Suffer The Fiddlers: Student Body (2022)

Student Body (2022)
Rating: ***1/2
Starring: Christian Camargo, Montse Hernandez and Cheyenne Haynes

Not to be confused with 1981's slasher spoof Student Bodies, this loving homage to high school drama intertwined with masked maniac violence plays a rather basic yet compelling approach to entertain genre fans.

Set at a prestigious private prep school, we follow Jane (Montse Hernandez), a brilliant star student struggling to maintain her increasingly unstable friendship with her childhood bestfriend Merritt (Cheyenne Haynes) who, in turn, is the leader of a small clique made up of soccer jock Nadia (Harley Quinn Smith), goofball Eric (Austin Zajur) and politically-conscious photography heartthrob Ellis. (Anthony Keyvan) 

On one fine day, Janes sees an opportunity to get close with Merritt again when, after the gang failed a mathematics test, she decided to try convincing their intense math teacher Mr. Aunspach (Christian Camargo) into granting them a retake. Aunspach, however, sees this as a pathetic waste of the star student's time and is disappointed that she would rather lower herself into their level than striving to better them. The talk soon becomes frighteningly aggressive and Jane retaliates by accusing the teacher of harassment, leading to Aunspach's termination not long after.

As the weekend comes, Jane finds herself joining Merritt and her merry gang in secret afterschool party shenanigans, hacking into the building's newly installed security cameras to cover their tracks and hoping to down a gym teacher's secret stash of booze. Unbeknownst to them, someone dressed up as their school's blacksmith mascot "Anvil Al" is keeping a real close eye on them, sledgehammer at hand ready to crush a skull or two.

A feature debut from writer-director Lee Ann Kurr, Student Body channels John Hughes' 1985 classic teen drama The Breakfast Club by dedicating a sizable run focusing on its characters, their relationships and dilemmas. Troubles are shared, friendships are tested, it does takes a good while going before anything horror-related happens in turn, which may not sit too well for those wanting a slay-a-thon for every ten minutes, but for those who are patient enough to sit through some slow burn character development may find a workable direction in this as we do get to know a bit more about our casts, thus effectively making the later slasher carnage much more impactful.  

Granted that some dialogue do miss the mark in its intended humor, overly sell stereotypes or even come out more odd than intriguing (Eric bemoaning his shot to be the school's mascot, for one. Like, okay?), the acting from the casts does succeed in getting past their characters' cardboard thin personalities more often than not, especially whenever the film chooses to slow down and invest a moment or two to develop the teen drama narrative. The result is a charming banter here and there, or even brooding ones once the bodycounting mayhem rears its ugly head, enough to give the teens a little more depth than your average horror flick meat.

In terms of Student Body's slasher outlook, it's mainly by-the-book; teens party, killer skulks around until they get the opportunity to smack a kid on the head with a mean sledgehammer, everybody else panics, scatters and the hunt starts. With the story mainly focusing on five teens and barely anybody else, the killcount is pretty limited, dishing enough blood and gore to be still serviceable despite lacking on the creativity department as it's mostly sledgehammer bashings. Though, that doesn't stop production from getting expressive and artsy with the murders from time to time, making use of quick-cut editing and some nice cinematography to elevate an otherwise standard set of kills. Add in a sweet looking killer get-up that creepily works and an admittedly intimidating villain to don it, and I say the movie did fine enough to tap into the basic inner workings of a slasher flick, even delivering a satisfyingly messy finale to close with.   

All in all, Student Body is an okay slasher movie that did all it could to service genre fans. There's definitely a lot of room for improvement, but for a debut film, it's a respectable solid effort. Give it a watch!

Bodycount:

1 male bashed on the head with a sledgehammer

1 female brained in the temple with a sledgehammer

1 male brained with a sledgehammer

1 female pushed off a floor, falls to her death

1 male bashed to death with a sledgehammer

Total: 5