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Horse Head Bookends, the highest achievement man has created.

Before Scary Movie and really before the clichés of modern horror were even established, some individuals with foresight looked at the few horror films that were out there and saw their potential for satire.  Student Bodies came out in 1981 which means it was being made when Friday the 13th was released and is only three years after Halloween.  Screenwriter/director Mickey Rose should be lauded for his ability to satirize slasher films before most people could even tell you what the conventions of the genre are.

Fresh on the heels of Airplane!, Student Bodies takes its influences from such seminal classics as Prom Night, Black Christmas, When a Stranger Calls, The Burning, Graduation Day and others.  It would be another year before Halloween II, The Prowler and the Friday the 13th franchise would kick into high gear. This is the kind of movie you would expect to be made in 1986 when slashers had run their course.  By 1984 you would have had several Jason films, Sleepaway Camp, Silent Night, Deadly Night and scores of others. 

A killer known as “the Breather” calls people and taunts them by disguising his voice with a rubber chicken.  The killer is an out of shape pepping tom that uses unconventional weapons (an eggplant?) to kill people instead of the more conventional knives, axes, guns, rat poison or other instruments of death. While stalking his prey, he’s outfitted in green rubber gloves and oversized galoshes so he wouldn’t stick out or anything.  The Breather is killing slutty prom queen candidates and their jock-ish boyfriends.  Toby is trying to piece it all together and discover who the killer is.  The list is long and sorted.  It could be the shop teacher Mr. Dumpkin with his obsession with horse head bookends, Principal Peters, Miss Mumsley, Dr. Sigmund, Nurse Krud or several others.  Everyone has motive and time.

To keep the mystery alive, the filmmakers include lots of red herrings to throw you off but it hardly matters.  This is more about jokes.  This is satire like it should be.  Like Airplane!, the filmmakers know it’s not about pop culture inside jokes but taking a look at the conventions of the genre and mocking them, something the creator’s of Date Movie, Meet the Spartans and Epic Movie would be good to remember.  Most of the film is tongue in cheek with many of the jokes involving teens being horny, fart jokes, sight gags and pointing out the obvious.  Like Airplane! and Hot Shots, not all the jokes work but so many of them do, it’s easy to over look the misfires. 

It’s not a great movie but there are enough jokes and funny moments that fans of slasher films will get a kick out of it while non-fans of horror will probably find it dull and stupid.  Student Bodies is definitely a cult film that genre fans will love.  It’s a solid rental and a great addition to completists.

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