I get bored easily with slasher flicks these days, but for a short while I got on a kick of revisiting some of the obscure ones from my youth. I think it started with being given a copy of "Silent Night Deadly Night" which lead to vague remembrances of others from long ago. I guess I was curious about what I found interesting in them back in the day. So even though I knew it wouldn't be as good as I thought it was in jr. high I sought out "Slaughter High."

In this one the killer is a dork who has been bullied relentlessly by a particular high school clique. While I was bullied myself I can be thankful mine never involved my bare butt being poked with a javelin nor acid being splashed in my face during a gas fire. Young Marty, on the other hand, ends up hauled off to the hospital disfigured for life.

Years later the members of this same clique are invited to a high school reunion at their now closed alma mater. Marty is prepared to give them a party they'll never live to regret and begins killing them one by one in gruesome ways.

If you think this sounds like a breeding ground for plot holes you're dead on target. Marty may be deranged, but he's very much non-supernatural – no dream attacks or return from the dead here. A minor amount of intelligence and teamwork on the part of the victims could have kept most of them alive. Seriously, after all that talk about needing to stick together they're going to leave the mechanic alone and vulnerable while trying to fix the tractor – their only hope for escape?

What I found interesting, though, is that most of the more glaring plot holes (including the ease with which the victims die) are explained with some unexpected twists at the end. Still, in order to fill in some holes they only dig others. I won't get into the details for those that don't want spoilers (as if anyone cares, but you never know). It's not great writing, but it ultimately proves to be more interesting than it initially appears.

Most of the acting is terrible. I mean it's kind of fun in a campy sort of way but certainly not dramatic. The producer's cameo is better than most of the starring roles. The coach is pretty cool, but his part is small. The guy playing Marty isn't bad. Unfortunately this is his only movie role as he killed himself about the time the movie was released. If he was that troubled, playing this kind of role probably didn't do his psyche any good.

The soundtrack is corny 80's stuff. It might not be so bad if it weren't so repetitive. Another weak element is the attempt to be American though it's shot in England. The accents show through in the actors, and the school does not look like an American school. And how about April Fool's Day (which plays a part in the plot) ending at noon? I've never heard of such a thing. I've read that this was a British tradition at one time.