Very Cool!!!

It is a performances centric movie

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Now let's blow off some steam with a goofy slasher movie parody, shall we? It says a lot about the subgenre that, even as early as 1981, writers and producers realized that slasher films were largely composed of a per-assembled selection of clichés and stereotypes. "Student Bodies" predates "Scream" and "Scary Movie" (And even "Bloody Movie" and "There's Nothing Out There") as picking out and making fun of the rules of the genre. Teenage males are always thinking about sex, no matter how incongruous the setting. The adults and authority figures are blazingly clueless and unhelpful. The killer, when not breathing heavily and monologing his ridiculous actions, kills people in the most absurd of ways. I mean, absurd even by the standards of a genre that includes Jason punching a dude's head off his shoulders. Virginal final girl Toby, along with her androgynous name, wears buttons that say "NO!" in big letters on her bra. When sleuthing through a file, like a final girl is prone to do, she comes upon a piece of paper that says "Look in the other draw!" Many of the gags brilliantly mock the genre. A flashing running tally appears on screen with every kill. Floating graphics and text point out suspects and foolish mistakes the characters have made. Any time a phone is picked up, we hear the killer's heavy breathing on the other end. The villain disguises his voice by talking through a rubber chicken. A meowing cat turns out to be a meowing (gassy) dog. The movie is set on Halloween, Friday the 13th, the night of the big game, big parade, and prom. (And, finally, the big funeral.) Surprisingly, some of the best gags in the movie have nothing to do with the horror genre. The oddball high school principal is prone to delivering lines like "All these years, I've secretly been naked underneath my clothes" or "Hasn't there been enough senseless killing? Let's have a murder that makes sense!" with a straight-face worthy of Leslie Nielson. The nutty psychologist takes a minute to rearrange all the items in his room before sitting down and saying "Someone's been in my office." The workshop teacher is obsessed with horse head bookends, the film's most goofy odd gag. The football game is played between a group of small children and giant black men. There's a draw full of marbles. The biggest laugh might come when the movie literally stops just so a censor can have a direct word with the audience. Many of the best gags belong to Malvert the Janitor, your typical red-herring oddball. This guy is inexplicable. He stands somewhere around 6'3, looks even taller because he's rail thin, has really long limps and hands, the loosest joints I've ever seen, and is played by an actor credited only as "The Stick." His overbearing weirdness sets up one of the best gags in the movie during the post-prom reveal. (To those who have seen the film: "Absurd!") Not all the gags land. The extended bits about gum and galoshes aren't very funny, neither is when the Breather interrupts the movie to give us a rundown on all the suspects. The reoccurring bits about an African exchange student are uncomfortably racist. The farting corpse gag is overdone. The movie can't sustain its comic momentum throughout the whole runtime. With about twenty minutes to go, the movie runs out of gags. The entire chainsaw sequence goes on for way too long. The movie gets weirdly serious at the end. I think it was attempting to slip into some type of surreal nightmare tone but it's played totally straight and jives badly with the rest of the film. The final sequence is also weirdly serious. Like a lot of gag based parodies, I suspect this would have worked better at only an hour long. "Student Bodies" feature absolutely no actors you've heard, though I do wonder what happened to adorable Kristen Riter. Fans of the genre or goofy eighties comedy should definitely check it out.

Before "Scary Movie" decided to spoof the slasher genre, the 80s had its very own send-up called "Student Bodies". It came quite early you might add, even before the sub-genre had completely hit it off. Anyhow despite that, we know where the ammo for this fun is coming from. "Halloween" and "Black Christmas" comes to mind. Quite variable, but this cheeky and in bad-taste enterprise pokes fun at everything (no one… that's no one is safe), including itself which makes it enjoyably amusing as the typical stereotypes are turn upside down. The story is old-hat and a little tame, but the craziness of the situations makes it hard not to get a tickle out of it. The script holds an exceedingly self-knowing attitude, filled with smart-lipped dialogues and the humour is visually evident too. Slapstick bumbling (the murderer's weapon of choice is just ridiculous) to the humorous use of subtitles pointing out the obvious. The intro perfectly paints it ("I have the feeling this is the last time I baby sit"). Even the music score gets into the action. The apparent genre staples are turned into gags, because how blatant they are in a story's progression for things to work. Horny students, suspicious red herrings, virgin heroine and of course heavy breathing. Some gags are repeatedly used, some to good effect and others became a little tiring. After halfway through it was starting to wear a little thin, but then it breaks out even more insane revelations… one topped off by another. There are about three climaxes! The ending has a nice little homage to a horror classic… which you simply see coming. The performances are spot-on, aiming for a mock seriousness approach and it works with the kooky array of memorable characters like Malvert the janitor. A more than decent little slasher parody.

...are two of the comedic bits that I found fairly funny in this very original spoof of the incredibly popular slasher movie genre that bombarded the screens in the early 80's after Halloween, Friday the 13th, and a slew of other holidays turned gore-fests. This film starts out strong with some real creative scenes and ideas and, like the genre it is spoofing itself, soon falls into repetitive devices to try and be funny and loses its zip. That notwithstanding Student Bodies is interesting to a point as it is the forerunner of movies like Scream, Scary Movie, and others. It saw that the slasher genre was ripe for a harvest of cliché-riddled formula to be made fun of in film. The budget is pretty low here and the acting talents are less-than-stellar, but the spirit is pretty genuine throughout. Some of the actors playing the teachers were the funniest as was the body count throughout the film. The ending is a little too forced for my liking but overall Student Bodies delivers what is promises - just like the slasher films it pokes fun at.

im writing this at the time of watching it!I've had this movie for about 14 years on VHS, and for some reason i never watched it until now!!let me tell u this....I've been laughing from the second it started, im now about an hour into the movie!!i always thought scary movie was quite original....but whoever made that must of been a serious fan of this movie!! if u like scary movie you will love this...there's a lot more fun and laughs, and originality!! if u didn't like scary movie you will still enjoy this!! its a must for any horror or comedy fan!! i keep expecting the likes of lesley neilson to pop up somewhere!! this gets a 10 out of 10 from me, i haven't watched anythin so funny in a long time!!