Summer School

This could have been a really great film, the story had such potential. The overall plot seemed a little repetitive in the beginning but by the end, I was thoroughly engaged. And when I thought I knew the ending, it was something else. The individual stories were, for the most part, pretty good.

But, alas, there was a downfall. Or two. And they came in the form of the special effects and the acting. The effects were so incredibly cheesy. And don't get me wrong. I enjoy B-movie effects as much as the next guy, but these were just bad. For example towards the end of the film, the main character stabs his friend with a simple pocketknife, probably no more than 2 or 3 inches. And his half of his intestines some how fall out. The acting wasn't awful but it wasn't great either. There were moments when it was fairly believable and times when it was, just, strange.

In the end, this movie had the potential be an excellent film. But it ended up just being another B-movie.

Forced to stay at school during the summer, a student finds himself constantly living out horrific nightmares only to appear back in class each time as though nothing happened, and tries to find a way of ending the cycle.

This was pretty hard to get a handle on, as it's not until the very end that you realize that this is just a never-ending series of nightmares, where waking up in one puts you square in the middle of the next one. This presents some problems in the fact that there's just not a lot beyond this premise to make the film interesting and you have to rely on the creepiness of the dreams to really gather any kind of satisfaction out of the film. Granted, some of the dream segments do get pretty interesting, especially a sequence where he thinks the different attendees with him are part of a cult or a later one where the faculty is really a coven of vampires looking for easy prey and forcing him to slay them, but the brevity and the constant knowing that it's all a dream makes it really hard to get into what's going on. A novel idea and much more ingenious than a normal anthology film, but it's design gives it it's own undoing and really doesn't get much more than just above mediocre.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

-1 Star Minor Logistics Glitch.... dude walks 60ft down a hallway and only covers about 30 ft of space where Mr. Super Cop can look into the classroom window

-1 Star Fat dude is so loud in the classroom I could hear him outside in a tornado, yet the teacher keeps on chattering like nothing is going on in her classroom

-1 Star for the teacher reprimanding fat dude for sleeping in class, but not the other idiot star who woke up screaming in class........

Some crap dialogue and very poor acting in this one, it's about to be shut off.......

-1 Star Okay when the 'reveal' comes up about 2/3 of the way thru....I'd had enough

Horrible...Horrible...Horrible....

1/10

Horror fanatic, Charles (Simon Wallace) takes a summer Physics class at his high school, only to be plunged into a netherworld of gore and death. Charles just can't stay awake in class, resulting in his not being able to tell his hideous dreams from reality.

SUMMER SCHOOL isn't bad, but suffers from being rather directionless. What is this all about? Why is this happening? We'll never know.

However, gorehounds will love this movie. Charles' dreams include: Zombies, spider mutants, a machinegun-toting teacher, mass slaughter, decapitation, Nazis, torture, vampires, homicidal hillbillies, impalement by #2 pencil, gleeful disembowelment, and suicide-by-cop...

I just finished watching Summer School, and well, I enjoyed it. Surprisingly enjoyable. I enter into independent low budget films like this with as open of a mind as I can have. Typically I am still let way down, but not this time.

This isn't so much a movie, as a series of short stories involving the same characters coupled together with a simple basic storyline.

The basis is a teen shows up for summer school after having spent a long night researching horror films. He arrives to school early and while he is waiting alone for class to start...he falls asleep. The following is a series of horrific nightmare's where himself and his classmates, teachers, and school security are reoccurring characters.

Each story proves itself to be quite original, they all had an element of horror, suspense, and mystery. I could not tell what was going to happen next due to the pacing and randomness of this film and I'll admit, I enjoyed not knowing what was going to happen next for once.

Each story builds in suspense and you find yourself wondering, even hoping, for the climax to happen. You actually want a happy story to happen after constant shocking endings to each story. I won't say how it ends, but it is a definite surprise.

I felt the acting was adequate to impressive, the leading character and his two friends filled out their roles very well in each case. The female character I felt was very poorly acted for the most part, and very unattractive. I kind of wanted her character to die when she was on screen. The camera work is inventive and fun to follow. The budget and special effects though sparing are very well used. I knew I was watching a low-budget movie, but at no time did it feel cheesy or hokey.

Overall I recommend this film, I give it a 5 because it's not a top-notch cinema thriller, but for an indie film it is exceptional. I think those involved were pretty talented and I enjoyed the story line overall. I'd say pick it up for a watch if you can.