Purely Joyful Movie!

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

My thoughts on Horror High-First a few observations and then I will report what I discovered about the History of this film.Observations:* Austin Stoker played Lieutenant Bozeman in this film, Last year in the YT Horror Movie Discussion Group we watched the movie "Ruby" and Austin Stoker played the police officer/brother-in-law in that movie. *Austin Stoker's Lieutenant Bozeman plays the worst game of cat and mouse with the main character, Vernon Potts. His Columbo-style questioning of Vernon leads the viewer to believe that if Stoker's character really suspected Vernon as strongly as the questions he asks seem to indicate, then this case could have been cracked a lot earlier if Lt. Bozeman had just assigned a police officer to track Vernon's whereabouts. * Some people may think that Vernon is a somewhat sympathetic monster. Think again. Why does the whole school start the movie calling Vernon "The Creeper". What did Vernon do prior to this movie to earn that nickname? Vernon was only forced to drink the chemicals once. Every other time thereafter, Vernon willingly drinks the chemical concoction to solve some rather trivial and minor problems in his life with murder. *The janitor, Mr. Griggs, must be a complete idiot. After beating Vernon viciously and then forcing him to drink what could be deadly chemicals, Mr. Griggs tells Vernon that he is going to beat him some more and then take him to the police. Who would the police arrest in that scenario? *Please tell me that somebody else noticed the bushy mustached white police officer angrily twitch his mustache when Lt. Bozeman tells him that he can't "tie up" Coach McCall.Short History of the Movie:*Lots of 50 and late 40 year olds have seen this movie. But many remember the movie being titled with a different name. This movie was popularly shown on late night monster television shows in the early 80's under the title "Twisted Brain". *This movie began production in 1973 during a time when Independent movie productions were becoming popular. This movie was not made by a big Hollywood studio but instead by a company, Horror High Ltd. that was formed by James Graham, the producer of this film. James Graham may have produced this movie soley as a vehicle for his hot girlfriend, Rosie Holotik (plays Robin Jones), to advance her acting career. Rosie was a Playboy cover model in 1972, acted in Horror High in 1973 along with two other B-horror films in 1973 and then never acted again. *This movie seems to provide the same local pride to Irving, Texas (where the movie was filmed) that Pittsburgh feels for "Night of the Living Dead". This movie was filmed exclusively in Irving, Texas during a fast two week shooting schedule. The school used as the setting was a High School for unwed mothers according to a Pat Cardi (Vernon) interview and the actors were not allowed to talk to the students or even look at them for fear of losing the location. *James Graham took advantage of the fact that a lot of professional football players that had went to college in Northern Texas lived in the Irving area. Mean Joe Green, Joe Niland (Coach McCall), Abner Haynes, Calvin Hill (Cleveland Browns RB), Billy Traux, D.D. Lewis, and Craig Morton (Broncos QB in Super Bowl XII) all played characters in this movie. This made filming difficult as fans hung around the sets for autographs. According to Pat Cardi (Vernon), Joe Niland (Coach McCall) would have young Pat Cardi over to his Irving mansion after shooting ended for the day where he had "babes running around the place like hot and cold running water" and young Pat Cardi would get so drunk that it would disrupt shooting the next day. *The movie cost $100,000.00 to make and only made less then $20,000.00 when it was originally released in and around the Dallas area in 1973. James Graham's High Horror Ltd. entered into a distribution agreement with Crown International Pictures and that allowed the movie to travel far and wide so that Variety magazine reported in May of 1974 that it "hit top grosses nationwide". The movie was pushed by Crown International Pictures for the next decade as it was a frequent second feature at drive-ins all the way into the early 80's. One practice employed by Crown International Pictures was to re-release old movies with new titles (Independent producers complain that this was an effort to hide box-office receipts), so this movie was released in different parts of the USA and worldwide with different names: "Kiss the Teacher...Goodbye!", "The Devil's Bible", "The Devil's Beast", "Experiment of the Death Devil's Beast", Werewolf Massacre". *Early promotion for this movie had a Drugsploitation angle. The early tagline for this movie was "Watch Vernon turn on...and then kill". Later once Austin Stoker enjoyed some success in the cult classic "Assault on Precinct 13" the marketing shifted and the tagline became "The man who survived Precinct 13 is Back!" But former child star, Pat Cardi (Vernon), wishes that the movie would have been promoted more along the angle of "I was a teenage Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde", which it never was promoted in that fashion.

