Killer Bash (2005)

   
Directed by: David DeCoteau

Written by: David DeCoteau & Barbara Kymlicka


Starring:


Raquel Riskin .... Becky Jeckyl
Cory Monteith .... Douglas Waylan Hart
Paula Shaw .... Janine Gordon
Tara Wilson .... Krista
Alicia Jones .... Nicki
Lindsay Maxwell .... Viv
Lisa Marie Caruk .... Megan
Sebastian Gacki .... Matt Kelly
Caz Odin Darko .... Craig
Alex Caithness .... Derek
Aleks Holtz .... Sean

Release Date: Made for Cable; March 1, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

Rating:

 

In 1975, a group of school bullies at the Halston College torments a brilliant but shy put upon student named Robert Hyde (Graham Wardle) and accidentally kills him.

30 years later, a put upon girl in the same college named Becky (Raquel Riskin) is troubled because her parents are going away for Christmas without her and never found time with her over the years.
She is unhappy living in the town she is in. She realises Robert's belongings at the college and sees a map of his where he was picked on which is at the basement of the college where there is his ring she finds and carries it around.

She suddenly turns stunningly beautiful and popular but deadly at her school since she slowly turns evil and powerful causing some of the jocks to die of supposedly accidental deaths whenever she eye's them.

She also keeps seeing hallucinations in her dreams and during other times of what happened to Robert.
She looks deeper into his history on how he died.
She goes to the aid of her counsellor named Janine Gordon (Paula Shaw) who knew alot about him in order to stop herself from killing other male students at the college with her possesed power caused by Robert himself.
She also goes to the aid of her new boyfriend
Douglas Waylan Hart (Cory Monteith) as his father was responsible for Robert's death.

 

A nicely done made for cable TV movie which aired alot on the Shadow Lane Canadian channel. The beginning starts off nicely with frat bullies tricking an outsider in joining their group which seems well written in on what they say making it truly intimidating and humiliating being in the spot for a target to be brutally picked on. Yet it takes place in 1975 and although the warddrobe was very 70's fashionable the environment looks like it's present day that they shot this trying hard to make it look like a 70's environment type of fashion.
There's a nice present day showing an outsider girl named Becky Jeckyl sitting on a bench while being nastily commented with other students walking past her which seemed impressively wirtten in reminding you of school bullies.
The story was very impressive with the counselling moments between Becky and Janine Gordon which seems like a realistic session on an outsider discussing on how much she hates going to this school with an understanding counsellor like Janine being sympathetic.
Plus there's a cheesy change with Becky after spotting this ring making her look more beautiful and all that was a little different was the fact that she took her glasses off and changed her hair a bit. Otherwise she was always beautiful looking. But there's nice cheesy moments like when her eyes start to glow or quick flashback moments in the 1975 events. THere's also a weird moment when two jocks coming into the girls changing room and taking off their shirts towards Becky acting lustful towards her. Of course this is typical for a DeCoteau flick in the millenium decade. Then they siddenly act normal again and leaving her which makes you wonder what that was all about. Was it that ring sje had hypnotising them?
Also Becky uses her red eyes on another weightlifting jock in which the story was a bit too long showing them working out topless and building up a sweat using another traditional moment for a DeCoteau flick and this jock dies with the barbell crushing his neck which doesn't seem brutal at all.
The best scene is between Becky and Janine having a Christmas Eve quiet moment together with eggnog mixed with rum which looked very relaxing and heartwarming. The story here looked very realistic and calm as well as their discussion on Robert Hyde and how he was badly tormented which made the setting vwery serious and drawn in very well. There's nice settings with a Christmas tree and other stuff surrounding this moment when she talks about it all.
There's even moments with Becky and the frat girls using a ouija board calling up Robert's spirit which seemed cheesy but fun to watch as well as the guys crashing in and partying with them as it looked quite amateurishly done not looking like they're really partying at all.
There's even another moment with Becky spying on some frat jocks blindfolding pledges wearing nothing but Calvin Klein unswear and getting them drunk as well as pouring vodka all over their bodies in which this does point to the gay market focusing on this sharply. It was fun to watch but at the same time can seem a bit pointless. But again it almost seemed like DeCoteau gave it a male perspective look at his version of his old school horror flicks like Sorority Babes in the SlimeBall Bowl O Rama in a sort of way.
There's nice emotional moments with Becky trying to ask Janine for help telling her that Robert is possessing her body to kill other people which is a great drawing card to the story and seems to work in films like this one.
Plus more partying moments with the jocks wearing nothing but their underwear dancing in front of the beautiful girls dumping liquid on them which I was thinking to myself "C'mon! Enough is enough!!!!"
There's perfect writing with the head sorority sister named Megan returning and acting nasty and insulting towards Becky as well as Becky changing her voice turning into Robert's voice telling her off which was a perfect revenge twist after all she's been through by being tormented.
There's also a great near ending that involved these character's like Janine talking to poseessed Becky being reasonable as well as a pretty boy jock next door named Douglas revealing some secrets about him which was a great combination alltogether and a great way to end the possessions alltogether.
Bottom line is that the story reminds me of R.L. Stine's work on his young adult novels plus some elements of the Carrie remake. Lots of good scenery but yet the plot looks too stale at times with the techno music and not very scary during the other times. Plus some crony last name characters like Jeckyl & Hyde etc.
We also spot some cheesy CGI special effects although it doesn't look too real it's still fun to watch.

