Student Bodies
A film that much of the time shows flashes of brilliance and borderline genius, this slasher spoof, billed as the āWorldās First Horror Comedyā before the days of Scary Movie, is interesting because (with the exception of Richard Belzer, going under the alias āRichard Brandoā) it features a cast of entirely no-name actors. This was no accident: Because it was produced during the Screen Actors Guild strike of 1980, it holds the dubious milestone of being the only film produced by a major studio (Paramount) to have a cast comprised entirely of non-union actors, most of whom (even the leads) were then blackballed in the industry and never worked on another film again. Mickey Rose (a comedy writer for Woody Allen and Johnny Carson, among others), was credited as the director, when in fact he was merely the screenwriter, and the REAL director, Michael (Fletch) Ritchie, had his name taken off the film and took a producerās credit under the name āAlan Smitheeā. Despite all this, it actually has some hysterical parts and characters: Belzerās āBreatherā, the filmās killer heard only in voiceover, is a pretty hilarious comic creation, with his insane monologues (especially his masturbation fit in the girlās locker room) providing plenty of hilarity. Other cool roles include the horse-head bookend obsessed shop teacher and the freakishly double-jointed janitor Malvert, played by an obscure stand-up comic known only as āThe Stickā. The female lead role of Toby (Kristen Riter) is certainly extremely cute as well, and bits like having all the male victims get killed by a giant Glad Hefty garbage bag (which never gets old) and the football game between full-sized high school players vs. a bunch of pee-wees (71-0?) continue to be hilarious to this day, not to mention the legendary scene where a man behind a desk comes out of nowhere and ensures that the film will have an R-rating. Unfortunately, after riding along on pure comic inspiration for its first hour, the film completely collapses in the final act, featuring a crazed monologue from the principal about obsessing over the teenage girls who pass thru his school year after year (which comes off more as sick and perverted than actually funny), and then throwing the whole script out the window in favor of badly done surrealism, at the end of which itās all said to have been a bad dream brought on by swine flu(!) with the final scene ultimately making no sense whatsoever as well. A shame, since it was an extremely entertaining and watchable movie up to that point. Overall, a cult classic that will keep you watching until the unfortunate botched conclusionā¦
7/10