Creepy kid Brian (Donovan Leitch, Jr.) is finally released from the mental institution where he spent the last five years after killing his father to finish his senior year of high school. He has a crush on Paula (Jill Schoelen) who is unfortunately dating his ex-best friend, Dwight (Brad Pitt). And then the murders start up again and wouldn't you know? Brian is suspect number one.
There is a kernel of a very good horror comedy here and I bet it was probably better in 1989 (it feels like Scream especially owes a debt to Cutting Class) but holy shit, this has not aged well. Paula's character giggles every time a male character sexually harasses her and has very little agency. She mostly just gets pulled from one scene to another, usually half-dressed. The tension between Leitch and Pitt is very strong and if the movie were a little braver, that subtext would be actual text. Make that triangle a pyramid, you know what I'm sayin'?
I can't dismiss it out of hand because it does have something but I am issuing a strong word of caution. It's streaming on Tubi, Freevee (or whatever nonsense Amazon is calling their free shit now), the Roku Channel, and Crackle with ads or on Kanopy with a library card. I would actually suggest you lean into the trashy sleaze of it and watch with ads.
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