Sorry, this movie sucks

Don't Believe the Hype

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

This strangely offbeat and unusual late 80's slasher starts off vile and promisingly, but soon degenerates into a prototypically dumb and exaggeratedly implausible flick. Some people – more specifically its very small but devoted fan base – tend to describe "Raging Fury" as reminiscent to the gritty revenge-themed exploitation efforts of the late 70's, but I hardly see any connections. Nope, this is merely just another cheap and uninspired flick that actually insults the viewer's intelligence with all its impossibly far-fetched story twists. The highly entertaining opening sequences show a little girl "accidentally" killing a young biker couple in the swamp near her parental house because they destroyed her dolly. Enjoy this intro with its nasty make-up effects and glorious sleaze as much as you can, because it's all downhill from here… 18 years later, the little girl – Brooke Storm – grew up to become a biology teacher in a standard American high school, but she obviously still suffers from a very unbalanced mental condition due to her traumatic childhood experience (which makes you wonder how she ever managed to finish her own teaching studies). Elsewhere in the school, the popular jock all of a sudden decides it's time for a personality change and joins the school's gang of bad kids (again, the most common thing in the world). As some sort of initiation rite for Jon-Jon, the clique decides to terrorize Miss Storm in her own house. They even set up a plan to frame the football team's quarterback in case anything goes wrong! Needless to say the nightly attack causes Miss Storm to go totally bonkers again and the thugs get a whole lot more than they bargained for. "Hell High" is a bunch of senseless nonsense without tension or horrific atmosphere. The film only evokes unintentional laughs (when the police actually do come to arrest the quarterback, my mates and I were laughing tears) and sentiments of pity. Not surprisingly, the cast and crew list only exists out of nobodies. Director Douglas Grossman as well as most of the actors and actresses never worked on any other film again. Lead star Christopher Stryker even died of AIDS before the film's release. I know it's not a very nice thing to say but I doubt it was a big loss for the cinema industry.

Hell High starts with a young girl named Brooke Storm (Amy Beth Erenrich) playing down the local swamp (!) when two lovers (Webster Whinery & Karen Russell) unexpectedly turn up on a motorbike, the guy wants sex with the girl but she says no & in his frustration he rips Brooke's doll apart as she looks on... Jump forward '18 Years Later' & Brooke (Maureen Money) is now a biology teacher who is having a hard time with a student named Dickens (Christopher Stryker) & his gang, Queenie (Millie Prezioso), Smiler (Jason Brill) & the gangs newest recruit ex-football star Jon-Jon (Christopher Cousins). Dickens decides to play a prank on Brooke & after finding out where she lives the gang fill plastic bags with mud from the swamp & splatter Brooke's house & pour it over her head as they jump on her roof. Brooke is understandably upset & after Dickens tries to rape her she decides to take revenge on her tormentors...Co-written, co-produced & directed by Douglas Grossman & also known as Raging Fury I thought Hell High wasn't anything special. The script by Grossman & Leo Evans is your basic tale of revenge although it takes a while to get to it, you can practically fast forward the entire first 45 minutes as virtually nothing happens, after that point they play the prank on Brooke & things all of a sudden become a lot more interesting as the exploitation elements kick in. Unfortunately I found the whole thing a bit on the tame side, sure someone throwing a bag of swamp mud over you would be upsetting but would it really turn you into a cold blooded killer? Don't forget that Dickens never actually rapes her either so that cannot be used as any reason. It's certainly nowhere near as exploitative or sleazy as some other revenge films such as the terrible I Spit on Your Grave (1979) or the utterly brilliant Angel of Vengeance (1981) which is how a film like this should be done, I mean the viewer needs to feel for the female victim & understand the motivations for what she's doing for the revenge part to have any real impact. The character's are OK but you never really care for anyone which is a problem, the dialogue is functional & nothing else. It's one of those films which is OK to watch to pass the time but if your looking for something outstanding than you won't find it here. I'd imagine I'd have totally forgotten it by the middle of next week.Director Grossman does an OK job on what must have been a low budget, while it isn't going to win any awards for technical achievement it looks OK & occasionally has a nice sleazy atmosphere, it just doesn't sustain it for long enough. There are a few scenes of nudity but nothing that memorable & there's not much in the way of blood or gore either, two people are impaled on spikes, someone has their head bashed in with a rock, someone has a pencil stick in their head, someone is impaled on a poker & someone has a knife cut their throat & none of it is that graphic or shocking.Hell High (a title which makes no logical sense) is quite well made considering it's low budget roots although the music was quite good. The acting was OK but nothing special & Mooney is dull & forgettable as Brooke while lead villain Stryker died of AID's almost two years before the film was eventually released as it was shot in 1986 but not released until 1989.Hell High isn't a particularly good film but at the same time I don't think it's a particularly bad one, it's just all very average & uninspiring. There are much better revenge films out there, watch only if you've got nothing better to do.

A little blonde girl accidentally kills a couple on a motorcycle for breaking her doll. "18 years later" she's a reclusive high school biology teacher (Maureen Mooney) with a pack of obnoxious students who hate her. After she slaps a punk named Dickens in the face for tossing test papers on the ground, he informs his gang friends "I'm gonna stick it to that bitch!," so one day after a football game they show up at her secluded home wearing masks, watch her take a shower, throw swamp sludge on her and try to rape her. She snaps and tries to kill herself by jumping out of a window, then recoops and gets revenge. Bloody and in her lingerie, she sticks a pencil in a guy's head, attacks with a butcher knife, plots a dissection and beats a girls face to a bloody mess with a rock. End of movie.This is sort-of like a teen version of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE--a boring, no-thrills revenge movie with some T&A, a little gore, annoying characters and a relentlessly boring opening hour where nothing happens.Score: 2 out of 10

But that's what i did. We were at the mall, having just come from my orthodontic appointment, and I was supposed to go back to school. However, once the title "Hell High" caught our eye, we had to see it. I remember a goofily inane, low-budget horror movie that featured a scene of a beautiful teacher becoming vocally aroused just taking a shower (because when women soap up their breasts, they are helplessly turned on.) And that's almost all I remember. But I guess I fared better than a friend who, a few years previous, had seen Revenge of the Nerds with his little, old grandmother. And, thinking on it now, I saw Clash of the Titans when I was like eight or something with my grandfather. A chaste shot of a woman leaving a bath was pretty exciting then. Later on, at dinner, my sister yelled out that I had told her there was a "tushie" in the movie. I was mortified. I could hardly deny I had said it, after all, as her knowledge of said tushie was proof enough. A shadow fell over my grandfather's face and not another word was said for a long time. A horrible memory.