HorrorHigh

Horror High (1974)

Vernon is a good student and sort of a nerdy. He spends most of his time working on his chemistry project with his guinea pig Mr. Mumps. The other students and some of the teachers are constantly being mean to him and making his life difficult. When Vernon makes a break thru and creates a formula that brings out the more animalistic side of his nature everyone had better look out. See Vernon is tired of getting pushed around and is out to settle some scores. As the bodies start to pile up a detective named Bozeman (played by genre favorite Austin Stoker) is brought in to sort things out. But how many more will die before Vernon is stopped?

I’m a big fan of drive-in movies and have been hearing about this one for years now. But I’ve never gotten around to watching it until recently. Horror High is just about what I expected and wanted it to be. The story is really cheesy with some goofy dialogue and characters. Obviously the movie is “inspired” by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but they set it in a High School with a nerdy science kid in the lead. This allows them to set up all the situations that you would expect, including the jocks taking Vernon’s notebook away from him, as well as the cute girl that inexplicably likes him. Hell the movie has an evil janitor type that beats the hell out of Vernon and a mean English Teacher that tries to force him into a literature club! Horror High isn’t a comedy, but it is also not a flick that is trying to be serious either.

The cast is surprisingly good. Obviously Austin Stoker does a great job playing the detective. He is always good no matter how bad the rest of the movie is, and when he is in a decent movie like Horror High all the better. I haven’t heard of the rest of the cast, including Pat Cardi who plays Vernon in the movie. But again they are all pretty good. And I have to mention (since I’m a big NFL nerd) that a bunch of NFL players have small parts in the movie (mostly Dallas Cowboys) including Craig Morton, D.D. Lewis, Calvin Hill, and Mean Joe Green (a Steelers legend!). Casting football players is just the sort of thing that I expect in a drive-in movie.

For most of the movie we never get a good look at the creature Vernon after he has changed. They keep him in the shadows or with his back turned to the camera. When we finally do get to see him it is a simple makeup job with some black face paint and a couple of appliances. Totally acceptable for a low budget drive-in movie. I was surprised with some of the kills, including a bit with a vat of acid (yeah they always keep that around in High Schools!) and some chopped off fingers. Though my favorite kill involves a coach and a pair of cleats.

Horror High is a lot of fun and I’m glad that I checked it out. Though after doing my research and finding out that it was written by J.D. Feigelson who also did Dark Night of the Scarecrow I’m not all that surprised. I recommend checking this one out.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer