Everything happens quickly. The color is over saturated, the music is awesome, and the effects are flashy. The story involves a group of high school kids trying to stop a prom-queen killer named Cinderhella. But that is plot A. There is also a plot B where a girl switches minds with her mother from 1992 in order to win a dance contest. Plot C has the teens using the school bear mascot/time machine in order to go back in time and stop the future school principal from blowing up the school. On top of that there is a jock football player who turns into a fly. This all sounds like a fever dream of an LSD influenced hippie astronaut but I assure you that it is in fact a movie that you can watch… on Netflix even!
Very little of this movie is scary. There is a slasher, Cinderhella, who has a bloody mask and a lust to kill but she doesn’t have that much screen time. But since there is no criteria on how scary a movie has to be to review, I’m throwing this one out there.
Screw it, I’m going to take a stand and say that I love this movie. It isn’t pure horror but I don’t care. There is a scene in this movie with a kid who has been in detention for 19 years and we flash back through the different eras of pop culture that is just awesome. There is also a scene where they torrent a movie and in that movie they torrent the porn version of that movie. It is fun- pure and simple.
And now that I’ve reeled you in, let me take a moment to shit on this film. Take it or leave it, Josh “Hunger Games” Hutcherson stars in this movie. Hansen’s MMMMmmmbop plays a prominent theme in the film. Also, for better or worse, Dane Cook plays the principal. None of this is a deal breaker for me but I could see how it might be a trigger warning for some cinema connoisseurs.
Scary or not, I just want more people to see this movie. You can tell me I’m wrong. You can tell me this movie is no good. But I dare you to tell me this movie isn’t fun to watch.
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