Original Title of Article: “Surviving Detention in Getting Schooled!”
Originally Published by ScreamFix
Detention has never
been so dangerous as in the film Getting Schooled (2017) in which Julie (Mayra
Leal) and a bunch of her fellow classmates run afoul of a Vietnam veteran
teacher with thoughts of murder on the brain.
Written by Chuck Norfolk (who also directs), Tim Norfolk and Steven
Scott Norfolk this is a film that gives PTSD a whole different meaning.
The year is 1983
and after school detention is still in full swing where five students must pay
the price for previous transgressions.
Mr. Roker (Tom Long) is a wheelchair bound teacher task with overseeing
the students of detention which include the jock, the bad boy, the geek, and
the princess (Jake Byrd, Roland Ruiz, Susan Ly, and Morgan Tyler,
respectfully). Mr. Roker has an accident
in the head that prompting him to relive the trauma of the war. He soon believes
that the students are his enemy and trying to kill him. Now Julie and rest of the gang must find a
way to escape the murderous intensions of Mr. Roper before they become a
casualty of war.
On the surface,
this seems like it is a mixture of The Breakfast Club (1985) and Cutting Class
(1989) but despite never having a cell phone in sight, the film never feels
like it is in the ‘80s even though Principal Vernon (Nick W. Nicholson) does in
fact have an ‘80s phone. There are some
creative ‘80s horror film kills that will satisfy the gore fans, but the
characters are never as savvy as those in The Breakfast Club making most of
their dialogue scenes amongst each other nothing more than pandering
drivel. The film is best when Roker is
killing people off and sprouting mad about his war memories.
What the film does
get right in terms of ’80s slasher films is the sense that the characters are
pretty much cannon fodder for the killer and rarely come off as anything more
than caricatures of their stereo type which worked well in the ‘80s but in the ‘10s
seem dated and out of touch. What I did
appreciate was the diverse casting (something the ‘80s were not known for) and
there are a lot of great homages to ‘80s films.
I did enjoy the few instances that try to break the stereo type mold
with having the Princess be a black belt and the bad boy actually have higher
SAT scores than the Geek but these moments are few and far in between with a
film more interested in maintaining the slasher film quota.
There are some
logic issues with the film that will annoy audiences one of which is if the
killer is in a wheelchair, why not just take the wheelchair away from him
(which they get plenty of opportunities to do)?
Why do characters willingly go off on their own to do dumb things and
get themselves killed off? These are
questions that ‘80s filmmakers and audiences didn’t need to answer but in the
‘10s it is something that must be answered, or it takes the audience right out
of the world of the film.
I will say that the
original score by Mike Fair fits the film perfectly and puts you right into
that ‘80s slasher movie mindset and the practical effects look great (no CGI
gore here!). Also, infamous actor Ron
Jeremy makes an appearance as Janitor Dan and has a great death scene!
If you’re a fan of
‘80s high school slasher films then you will find something to enjoy in this
film.
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