Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I'm not a Naschy fan nor a horror film fan, but I enjoyed the thrill of the film. However, the predictable setup at the beginning, the too-much-unnecessary-information slash-slash diary-reading scene and the abrupt ending made it difficult to really "like" it.Specially the ending, it made me mad. The "they'll all die - guess how" part is just lame. It's obviously in the lines of "we didn't know what to put in the well so that everything makes sense, so we'll try to make it creepier killing them all in the remaining 3 minutes of film". Even a "open well - blackout" ending would have been better (and that's lame). It could have been a "videogame" kind of scene where you take a risky situation to get to the true ending or you chicken out and get a bad - game over ending, but not even that.However, the killer sure was creepy (for no interesting reason whatsoever... who cares, though), it just lacked a bit of development, but it's thrilling anyway.

School Killer (2001) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely creepy Spanish film about six college students who go and spend the night at an abandoned school where six kids were killed 27 years earlier. This film from director Carlos Gil is without a doubt one of the best horror films I've seen in quite some time. The film had me on the edge of my seat throughout and that's saying a lot because I don't normally get creeped out by any film. Not The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Exorcist were able to scare me but this one here did. The film is neck deep in atmosphere and the direction is terrific throughout. The screenplay is also very good and gives us characters that we care about and know. These characters just aren't there to be slaughtered like so many American horror films. The film is smart about the genre and smart in the way it plays out. Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy plays the security guard and gives a very good performance as does the rest of the cast. The theatrical trailer makes it seem like this is an outright slasher but it's more in the ghost genre and certainly one of the best I've seen. The only negative is some heavy metal music that is played during a few scenes.

This movie is not a typical slasher. The tension is very high, and the story is appealing. The acting is below average, and there are a lot of holes in the plot. Nevertheless, it successfully kept my attention till the end. Talking about the end, while I understand that the director wants to leave us some space for imagination, but that is TOO MUCH imagination he's asking for. I thought there will be at least another 20-30 minutes to go, and the credit rolls already! We do not know who the killer was, what his father wanted to tell them, how each member died, who moved the bodies, etc. I really wish the DVD featurettes will have the director provide us with some explanation.

I cannot believe someone gave this movie a 1 rating!!! and it is only a 3. average... What is not to love about this film? It is original, it has lots of scare scenes that actually made me jump out of my seat, and it has some great special effects. The story is fresh, there is some nudity, and it is very campy. The killer was scary in his own demented way and the end is very unexpected. I must admit that I really love this film, one of Spain's best horror films ever. If you consider yourself a true horror fan you need to get out there and try to find this film. You will be pleasantly surprised to do so.