The acting is stiff in the beginning which is usually typical for a TV-movie but it gets a little stronger.
Raquel Riskin (Becky Jeckyl) does a wonderful job playing a misfit in the film turning into a hot one as she brought great emotions to her part and a niceness to her role with her soft speaking. Yet when she is supposed to look nerdy looking wearing her glasses and how she styles her hair she still looks beautiful which wasn't her fault and a shame the make up department didn't make her look more convincing. She shows good evil expressions whenever she shows her icy staring to put a killing curse on someone. She shows some good emotions too along with a fairly good ounce of energy too. Does well acting emotional towards her onscreen counsellor in the office when she tells her that someone is posessing her body and that the students there are in danger.
Paula Shaw (Janine Gordon) is super in it as a counsellor making her role really believeable with her nice warm attitude. She made her part incredibly believeable and shows a perfect mellow behavior. She proves to be a great character actress and has had smaller roles in other flicks but can get bigger parts for her talent in this one without a doubt. She comes across perfect onto the screen with her performance in it. She was the best out of the whole cast.
Cory Monteith
(Douglas Waylan Hart) plays a boy next door type of role as his looks do more of the talking than his talent but he isn't overly terrible either. He comes across clearly as an all round nice guy who is non judgemental and trying to act sympathetic. It just looks like that he is starting out in the acting industry and needs a bit of a push that's all.
Lyndsay Maxwell
(Viv) was quite an attention grabber in her supporting role as one of the sorority sisters by having a snooty type of speaking whenever she spoke and shows a good slick attitude too. She brings alot of this type of spunk quite well onto the camera and not losing touch with it at all.
Lisa Marie Clark
(Megan) really pulls off her goregeous looks as a head fraternity sister showing a great stuck up attitude too. She was great with her nasty words making herself a believeable popular school snob and bully. You just feel like hurting her she did it that well. She was the best supporting actress in the film I found.
Most of these actors are Canadian locals which is nice to see them getting work as leading actors.

Blood flows out of a guy's head after crashing onto the ground.

The music is not bad at all and Joe Silva does a perfect job composing for a TV movie having some synthesizer orchestral music here and there along with some drum beatings and the odd guitar string playing. Plus there's good mysterious type piano playing for mysterious moments about to unravel as well as the odd deep synthesizer music too which seemes to work well the odd time.
He has worked with director David DeCoteau many times in his other works including his so far memorable work in the made for video gay cult film Brotherhood IV: The Complex.