Had intentionally made Book Of Shadows into a comedy, I suspect that it would have turned out similar to Horror High. In line with all those other comedic horror movies of the 80’s, this is relatively more of the same.
In 1982 series of murders took place at Crippen High School. Though the police conducted an investigation and the school has been shut down since the killer was never caught. Now, years later, a sleazebag producer has come back to the scene of the grizzly murders to film a horror movie/documentary about the killings. Much to their dismay, the crew takes up short term residence in the school while filming. Again, since the movie stresses it several times, the killer was never caught. Over the production of the film, strange things occur and people start coming up missing. Who or what is behind these shenanigans?
Return To Horror High is probably only “known” for one thing; being the big screen debut of Mr. George Clooney. Clooney plays an actor portraying a cop. Ironically he gets a phone call, pre-production, of an offer to do a television show and walks off set. The director says he will never work again and hopes his show flops. Clooney’s character is then promptly killed. Also notable in the cast is Maureen McCormick a.k.a. Marsha Brady. Her character is a “real” cop, Officer Tyler. You can kind of see that she is trying to get away from the wholesome, innocent, sweetheart role she played on the Brady Bunch. Her character is uncaring and seems a bit too aroused by all the death and blood. It’s weird.
The movie itself is also a bit weird. Shot as a horror movie/documentary it skips between the present time and a flashback told from the doc’s writer. At the start of the film, everyone but him is dead and the cops are literally trying to piece together everything. By the end, the reveal is that NO ONE is actually dead and this was the plan of the producers all along. However, the killer is real. Two of the actors kill him but it’s never mentioned that they figured out the murders years later. This probably doesn’t do a great job of explaining the plot. Let’s just say that this campy horror movie was probably a bit before it’s time. People probably weren’t ready to THINK about horror movies in the ’80s.
Aside from having two notable actors involved, and a twisted plot full of holes, Return to Horror High isn’t really worth anyone’s time. Literally, buckets of blood, some scant nudity, and intentionally bad special effects make it a pretty generic movie for the time. It was funny seeing this immediately following Book Of Shadows, just to see the contrast between a movie made to be serious that was funny, and a movie made to be funny that was really anything but.
Comments