Babes Virginia Madsen and Sherilyn Fenn play college room-mates in Zombie High, which I guess is as good a reason as any to check out this cheesy '80s horror. The lovely young ladies play Andrea and Suzi, who are targeted by the college faculty, who have been transforming pupils into perfect preppies with the aid of crystal brain implants. Also, by extracting blood and brain tissue from their students, the professors have created a serum that makes them immortal. Andrea discovers what is going on, and with help from faculty member Dr. Philo (Richard Cox), who has the hots for her, and her boyfriend Barry (James Wilder), she attempts to put an end to their nefarious behaviour.
Borrowing heavily from The Stepford Wives (1975), and providing the template for Disturbing Behaviour (1998), Zombie High attempts to blend teen comedy, satire and horror, but rarely does so successfully. The result is a frequently bizarre late-'80s oddity that feels extremely awkward for much of the time, never sitting comfortably in either the comedy or horror genre; that said, it still manages to be moderately fun, largely thanks to its camp nature (which may or may not have been the intention). The film is full of stereotypical teen characters, from the leather-jacketed rebel to badly-dressed nerd Emerson (played by Paul Feig, who would go on to direct the terrible female Ghostbusters remake), and the ending is suitably silly, the faculty growing old and decaying when deprived of their serum, with the preppies keeling over when rock music (a Beastie Boys rip-off called Kiss My Butt) is transmitted to their brain crystals.
The film's funniest moment is the homecoming dance, where an R&B band fail get the party started, the mind-controlled students responding to the music by moving uniformly in a robotic manner.
Borrowing heavily from The Stepford Wives (1975), and providing the template for Disturbing Behaviour (1998), Zombie High attempts to blend teen comedy, satire and horror, but rarely does so successfully. The result is a frequently bizarre late-'80s oddity that feels extremely awkward for much of the time, never sitting comfortably in either the comedy or horror genre; that said, it still manages to be moderately fun, largely thanks to its camp nature (which may or may not have been the intention). The film is full of stereotypical teen characters, from the leather-jacketed rebel to badly-dressed nerd Emerson (played by Paul Feig, who would go on to direct the terrible female Ghostbusters remake), and the ending is suitably silly, the faculty growing old and decaying when deprived of their serum, with the preppies keeling over when rock music (a Beastie Boys rip-off called Kiss My Butt) is transmitted to their brain crystals.
The film's funniest moment is the homecoming dance, where an R&B band fail get the party started, the mind-controlled students responding to the music by moving uniformly in a robotic manner.