Girls School Screamers

Director - John P. Finnegan

Starring - Mollie O'Mara (Escape from Safehaven, Found in Time), Sharon Christopher, and Mari Butler

Release Date - 1985

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "How much gut wrenching fright can you stand?!"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     Since the first I've spent some time reviewing the Fantasm double feature from Vinegar Syndrome's label Peekarama before moving on to a Vin Syn's partner label release titled Commando Ninja.  After spending three days watching non-horror titles I figured it was time to finally get back into the genre I love.  This time around I decided to keep it Vin Syn and went with their release of Troma's Girls School Screamers.  This is a movie I had owned previously on DVD but never took the time to check it out.  However, this blu upgrade was the perfect excuse to finally check it out.

     The film follows a group of college girls who visit a lavish estate for the weekend to catalog the art and antiques in the home.  One of the young ladies discovers an old diary of a young girl that once lived there and soon hold a seance to speak with her.  Not long after this the girls start to go missing one by one leaving the others to believe that something supernatural is going on.

     I went into Girls School Screamers hoping to find another awesome Troma film that I enjoyed and could revisit from time to time like The Children.  Sadly, this movie was extremely dull and one that I actually struggled to finish.  I love Troma but not all of their releases are for me and this is one of them.  The acting in this one is solid and the cast does a great job at getting into their roles but the characters are very generic and cliched.  During some of the scenes we struggle to differentiate between the characters and they often blend into the background.  It's not the cast's fault because that is just how the characters were written.  The story for this one is a very interesting idea and one I could see myself fully enjoying it if was done in a different way.  However, the way it is makes for an extremely predictable and dull film.  I'm all for a supernatural horror film centered around college or catholic school girls but the scenes take too long to establish themselves and the pay off for most of them is non-existent.  It feels as if the film had and idea of what it wants to do and either budget or over reaching producers prevented them from delivering the film they wanted to.  Finally, the film has several deaths that are very unimaginable and are not as fun as you would expect.  By 1985 the horror genre was known for their amazing effects and memorable deaths but there is still some films that lack in this department with this film being one of them.  Overall, Girls School Screamers was a big let down.  I was so excited to check this one out in hopes of having a new Troma favorite but that was not the case.  The blu looks good and it's a great addition to the collection for Troma and Vin Syn collectors but not much of one to watch.