Getting Schooled

source: Getting Schooled

GETTING SCHOOLED sounds like a high school slasher film from the premise, and as an '80s-set film it certainly has an '80s vibe, or at least as much as you can have on on what is a very low budget. As soon as the film starts, however, it becomes apparent that this is nothing more than a BREAKFAST CLUB tribute/rip-off, in which a classroom of kids are terrorised by a disabled war veteran teacher. Unfortunately the script simply isn't up to par, and it all gets very dull very soon; the unconvincing characters are quite one-dimensional. It is well shot, though.

The year is 1983 complete with anachronisms like "BFF" and "hacker." A group of kids at detention must cope with a wheel-chaired teacher (Tom Long) a Vietnam vet who develops PTSD when getting hit on the head. He goes into a killing rampage. The film had a number of running jokes such as the ability to transport the wheel chair anywhere at random, including the roof top and through air ducts. Ron Jeremy plays the role of the creepy janitor. The actors had the 80's teens down pat, most likely because they were 80's teens. Okay, not totally accurate, but they were far from teens. They tried too hard to make it an 80's film. While "bite me" and "bogus" was popular, "gross me out", "gag me" and even "Kirked out" were more TV versions of our language than what was actually spoken. One of the better films coming from "Brain Damaged." Thank you sir, may I have another. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

This should have been great, it's an 80's throwback with five stereo typical teens spending their Saturday in detention and have to fight off their psychotic wheelchair bound teacher whose got them trapped in the school and is hell bent on killing them. So with a basic concept of a slasher movie version of 'The Breakfast Club' should have been awesome, and having the killer in a wheelchair is an interesting and unique angle, but despite this the execution was terrible, with way too many boring and pointless dialogue scenes that were drawn out to the point of boredom. There seemed to be too much focus on out dated references and bad jokes instead of making an actual horror film and therefore giving the whole thing a very uneven tone and despite attempts of character bonding it doesn't work at all due to none of the cast having any sort of chemistry together, and when someone dies the movie expects you to care and quite frankly you don't as the character development is non-existent. The acting wasn't very good and didn't find any of the cast convincing in their roles, they may have looked the part, but that was about it, none of them were likable or interesting, just flat and lifeless. Even the killer fell flat here, he was just way too over the top and wasn't a very good killer he just rolled around in his wheelchair yelling nonsense. The only positives in this film are that for a low budget feature the movie does look pretty good with a new use of colours that really stand out and the gore effects were pretty decent with some fun kills. But apart from that nothing else works at all and just a total cringe worthy failure. All in all I wouldn't recommend this at all to anyone, while the idea of doing a horror movie version of 'The Breakfast Club' can be interesting, it just fell flat here and fails on almost every level, which is a shame as this had potential.

A horror comedy doing a twisted version of Breakfast Club meets Combat Shock. Set in 1983, a group of students meet at school on Saturday to do a detention stint. The teacher watching them is in a wheelchair and ends up falling, cracking his head. Turns out this teacher has PTSD from serving in Vietnam and he thinks all the students are the enemy. They are all about to have a life changing experience. This one has them capturing the eighties, right from the "gag me" to the Rubik's cube. They almost had me convinced until one girl says "You're not my BFF". Ron Jeremy plays the custodian looking much older these days. The effects were pretty good. You do have beheadings and people cut up with hand saws but done in a dark humorous way. Some scenes are funny but most seem silly. The film just seemed to have numerous elements missing kind of like a pepperoni pizza that could use more toppings. It is a Brain Damage Film after all. Nothing of any value in this one except to see how old Ron Jeremy looks these days.

This movie had an interesting concept(The Breakfast Club tribute in a horror/comedy setting), but the execution was plain dumb. Bad acting, bad writing, and just not funny . Simple as that. If this movie pops up on your streaming service, pass on watching it.

OK so it's low budget and a Slasher B Movie and you can tell from the get go. The premise is Breakfast club meets 80s slasher flicks. It starts as a kind of parody of Breakfast club and for me they got that 80s teen drama vibe pretty well. The outfits and dialogue were good as was the music. The opening of the film sets the tone really for the next 80 mins. The special fx were decent using 80s methods. There is blood and gore etc. I thought the actual killings could have been a bit more interesting however and there are certain scenes that linger a bit too long. There is a cameo from Ron Jeremy as the caretaker which neither adds or detracts from the film. It is what it is but for the budget I think they did a pretty good job. I've seen much worse low budget films and this one doesn't take itself seriously and neither should you. If you want to while away 80 minutes with some 80s throwback nostalgia then give it a go. 6/10 something to watch if your bored and a bit of an 80s kid.

Getting Schooled