Disturbing yet enthralling

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This is a not very well developed SyFy film with Danny Trejo as a good guy. A coin dropped in the boiler room of a high school opens a portal to another dimension bringing forth the mass murdering grandfather of one of the students.The killer and his demoness sidekick are not well developed either. He recites corny lines as a Freddie imitator, although not nearly as cool. This is a PG-13 slasher film for the kids. Adults will be bored.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex or nudity. Use of "b" word. Girls in school uniforms, but D.E.B.S. is better for that.

Woof! This dog barks. Danforth (MC Gainey, who has a grand ole time) has been resurrected by a pentagram old coin dropped on the basement of a private school by his ancestor, Quentin (Jonathan Baron), thanks to his obsessive literary teacher, Myers (Ricky Wayne). Soon there's a pentagram forming on the basement floor which unearths Danforth and his head demon. The kids and faculty still in the school are fodder for Danforth to destroy through his supernatural black magic. "Haunted High" offers Syfy the chance to further diminish their value (if that was humanly possible at this point) in terms of quality in films produced for the viewing audience. Major hurdle not overcome is that the basis of all Danforth's witchcraft in "imaginatively" killing folks is that the violence suggested is just too brutal for the television audience watching. That and it helps to keep cost down if you don't see arms and legs pulled apart by weight wires at a workout bench or a head explosion from an amplified screech in the showers. There are ideas that allow those involved in the Danforth murders to go crazy such as gym shirts that levitate and fly towards a victim, a diva pulled into a commode, a musical instrument used to kill a member of the band, the foldable bleachers used to crush the music teacher, dissected frogs attacking faculty, a trophy case literally encasing the principal, and a defibrillator used to shock the teacher head of the prom committee. Quentin must somehow conquer his ancestor's power even after being invaded by his dark spirit. Acid on the bones and their demonic rings might just diffuse the strong evil presence of Danforth and his demon. The end has Danny Trejo (as the high school janitor), Quentin, and Quentin's potential girlfriend, Whitney (Lauren Pennington), descending into the basement to do battle with Danforth and his demon.Marc Donato will be recognizable for his long-time role on Degrassi, laughably cast as an intimidating thug scaring the much larger (and whiny to the point that I was almost about to lobotomize myself so I wouldn't have to hear him anymore) Shawn Phillips, while Charisma Carpenter got a really easy paycheck as a librarian who is dispatched by Danforth's demon in like one minute…she might say three or four word, tops! Trejo, despite the name value, is stuck in the janitor closet trying to get out for probably half an hour! His spirit fighting Gainey's spirit at the end while Quentin tries to be rid of his grandpa's evil is the icing on the cake…it pretty much explains everything about how off-the-rails cheesy this film is. Love Trejo when a film plays to his strengths, but all the special lighting effects with the bolts from Gainey purposed to destroy him in the basement isn't exactly what I consider a showcase of his talents! Give him a rocket launcher and suit him in a leather vest and let him blow away biker scum…not mopping floors, reading from a book of spells, mourning over his dear love who returns as a type of spirit (although she doesn't speak), stuck in a locked room where he exhaustively bangs on the door seemingly forever, and getting waylaid by green bolts of spiritual lighting. Phillips, if I must mention him again, is a ghost hunting fan and expert hacker who nearly pees his pants at Donato… this alone gives the film a level of ridiculousness it lives in like a pair of pajamas. The quips Gainey delivers with his maniacal laugh is right out of the school of the Freddy Krueger class, but the violence and effects don't compare to what Nightmare on Elm Street was doing to class room kids back in the day. The characters aren't particularly distinguished, presented as meat for the grinder. At least they are split up and separated by Gainey's powers and not due to stupidity. See this at your own peril

I watch a lot of sci-fi movies and i thought Shawn C. Phillips was great in the movie and has a great future in movies. I thought it was decent i like the cheesy kind of low budget kind of horror movies, those are the ones that usely are the best to me. I've seen far worst movies on sci-fi before and considering this was filmed in New Orleans they probably didn't have the budget or time to make it like a movie theater version. To be able to have Danny trejo in the film was awesome he's been in hundreds of films and is very well know with Quentin Tarintino and his movies. If you want a bad sci-fi movie watch the shark one where their making fun of MTV's Jersey shore. Hopefully Sci-Fi will begin making some better movies in the future and get some of the actors in a lot of these movies acting lessons.

Generally I hate SyFy movies with a passion. Haunted High is thankfully not one of their worst, the zombie frog sequence is fun if all too brief, Shawn C.Phillips and Lauren Pennington are likable and while Danny Trejo deserved much better he does what he can. On the other hand, a lot of the film was lame. The rest of the acting is bland, but there is no wonder when their material was as under-par as it was. I had a feeling that the characters would be stereotypes as they always are when it comes to SyFy, I wasn't necessarily put off by that. It was that few of them were memorable or had any spark to them. They were further disadvantaged by some embarrassingly stilted dialogue that never rings true and by a story that manages to be both predictable and dull with no chills or suspense and the attacks and ending were too contrived to be believable. The music is also repetitive, while Haunted High is also very cheap to look at with very choppy editing and while the effects have been worse before in SyFy movies they are substandard here at best. So in conclusion, a lame movie but at the same time it could've been much worse. 4/10 Bethany Cox