Student Bodies

Director - Mickey Rose (The Love Boat)
Starring - Kristen Riter (Pure 80's), Matthew Goldsby (Frances), and Jerry Belson (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
Release Date - 1981
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "The world's first horror comedy movie"

Rating (out of 5):

 

     When I come across a movie from the 80's I tend not to look anything up about them.  I love 80's films regardless of the genre and I am a firm believer that 80's was the best decade for movies.  When I came across this little gem I assumed it was a straight forward slasher because I did not see a poster or do any research for it.  I was pleasantly surprised when I gave this one a viewing. 

     The movie parodies the slashers of the time.  The film opens with a baby sitter and her boyfriend heading upstairs to make sweet love and swap fluids when "The Breather" sneaks in the house and murders them both...with paperclips.  The movie then moves on to the two lover's funeral where two of their friends decide to play some hide the sausage but are murdered by The Breather who uses horse head book ends to subdue the couple before they are able to commit the sexual act.  Both couple's mutual friend, Toby, starts realizing that both couples were murdered because they had sex (or at least decided on doing so).  She then tries to stop her remaining friends from having sex and turns into a cock block, however, that fails and her friends fornicate anyway.  The Breather then makes his appearance and kills them off one by one.  It just so happens that all the women being murdered were in the run for prom queen and once everyone dies the (male) principal gets the crown.  All the time, Toby herself, is suspected of the murders because she was there every time a horny couple is murdered.  After many witty puns, horror parodies, and off the wall jokes, the killer is revealed to be the principal who has been killing the females, and secretly his elderly assistant has been killing the males and stuffing them in to garbage bags.  Then the film twists and Toby wakes up and everyone in the movie is the complete opposite of who they were.

     I absolutely loved this movie.  When I first found it I just assumed it was another early 80's slasher flick with the exact same story as all the ones before it.  The humor in this one is seriously funny and the acting, though it is over-dramatic, is very well done and adds to the overall value of the flick.  I highly enjoyed watching the character of Melvert the school janitor.  He definitely stole every scene he was in.  The death scenes are not graphic what so ever but they are entertaining.  Deaths are not your typical deaths also.  People die by paperclips, horse head bookends, chalk erasers, and an eggplant.  The story is nothing special but it does parody some of the better known slashers of the times such as Halloween, with the baby sitter being murdered, and Prom Night, with the contestants being hunted down and murdered.  Most of the people, aside from the director, did not really do much else with films which is kind of sad since it would be cool see the actor who portrayed Melvert, known as The Stick, star in some other flicks.  I definitely recommend this cheesy little flick.