Peeping’s Tomb

28 April 2022

Massacre at Central High

Massacre at Central High (1976)

Led by Dutch director Rene Daalder this low budget exploitation flick stars Derrel Maury, Ray Underwood, Kimberly Beck, Andrew Stevens, Rainbeaux Smith and a young Robert Carradine. Massacre at Central High was a part of the early wave of high school related slasher horror that we started to see around that time. Massacre, Carrie (1976) and Horror High (1974) all precede the break out hit Halloween (1978). Although there are some great, over the top death scenes Massacre is not a slasher movie as much as it is a commentary on social and economics issues.

There are a lot of similarities and plot comparisons to draw to this movie and Heathers (1988). Daniel Waters, the director of the latter has stated that he hadn't seen Massacre at the time he wrote the script but had read a review of it Danny Peary's book Cult Movies. Still, the similarities are certainly there.

Massacre was released theatrically in the UK as Blackboard Massacre. In Italy it was released as Sexy Jeans and was edited with pornographic inserts. I'd love to get a copy of that Italian version though just out of curiosity. Massacre was released on DVD by TCB in 2001 and later by Black Horse in 2004 and finally Desert Island Films in 2012. I haven't yet seen it on any subscription or ad based streaming services but it is available on youtube.

I was exposed to it at an early age when cable was introduced in the early 80’s. The cable companies were scrambling for content and this played quite frequently.

Massacre at Central High was released on April 28th, 1976 in US theaters.