Summer School Review

9/10

One of the things that teenagers dread more than anything is summer school. What would make it even worse is if your dreams during class were some of the most brutal things that a mind could think of.  This 2006 horror depicts this, and it has become a pretty highly regarded independent film.  I enjoyed the film a lot for its outrageous gore, high energy, and careful craftsmanship in moviemaking.

The movie begins by showing a young student named Charles sitting in his classroom alone during summer school.  He is shown to be very bored, so he starts to write down grades for horror movies that he puts on his website. This really caught my attention right away, because my website is something I'm very passionate about, and this kid is the same way.  I also liked it because he was talking about horror films in one, and I love when movies do that, because it's a lot of fun. 

In the next scene, we meet the rest of his summer school class, including his friends Steve, Dennis, and a girl named Lindsey. The top two are idiots that were forced to come by the court, and Lindsey is a girl that attracts Charles a lot. Charles is a very smart guy, and he doesn't need to be in summer school at all. The only reason he is doing it is so he can get Physics over with before the school year starts. 

The film starts to get weird as Charles is strapped down, and is being tortured by his friends. They're beating him, and scaring the heck out of him, until he finds out that it was just a dream.  As he falls asleep time and time again, the dreams get even weirder. He sees his friends get killed, he is put in a cocoon type of thing, and he is attacked by monsters. These dreams really start to terrify Charles a lot, because he can actually feel the pain in real life. This is such a great storyline, because no matter how scary the events taking place are, Charles is able to wake up out of it.  It gets very confusing at times, as he has dreams inside of dreams, and just adds to the horror.  

The first great thing about this film is the gore. It is gruesome, realistic, and plentiful. One of the grossest scenes in my opinion was when a Charles slices a patch of black on his skin, and blood starts to come out like crazy.  For a film with such a low budget, this greatness really impressed me, and it reminded me of 80's horror gore. 

The cast was pretty good in my opinion, because they kept pretty authentic by not overplaying their roles.  Simon Wallace was the lead character Charles, and he did a great job of starting off as a normal teen, and turning into a complete psycho. The actors portraying the Nazis were other favorites of mine, because they gave such a cold and brutal performance that I felt like I was really watching Hitler. 

The way that the film was shot is so cool, because even though there was a definite darkness in the tone, there is also a bright light that shines on everything. One of the greatest examples of this are the scene in the rednecks' land. The sun really beats down in everyone, and it gives such a gritty tone to the scenes. The slow motion and other cinematic effects were also so fantastic, because they really added to the brutality of the film. 

The last twelve minutes of the movie were absolutely shocking. There was killings all over the place, and a lot of intensity.  I feel that that the scene was like this to show how much the horror movies had taken over Charles' life, and how his sadistic mindset caused his fate.  It ended on a "what the heck" moment, and like I've said many times, that is the best way for a horror film to end. 

Definitely check this film out, because it is a fresh, energetic, and gory mess of a horror movie, and it was truly genius. It had a great cast, great effects, great cinematography, and everything else that could be wanted in a film of the genre. I really think that any fan of the slasher genre will have loads of fun with this movie, and that they won't be disappointed at all.