Massacre at Central High (Rene Daalder, 1976)



I first saw Massacre at Central High over a quarter-century ago, probably on HBO, and have been searching for it again ever since. I finally managed to track down a copy thanks to a recent overseas DVD release (it's about time we got a domestic one, no?); while this is by no means deathless cinema-- Daalder started his career as a cameraman for Russ Meyer-- it is, if anything, even better than I remembered it being.



David (Derrell Maury) is the new kid at an exclusive high school. One of his old friends, Mark (Andrew Stevens), already goes there. He's fallen in with the school bullies, and plans to use his affiliation with them to protect David. David, unfortunately, has other plans, both in standing up to them himself and organizing the rest of the students against them. The bullies, of course, have other plans, and soon the conflict has escalated.



It's impossible to get to what really makes this movie so gripping without going into major spoilers; we'll just say that things reach a rather absurd conclusion (hinted at in the title)-- and then go two or three steps further in the movie's final act. This is a movie where the scenario does all the work; the acting, the direction, the cinematography, the soundtrack, all are average at best (and plumb some truly strange depths at worst; Rainbeaux Smith, topless, idly playing with a box of dynamite, may be a nadir in seventies exploitation cinema, where outright silliness is concerned. Not that you're likely to notice, given that, well, Rainbeaux Smith is topless). But the concept is so outlandish that it somehow works. If you missed this one on the cult cinema circuit, it's certainly worth looking up now. ***