So, you knew when I started this series of Back to School reviews that I would eventually end up reviewing a horror film or two.  Whether it’s because they were written and directed by people still bitter over being teenage outcasts or because they were produced by people who were smart enough to realize that a lot of horror fans are still students, several horror films have been set in the world in high school.

Take, for instance, the 1974 film, Horror High.

Horror High tells the story of Vernon Potts (Pat Cardi), who is the smartest student at his high school.  However, it’s debatable how much of an accomplishment that is because, in this low-budget film, it appears that there’s only 6 or 8 students at the school.  Regardless, Vernon’s combination of intelligence, acne, and social awkwardness have come together to make him the school outcast.  Not only do Vernon’s fellow classmates make fun of him but the janitor threatens to kill him, the football coach orders him to help the team cheat, and his English teacher destroys Vernon’s biology homework.  Vernon’s only friend is a guinea pig named Mr. Mumps.  Vernon eventually gives Mr. Mumps an experimental serum that turns Mr. Mumps into a murderous monster.  Unfortunately, the janitor subsequently kills the guinea pig but, in the process, he also forces Vernon to drink the serum, which leads to Vernon occasionally turning into a monster himself.  On the bright side, Vernon does eventually get to date the girl he has a crush on, largely because she’s single now that Monster Vernon has killed her boyfriend…

Horror High is one of those low-budget films that is so extremely odd that it can’t help but have an oddly dreamlike power to it.  This is one of those cases where the total lack of narrative logic actually works to the film’s advantage.  Pat Cardi makes for a believable outcast and everyone else in the cast is properly despicable.  As ludicrous as the plot may be, the film itself is full of a palpable atmosphere of dread and doom.  I’ve seen a lot of bad high schools in a lot of low-budget horror films but it’s hard for me to think of one that was quite as nightmarish as the one in Horror High.

Incidentally, Horror High was filmed in my home state of Texas, in the wonderful city of Irving!

And you can watch it below!