http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzX2RNGGM7U

With a title like Massacre at Central High, you probably think that this 1976 film is a low-budget slasher film.  However, you’re totally wrong.  Instead of being a low-budget slasher film, Massacre at Central High is a low-budget political allegory and it’s a pretty good one at that.  It’s also not exactly an easy film to see (I had to watch it off of a scratchy, old VHS tape), which is unfortunate because it’s probably one of the best exploitation films of the 1970s.

Massacre at Central High takes place at a high school in Southern California.  The first thing that you notice about Central High is that there aren’t any adults around.  The students don’t ever appear to go to class.  Instead, they spend their time roaming the halls.  The school is run by four wealthy jocks who enforce order, repress independent thought, and spend most of their time hanging out in an exclusive lounge.  Of the four ruling jocks, Mark (Andrew Stevens) is the most sensitive, an overall nice guy who doesn’t approve of the excesses of the others but, at the same time, isn’t willing to stand up to them either.

The Ruling Clique

As for the other students, they spend their time being alternatively harassed and cared for by the jocks.  They’re told, of course, that everything is for their own good and that their survival depends on the survival of Central High.  Spoony (Robert Carradine) is caught and punished for spraying political graffiti on the lockers.  Oscar (Jeffrey Winner) is regularly bullied by the jocks on account of his weight.  School librarian Arthur (Dennis Kort) is attacked for being an intellectual.  When Rodney (Rex Steven Sikes) makes the mistake of parking his car in one of the jock’s space, they react by stealing and wrecking his car.

Things start to change when track star David (Derrel Maury) transfers to Central High.  David is an old friend of Mark’s and, at first, Mark attempts to get him to join the ruling clique.  However, David is disgusted by the other jocks and starts to stand up for the oppressed students.  The jocks (with the exception of Mark) respond by lowering a car down on David’s leg, crushing it.

No longer able to run track and now moving with a permanent limp, David refuses to tell anyone the truth about how he injured his leg.  Instead, he returns to school and gets his revenge, methodically murdering all of the jocks except for Mark.  Mark and his girlfriend Theresa (Kimberly Beck) now find themselves transformed into societal pariahs within the halls of Central High.  Meanwhile, the formerly oppressed students step up to fill the power vacuum and, to David’s disgust, they quickly turn out to be just as bad as their now deceased oppressors.

David Is Disappointed

Now realizing that most revolutions are waged by the lower class against the upper class for the sole benefit of the middle class and that there’s absolutely no way to bring any real change to Central High, David instead makes plans to destroy the entire high school…

Surreal and dream-like, Massacre at Central High is a potent allegory that takes the concept of absolute power corrupting absolutely to its logical extreme.  It’s a film that celebrates revolution while, at the same time, asking, “What’s the point?”  It’s a film that looks at politics, society, and culture and actually has the courage to suggest that it might be better just to give up on all of it.  Featuring excellent performances from Maury, Beck, and Stevens and wonderfully off-center direction from Rene Daalder, Massacre at Central High is not an easy film to track down but it’s definitely one worth seeing.