Customer Reviews

Hell High

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Yes, "DO NOT BUY THIS DVD"!!!

Why?

Because there is, in fact, an authoring error, which has caused approximately 4 minutes of the movie, to be missing.

I have personally contacted Media Blaster, the company who have put out this DVD, and talked with the customer service rep (who claimed to have no knowledge of such a problem at first, and had to check) who confirmed that there was a problem, and that the company was aware of it, and that they were supposedly doing something about it, but that he had no idea what, or when, and to periodically call back, to see what the progress was.

My question is, why hasn't the company done a call back on this DVD, as well as why do companies like amazon.com, still have this title for sale?

It's like selling you a book, with about 40 pages missing from the middle...!!!

And understand that this is NOT a problem with only some of the, Hell High discs, and/or certain DVD players not playing the missing 4 minutes of the film; the missing 4 minutes just aren't on the disc, period!!!

This is my second run in with bad DVD authoring, by Media Blaster (also known as, "Shriek Show") as their version of, Zombi 2, also has a problem with the 2 channel, English, stereo soundtrack, which from the time of, 68 minutes and 41 seconds to 71 minutes and 12 seconds, the sound cuts in and out, for long periods of time, completely killing the famous, rotting corpse with worms in his eye socket, rising from the grave and attacking, scene.

I also called Media Blaster about this problem, and was met with the same cluelessness and indeterminate solution, that I was with, Hell High.

I checked with the Blue Underground version of Zombi, which was supposedly culled from the same film negative, but which sadly, has no extras (where as the Media Blaster DVD comes with 2 discs, loaded with extras) and their 2 channel, English stereo soundtrack is perfect, in the same place where the Media Blaster version, messes up.

So, until Media Blaster puts back in the missing 4 minutes of footage, DO NOT BUY THIS DVD!!!

You've been warned...!!!

P.S. And for those of you, like myself, who found out to late that this DVD was defective, Media Blaster's customer service number is, 212-868-0991 ex. 237, and I figure that if we keep deluging them with phone enquiries as to when the fixed discs will be available, then we may actually see this come to pass, sometime before the next millennia.


P.S.P.S. Oh, and the one star rating for this DVD is only because, unfortunately, you can't post a review without any stars, as I would have given it ZERO, had I been able to.

The old VHS was uncut, but the DVD has been edited by several minutes. Why spend your money on a truncated horror film? Buy something from a company that released movies in the original versions.

Job Bob Briggs is included on this DVD with an intro and commentary track. He's a big fan of this movie apparantly.
The film is a departure from your run-of-the-mill 80s slasher flick but essentially follows the conventions of the genre with a few novel twists.

It's a low budget offering with some inventive kill sequences (I particularly enjoyed the prologue) but the acting and directing are somewhat uneven.

The outright sadism of the kids is hard to take at times. Just why are they so mean spirited towards their teacher? There doesn't seem to be any justification for the malevolence directed at her. It reminded me a little of "Demented". (I'm sure there's hardly anyone who has seen that sick little movie)

You'll enjoy the movie a lot more with the Joe Bob Briggs commentary track turned on.

For completist fans of 80s slasher flicks only.

This is a good DVD of a little known slasher film but as previously mentioned, it is indeed missing a couple minutes of footage. I seriously doubt this editing was intentional because if you listen closely it affects both the Joe Bob Briggs and the director's commentary tracks. If you listen to Joe Bob's commentary track about seven seconds into chapter 10 there is a slight pause (possibly a layer change) and it immediately goes to chapter 11 and you suddenly hear Joe Bob in mid-sentence talking about parts of the movie included in that missing footage. If you watch your DVD player's display, you'll notice there is no time gap and that chapter 10 really does last only a mere seven seconds, meaning that not only is there missing footage but missing Joe Bob commentary as well! Since the Joe Bob commentary was the main reason why I bought this DVD, I consider that a pretty big negative. Overall, it's still a good DVD that could have been great were it not for that one flaw. I still suggest buying the DVD and then e-mailing Media Blasters about it like I did and hopefully they'll consider fixing the problem.

Overall the picture quality is superb compared to that of the vhs transfer. I did notice, however, that there are a few scenes edited out for the dvd version. There is a scene in the vhs where John John goes to steal a football jacket from a classmate and a few scenes with Dickens and Queenie discussing what they have done. It's at least five minutes edited out. During the scene where the teacher is laying on the ground you notice a slight pause then it cuts to Dickens eating a hot dog but there is no time gap so the dvd doesn't skip scenes but in fact that material was edited. Overall the movie is worth having on dvd but if you are fortunate to have the vhs-keep it!

I think my title says it all. Even if the other reviewers feel this was a rip-off due to edited scenes, another 5 minutes would have added to the agony of wasting time on a dated and dull disaster like this. If you like high school hi-jinks in horror flicks, spend your money on the original "The Blob". This is "The Dud".

The DVD has a known authoring error and continues to be sold and distributed. BUYER BEWARE!

Don't expect any frights when watching Hell High, a film that I would place in the gray area where the horror, juvenile delinquency, and exploitation genres overlap. The exploitation angle makes it the kind of film I rarely enjoy watching, and I can't say I even found all that much satisfaction in seeing this story's poster boy for human scum get what he deserves in the end. Learning that the star of the film (Christopher Stryker) died of AIDS a year after filming (which was also two years before this, his only film, was actually released) made the whole experience even more depressing.

Like all pretty little girls in pink frilly dresses, the girl in the opening scene loves to play in the swamp, but on this particular day a couple of horny teenagers (well, the guy's horny, anyway) ruin her fun, and she kinda sorta causes them to have an accident - a really, really bad accident. Fast forward ahead eighteen years, and we find the girl all grown up and teaching biology at the local high school. Whatever horrible guilt and angst lie buried deep inside her after all these years surely don't help her exert any control whatsoever over her class of stupid, misbehaving kids. Dickens (Stryker) is the worst of the lot, and he vows to get Ms. Storm (Maureen Moony) back in a big way after she finally hauls off and slaps him for throwing a stack of test papers in the air. Somehow or other, Dickens is able to recruit a little pretty boy named Jon-Jon (Christopher Cousins) into his little gang of misfits just in time for the games to begin. Alienated as a coward for quitting the football team, Jon-Jon goes about proving his cowardice time and time again by decrying Dickens' plans and then going along with all of them anyway.

Dickens' plan to scare Ms. Storm by playing off the "myth" of the teenagers supposedly murdered in the swamps quickly spirals out of control, of course, causing a panicky Smiler (Jason Brill) to start muttering such clichéd lines as "I can't live like this" and "now it's cryin' time again" while Jon-Jon goes completely over to the dark side of juvenile delinquency. Rather than a badge, justice carries some sharp implements in this case, but there is little satisfaction to be had by the viewer as the gory part of the film finally kicks into gear.

It's absolutely ridiculous for five minutes of the film to have just disappeared during the transfer to DVD process, but you aren't really missing much if you're unable to find a copy of the complete film. There's just not a whole lot to this film to begin with. Joe Bob Briggs may enjoy Hell High, but this is not a film that will ever earn my "darkgenius approved" stamp.