Class Of Nuke ‘Em High REVIEW

It was back to the drawing board for the new flavour of Pot Noodle.

Release Date: 6 August 2012
1986 | 18 | 82 minutes | £19.99 (dual format DVD/Blu-ray)
Distributor: Arrow Video
Director: Richard W Haines and Lloyd Kaufman
Cast: Janelle Brady, Gil Brenton, Robert Prichard

Deliberately setting out to make a cult movie is a risky business, but that was the MO of trash specialists Troma. Occasionally it paid off.

In this high-school horror-comedy ( just one of three ‘80s Troma titles newly released by Arrow Video; the others are Combat Shock and Surf Nazis Must Die), two teens pop their cherry after smoking radioactive marijuana. Later, the girl “gives birth” by coughing something up in a toilet, and soon a man-sized monster is terrorising the corridors.

It’s a knowingly dumb, cartoonish movie with a broad sense of humour, that gleefully embraces bad taste. The cast’s constant mugging (the default response to pretty much anything is goggle-eyed disbelief) might get on your wick, and the preponderance of babes in bikinis will rile feminists. But the film also has energy, an anarchic spirit and a supporting cast featuring some very un-Hollywood faces. The results are rather like John Waters going genre. Best watched while half-cut at a house party – but you might even enjoy it sober.

Extras:

Quite a spread, including commentary by Troma head honcho/co-director Lloyd Kaufman, interviews with the two leads, and a tour of the Troma studio by Kaufman. It also comes with Arrow Video’s usual slick packaging, including a reversible sleeve and a collector’s booklet.