Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020
Images from the Internet
Famine (aka Detention Night and Stupid Teens Must
Die!)
Directed by Ryan
Nicholson (d. 2019)
Gruesome Twosome Studios / New Image Entertainment / Unearthed
Films / MVD Entertainment
77 minutes, 2011 / 2019
Boy, I haven’t seen a
good slasher comedy in… well, too long. If you have any doubts about this one,
it’s original title is “Stupid Teens Must Die!” (as opposed to Kids Go to
the Woods…Kids Get Dead, 2009; reviewed elsewhere in this blog, or another
film called Stupid Teenagers Must Die, 2006; this one I have not yet
seen). I’m not quite sure why it was briefly changed to Detention Night at
some point as that is so not accurate to the story.
 |
| Christine Wallace, Michelle Sabiene |
If you have any doubts
that this Canadian release is a comedy, it takes place in the Sloppy Secondary
School. And what exactly is a “Famine?” Many institutions, especially religious
ones) have charities for the poor, where the students do not eat for a day, and
much like marathons, they get donations if they last the whole time (or as we
used to call it, Yom Kippur). This is supposed to help the students empathize
with the poor by helping them understand what it is like to be hungry. Of
course, odds are they will never really know starvation, and there is a
difference. Anyway, I’m on a soapbox, so let’s get back to the film.
Five years after a
tragic accident during a Famine – shown in a flashback, rather than a prologue,
go figure! – the students at this high school are once again setting foot on a
slippery slope, and are paying the price for it.
 |
| Christopher Lomas |
Our central character
(don’t quite know if I would call her or anyone else here a heroine/hero), is cute
Jenny (Christine Wallace), who is runway model tall and thin, and throwin’ a lot
of cleavage (thank you). She’s the one non-stereotypical character in that
she’s obviously the sweet girl, but man he gets hyper-angry at the drop
of a corn dog, and then is sweet again a second later. Definitely in need of
some mood stabilizers. All the others who attend the school are either women
dressed in high heels and ripped “Famine” tee shirts to expose – or give hints
of – body parts, or men who are annoyingly macho without looking at all machismo
(irony noted, mister director). For example, the main male lead, Nick (Christopher
Lomas), looks a bit like a scrawny Matthew McConaughey, but with big and
crooked teeth.
The Famine has been
revived by sexy new volunteer teacher Miss Vickers (Michelle Sabiene), who looks
about 5 years older than the actors playing the students. This is all under the
supervision of the literal German Nazi principal (Glenn Hoffmann), riffing off
Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove (etc., 1964) and others that I’m
blanking on at the moment.
 |
| The Nailer |
As the night wears on,
someone is killing the participating students while wearing the oversized team
mascot costume known as… wait for it… The Nailer. As you can tell, the humor in
this comedy is quite broad, being closer to the outlandish style of National
Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982) than the homage-centric Scary
Movie franchise (started in 2000). This film is definitely crass and
brassy, and especially overly profane. An example of an insult is Jenny angrily
throwing, “Why don’t you remove the dildo so all the stupid can run out?!” The
F-word, the B-word and/or C-word are in nearly every sentence, and loses its
shock value pretty fast.
Now, when it comes to
the gore, well, that’s amazing. It looks good, it’s gooey as all get out, and
over the top; the blood is way more than there would be in reality, which made
me smile. In fact, we are introduced to lots of different bodily fluids,
especially those from below the waist, making themselves known throughout.
Everything is bigly and in excess here, with nearly all the people being
overly sexualized, with men who have obviously never heard of MeToo and
women in their clothing and movements (e.g., it seems like Jenny is always
bending over, giving a downblouse shot for the camera).
The question is, of course,
is this good cinema? the answer for me was mixed. I mean, as it was filmed in
Canada, when Jenny very naturally says “aboot” in a sentence, well, that
definitely made me laugh, even though unintentional. My biggest problem with it
is it fights between being trying hard to be subtly amusing while at the same
time being big and broad. Sometimes it works really well, others not as much.
It’s going to be hit and miss, depending on your sense of humor style. If you
liked the National Lampoon oeuvre, you may like this. If you’re interested in a
higher level of it, such as Shaun of the Dead (2004), you may be more
like me and find it a mixed bag. Perhaps you just need to be stoned to really
enjoy it.
For me, the weakest
point was the acting. And that is not to say these are bad actors, in any kind
of way. What I’m saying is that rather than playing it straight and let the
humor shine through in juxtaposition, which is the way I believe it should be
to be most effective, they use what I call the John Lithgow sitcom acting style:
Lithgow is an amazing actor, but I could barely watch him on Third Rock from
the Sun (no matter how many Emmy’s he won for the role), where everything
was too exaggerated.
The extras are a
half-dozen trailers (including this one) – all of films I’ve now reviewed –
chapters, and stills. For the latter, they are nearly all behind the scenes
shots for 4:05 with a change every 3 seconds, and no soundtrack.
I am hoping you are
not getting the impression this is a bad film, because it’s not. What I am trying
to say is that it may depend on your sense of humor to determine how much you
like it. I say watch it twice: one stoned and once… not. Make up your own
opinion. Me, I’m straight-edge, and accept it for what it is.
