Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

Slaughter High Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 26, 2017

The Friday the 13th franchise memorably tied its horror shenanigans to a “date certain” (if moveable, in this case), something that studio bean counters who were paying attention must have assumed (in typical bean counter fashion) meant that horror efforts emblazoned with specific days, including holidays, were destined for box office glory. Films with names like Christmas Evil and Silent Night, Deadly Night therefore started cropping up, at least intermittently, in the years subsequent to the first Friday the 13th film, but there’s an interesting bit of trivia with regard to a lesser remembered 1986 effort called April Fool's Day. According to the commentary included on this new Blu-ray of Slaughter High, this film was originally entitled April Fool’s Day, and in fact evidently had a home video release sporting that title back in the Dark Ages of the VHS era. A very brief allusion to the “holiday” (is April Fool’s Day an official holiday?) is included in Slaughter High, and the plot does revolve around a series of pranks which go horribly, horribly wrong. But somewhere along the line (again, according to the commentary) someone sold the rights to the April Fool’s Day title, and this film became the “dateless” Slaughter High, though some other online data simply suggests that the "other" April Fool's Day was already in production and someone associated with this film probably just thought better about trying to duplicate the title (it's always been my understanding that titles can't be copyrighted, though well publicized incidents have occurred through the years, including the relatively recent push back Larry Wilmore and Comedy Central got from Sony when they initially announced the now cancelled Wilmore show would be called Minority Report). Slaughter High continues in the still developing “tradition” of new Blu-ray releases of cult horror offerings coming from Vestron Video, and this film, like others in the imprint’s output, will no doubt be greeted by some fans as the greatest release ever. That said, my hunch is even diehard horror aficionados are not going to be overly impressed with Slaughter High’s plot, which is basic at best, or its theatrical sensibilities, which are in fact perhaps more akin to junior high drama than anything “upper class”.

There are a number of issues affecting how effective Slaughter High is, and one of them occurs right off the bat with the appearance of the gorgeous Caroline Munro as Carol Manning, a supposed high school vixen who looks at least ten years too old be roaming the halls of a high school. Carol is supposedly seducing school nerd Marty Rantzen (Simon Scuddamore, who according to the commentary died shortly after the filming). It’s all obviously a setup for a prank, though hapless Marty, under the sway of his geeky hormones, thinks he’s about to have sex with the school’s hottest babe. The result is like a nightmare that anyone who was ever bullied in school has experienced, but it’s just the first element in a one two punch for Marty that ends up with the poor kid seriously injured in an explosion and fire in the chemistry lab.

The obviously “too old” actors at least get a bit of a reprieve in age appropriateness when the film segues forward ten years to find all of Marty’s former tormentors invited back to a school reunion, only to find out that the school has been shuttered for years and is a wreck. Here, again, there are a couple of logical leaps that need to be made (didn’t any of the former students know the fate of their alma mater?), but the biggest issue facing the film is there’s simply no suspense as to who the culprit in a jester’s mask is who begins systematically murdering all of the former bullies.

That leaves whatever horror energy Slaughter High can muster tending to be generated by how the various victims meet their fates. There are occasionally gruesome moments sprinkled throughout the film, but a less than fulsome budget means even these sequences often lack a certain “oomph”, with only suggestions of the horrors that are awaiting the soon to be departed. Even the co-writers and co-directors on the commentary seem to realize that a supposed “twist” at the end (which really doesn’t amount to much of an actual “twist”) doesn’t really do much for the overall spookiness of the film. Slaughter High might get a passing grade from genre aficionados, but there are probably better “date” movies (so to speak) that horror fans might want to visit first.

Slaughter High Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Slaughter High is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Vestron Video, Lionsgate's cult horror imprint, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a fairly heterogeneous looking transfer, one reason my score is perhaps a tad lower than some longtime fans might give to the presentation, which is inarguably better than previous home video releases. I'm kind of splitting the difference here between some of the shoddier moments, which I'd rate down toward the 3.0 level, and some of the more vivid moments, which at least approach 4.0 levels. That said, there are still some recurrent issues, including still apparent age related wear and tear, but perhaps more importantly a rather wide variance in things like sharpness, clarity, grain resolution and compression competence. The whole opening 20 minutes or so of the film looks rather soft and ill defined, with splotchy looking grain and minimal detail levels. Things improve at least somewhat once the film "flash forwards" a decade or so, but even here there are intermittent moments of inadequate contrast (especially in the many dark scenes in the abandoned school) and fairly low fine detail levels. The palette is reasonable, at least after the first kind of anemic spell, with the brightly lit outdoor elements popping quite well even if some of the interior sequences still tend to look fairly drab. Some noise correction may have been applied to this release since I didn't really notice any grain spikes (and indeed at moments not much grain at all) in some of the very darkest moments.

Slaughter High Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Slaughter High features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix that gets the job done without a lot of flourishes. Dialogue and effects (typically in the death scenes) are clearly rendered and offered without any issues like distortion, but kind of interestingly for a film supposedly built around "high school students", there's a curious lack of any source cues, and as such the film doesn't built a lot of sonic energy. Fidelity is fine throughout, however, offering all elements with good prioritization and clarity.

Slaughter High Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Co-Writers / Co-Directors George Dugdale and Peter Litten


• Audio Interview with Composer Harry Manfredini featuring Isolated Music and SFX Selections


• Going to Pieces with Co-Writer and Co-Director Mark Ezra (1080p; 18:29) is an enjoyable reminsicence which includes Ezra's memories of how he started making movies as a little boy.


• My Days at Doddsville with Actress Caroline Munro (1080p; 14:35) is another enjoyable interview with the actress, who seems to have a great sense of humor about the film.


• Alternate Title Sequence (1080p; 00:41) offers the April Fool's Day title.


• Still Gallery (1080p; 6:55)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:43)


• Radio Spots (1:50)

Slaughter High Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lionsgate's Vestron imprint has been a boon to cult horror collectors, and I'm sure there are folks who have been waiting breathlessly for Slaughter High to arrive on Blu-ray. Those folks should be generally well pleased with this release, one which offers decent if occasionally problematic technical merits and Vestron's usual supply of fun supplementary material.