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Ghoul School
Directed By Timothy O’Rawe
Released: 1990
Starring: William Friedman, Scott Gordon, Nancy Sirianni, and Paul Venier
Running Time: 72 minutes
DVD Released By Camp Motion Pictures
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A couple of criminals sneak into a high school to
shake down the janitor for some money he owes them. They accidentally
unleash a toxic chemical into the water supply. Two horror movie fans,
Steve (played by William Friedman) and Jeff (Scott Gordon), discover that
their school’s swim team has been turned into flesh-eating zombies. Just
as they are about to make their escape, they realize that the metal band,
The Bloodsucking Ghouls, are still in the auditorium, practicing for the
school dance. Steve and Jeff make their way back through the
zombie-infested school in order to rescue the band.
Holy crap! What an utterly hideous viewing experience! Now just hold on a
sec, there’s something important here. If you revel in the extreme
mullets, the odious fashions, and the cheesed-out heavy metal of the 1980s
then Ghoul School
might just be for you. The film is as cheap as they come (but they had
squibs!) with performances only a mother could love. Keep your eyes peeled
for legitimate cheeseball Ivan Sergei as the worst basketball player on
Earth and character actor Richard Bright as Principal Kaplan (my favorite
character).
Ghoul School
comes to a grinding halt very early on once Joe Franklin and Jackie "The
Joke Man" Martling have a scene together. The excuse for the film to
feature Franklin is thin enough already (he is the speaker at a pep
rally?) without an extended scene of he and Martling shticking it up. What
high school student is able to appreciate the subtle comedic styling of
Joe Franklin? I’m serious. The jump cuts indicate that this scene between
these two jokers was probably even longer than it turned out here and that
is some scary shit. Somehow the film recovers.
Elements of Return Of The Living Dead
and Class Of Nuke ‘Em High
are liberally borrowed but that’s only part of the problem. The fact that
they play the same punk song over many of the gore scenes doesn’t help
matters much and EVERYONE’S SHOUTING. However, those of you out there who
seek out all this straight-to-video junk,
Ghoul School will have its merits.
The film has its own dumb energy that keeps right on through until the end
but most viewers will walk away wondering why they bothered. Watch at your
own risk. (And be sure to watch the extras on the DVD.)
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DVD Stuff:
Ghoul School
is Camp Motion Pictures best looking release so far as the print
(originally 35mm?) is concerned. The full frame presentation looks great
but the audio has some issues. Though it is most likely the source
material, the audio levels never seem to balance out. Keep your remote
handy for when people start shouting (which is a whole lot). And unlike
Woodchipper Massacre or
Cannibal Campout, the cover art
of the DVD couldn’t be any uglier.
I find it very odd when the extras on a DVD are better than the film and
this is definitely the case with Ghoul
School. I suggest watching all of the
extra short films on this disc in order to confuse yourself even more as
to why Ghoul School
went so wrong. These films show much more promise than the end result.
Even the "Ghoul School Promotional Reel" is more entertaining than the
film it helped fund. Plus, the film’s original Tandy computer opening is
absolutely essential viewing. There’s also a "Making Of Ghoul School"
feature and an utterly useless "Box Cover Photo Shoot" feature. There’s
also three audio commentaries on the disc from director O’Rawe,
producer/actor John Paul Fedele, and cinematographer Michael Raso.
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Links:
For more info check out
Camp Motion Pictures.
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