Other Releases Available:

Releases Reviewed:

Slaughter High took a long time to come out on DVD. I half expected it to be out of print by now but so far it's still around and even finding its way into several multi-movie collections.

Most notable is the “Lost Collection” DVD. I also ran across a 4 pack and an 8 pack that include this film.

The Lost Collection is a single disc DVD offering.

Video:

1.33: The video states it's a “full screen presentation.” Yeah, doesn't look full screen on my widescreen TV. They really need to stop using that description for pan-and-scan ratio converts now that TV's aren't all the same shape. The picture is fair but not very sharp. It contains some trash and is occasionally too dark.

Audio:

5.1 surround sound: The package says this is a 5.1 surround sound presentation. Sure, if they say so. It sounds clear but 5.1 or not it sounds low quality to me. This is nearly 25 years old and low budget.

Packaging:

The case is standard plastic.

The menus feature a little music and animation. They look VERY 80's which I guess was the intent. I suppose the style is a little nostalgic, but they don't seem appropriate for a slasher flick. The ad for other “Lost Collection” movies don't show any other horrors so perhaps this is just a general menu design for them all.

This gives us the uncut/uncensored version. The naked Marty torture scene is longer than the R rated version. I'm not sure what else might be different.

Extras:

-Trivia Track: The only extra of note is a trivia track. When you watch the movie trivia questions or comments pop up like subtitles. I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to have any facts about the movie. For the longest time we get stuff like who invented the bra and what's in a joint. Finally it offers some info on the cast and filming location.

-Trailer: It's a typical old trailer.

-Previews: They range from other slashers to Dirty Dancing.

Other Editions:

Both of the multi-movie packs I found have multiple movies on each disc which means that even the meager DVD extras you get with the stand alone version are likely stripped out. I'd be surprised if the video quality didn't suffer a little from the additional compression as well. However, they both contain the uncut version of the film. I was unable to find and useful comments on the content or quality of either release.

Final Thoughts:

While the trivia track is nothing impressive it might be interesting to anyone with enough interest in this film to actually track it down. You're not missing out on anything grand if you go with a multi-pack to get a lower cost per movie though you will mostly likely sacrifice some small degree of video quality.