Note: This Blu-ray will be released on August 25th, 2015.
A long time ago in the late 70s and early 80s, horror movies were all the rage. Flicks like Friday the 13th and Halloween ruled the cinemas. At the time, it seemed that nothing was more popular… except perhaps wild and wacky comedies such as the disaster film parody, Airplane! (1980). Naturally, it wasn’t long before the terror genre got the same comedic treatment.
Over the span of a year or two, numerous efforts followed. These included Saturday the 14th (involving Richard Benjamin and Jeffrey Tambor) Pandemonium (featuring Tom Smothers, Carol Kane, Judge Reinhold and Paul Reubens), Wacko (with Joe Don Baker and Andrew “Dice” Clay) and The Creature Wasn’t Nice (starring Cindy Williams and Leslie Nielsen).
However, the first and highest profile effort (even though it didn’t feature any big names in its cast) was Student Bodies. More than likely, this was because it came from major player Paramount Pictures, the studio behind both Friday the 13th and Airplane!. Since that time, many of these titles have barely managed a VHS release before fading into obscurity. Student Bodies did come out on disc many years ago, but it has been out of print for some time. Thankfully, Olive Films have decided to resurrect this lost comedy and give it an impressive new Blu-ray release, making it easily available to the public once more.
The story is set around a high school being terrorized by a killer known as “The Breather.” Of course, for no reason whatsoever, an innocent teenager named Toby (Kristen Riter) is suspected of the violent crimes and must do all she can between bizarre psychiatrist appointments and interactions with various suspects to figure out who is responsible. Of course, everything is occurring on a “big” day at school – events include a parade, a football game and an end-of-school-year prom.
Indeed, the movie uses the routine “slasher” format and in doing so pokes fun at the tropes of the genre. In fact, it’s first fifteen or twenty minutes or so really go to town, throwing every comic gag at the screen. While plenty is of an eye-rolling variety, the random and quirky everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach is so eccentric that it garners some goodwill and a few genuine chuckles. This includes a running onscreen body count, a funny make-out session and the reaction of a pair of homeowners returning to check on their babysitter.
The Breather himself, depicted with POV shots and a voiceover is pretty funny too, huffing and puffing his way around his targets, either genuinely running out of breath while in pursuit (“All these stairs!”) or voicing his frustration when he encounters other problems. His choices of weapons are completely absurd, and include the likes of paperclips and eggplants.
There’s also some good stuff with the school staff members. Most notable is a shop teacher who possesses an unhealthy obsession with making horse head book ends, and a lanky, oddball janitor named Melvin (the role is credited to a man known as “The Stick”). Truthfully, it’s far from a great comedy. It has one abrupt ending too many, has many slow sections and strains more and more for laughs as it progresses, but the scattershot approach does generate the odd chuckle here and there.
The picture quality is significantly better than I’ve seen it looking in the past. While the occasional grainy shot appears, it looks like the original photography is the reason (with one or two underexposed shots blown-out in printing to retrieve as much information as possible). Again, it’s no fault of the transfer and just a result of the slapdash quality of the original materials. The film looks far clearer than on VHS and in previous versions… and that’s a definite plus.
Student Bodies is most definitely a cult item, but those who know the horror genre well will find many of the jokes to their liking and will generally be pleased with the disc itself. It’s a guilty pleasure, but the Blu-ray is one worth recommending to early 80s horror enthusiasts with a sense of humor. After seeing the film again, it makes one hope that Olive Films can bring us something like Pandemonium in the future too!