Surprisingly well-done cheapo. The premise amounts to a variation on the old Jekyll & Hyde. This time a nerdy high school boy uses his chemistry skills to get advantage on his many tormentors. Frankly, I could have used more yucko's, especially close-ups of Vernon when he turns into a grotesque Hyde. But we get only teasing glimpses, probably because of the meager budget. Still, the movie makes excellent use of shadowy hallways to set up suspense sequences. Then too, it looks like the school scenes were filmed in a real high school. Cardi's excellent as the wispy kid trying to deal with a mean teacher, bullying footballers, and a callous coach. (Note the name "Vernon Potts": how apt for a nerd. For once, I wish they would surprise us with a nerd named "Lance Coxman".) Anyway, I expect the movie appeals especially to viewers who had to suffer through high school hierarchies. Meanwhile, the camera work, pacing, and acting are all better than expected for an indie quickie. In fact, this may even be the best movie to come out of Irving, Texas. It may not rise to sleeper level, but it remains a respectable re-doing of a familiar premise.

High school nerd Vernon Potts (Pat Cardi) spends every spare minute of his day in the school lab trying to perfect his formula for enhancing his guinea pig's physiology; when the rodent finally mutates and kills the janitor's cat, the moggie's furious owner forces Vernon to drink his own potion, causing the usually meek student to become an uncontrollable monster driven to settle the score with anyone who has ever made his life a misery.Vernon's chemical concoction might be a scientific revelation, but the formula for this film is nowhere near as ground-breaking, following in the well-trodden footsteps of numerous Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde rip-offs; but even though the film is predictable stuff, there is still plenty of fun to be had from this contemporary take on the Robert Louis Stevenson classic.The cast is surprisingly good, Cardi impressing as the affable biology buff, scrumptious redhead Rosie Holotik (as caring classmate Robin Jones) making for an appealing love interest, and Austin Stoker putting in a decent turn as Lieutenant Bozeman, the cop tasked with solving all the murders at the school. A reasonable helping of gore also adds to the enjoyment factor, gruesome highlights including a bloody face-melt, a corpse in an acid vat, Vernon's nasty English teacher losing her fingers under a guillotine blade, and the school's coach being trampled to death by Vernon wearing spiked running shoes. The film ends on a suitably tragic note, Vernon gunned down by the police in front of a horrified Robin.

This film actually isn't bad. The movie centers around a highly intelligent but thoroughly nerdy high school boy named Vernon Potts. Vernon spends his days in the library or the high school chemistry lab, working on "formulas" which ultimately transform him into a homicidal monster after he drinks his research cocktails. He uses the monster within to exact revenge on his tormentors, namely the high school janitor, the unforgiving English teacher, and the unsympathetic phys ed teacher. Typical of what you'd expect from a horror film, you see blood and gore from several of Vernon's victims.Compared with many horror films of today, it's really not so shocking by comparison I think. There's a scene of a head floating in an acid vat, someone's fingers getting chopped off by a paper cutter, and some blood splatter. There's no nudity or sexuality.There are several improbable scenes / concepts with the film, mainly, how is it that a high school level student is able to master biochemistry and pharmacology to create this "Mr Hyde" concoction? Additionally, any teacher as heartless and cruel as the Phys Ed and English teachers in this film would be fired instantly today. Oh well - enjoy the film as you watch Vernon take on his tormentors and dispense some good ole blood-splattering justice.