The premise... and I'm being intentionally brief so as not to give away some of the plot.
18 year old Sean (Jay North) is being stalked by an insane Vietnam era army vet (Anthony James) who wants revenge for a crime Sean did not commit. At the same time Sean is being seduced by his 28 year old former(literally JUST former) high school teacher Diane(Angel Tompkins).
This 1974 grindhouse drive-in, taboo classic is poorly made with uninventive camera work and the very thinnest definition of acting but there is something in the plot and story here that deserves a serious analysis. In a typical movie you get the main A plot and then a B subplot woven in. This film is disturbing on two levels, not just because of the subject matter but also because they ingeniously pull a bait and switch by giving the A story, the revenge, less depth and spending much more time on the sleaziness of the B story, the seduction. The A and B story then collide at the end. The director pulls no punches and chooses not to romanticize the teacher/student relationship and instead shows her for what she is... a calculating predator.
The nature of their relationship is even more awkward if you keep in mind Sean is played by Jay North who was widely known for his portrayal of the preteen 'Dennis the Menace' on the classic 1960 TV sitcom, a family show. So shocking was the casting at the time, that growing up in the eighties ten years after this movie was made, even I was aware of the rumors that Jay North had starred in a 'porno'. This is NOT a porno; Ms. Tompkins delivers copious nudity and sexuality but the sex is only implied.
The themes of this movie, PTSD, revenge, seduction, sexual awakening, May/ December romance, delivered within the confines of a $65,000 budget, put it squarely in the grindhouse genre. It is also elevated, slightly, by Tompkins' portrayal of a femme fatale child predator. There are no awards to be won here but she delivers a truly memorable performance based on her screen presence and sexuality. Anthony James uses his uniquely sinister face and lanky physique to embody a genuinely creepy villain with severe mental health baggage. Together they carry the movie but barely.
It's a must see for grindhouse fans.
Just an afterthought... while watching the film, which honestly got so uncomfortable I turned it off a few times to digest it, my thoughts kept drifting to Todd Field's 'In the Bedroom'. It could be a Quentin Tarantino style reimagining of 'The Teacher'; Tarantino rewrote history so The Inglorious Bastards could kill Hitler and rewrote history again so Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio could kill the Manson family. Perhaps Field made 'In the Bedroom' to give the parents of 'The Teacher' the ending they deserved.
18 year old Sean (Jay North) is being stalked by an insane Vietnam era army vet (Anthony James) who wants revenge for a crime Sean did not commit. At the same time Sean is being seduced by his 28 year old former(literally JUST former) high school teacher Diane(Angel Tompkins).
This 1974 grindhouse drive-in, taboo classic is poorly made with uninventive camera work and the very thinnest definition of acting but there is something in the plot and story here that deserves a serious analysis. In a typical movie you get the main A plot and then a B subplot woven in. This film is disturbing on two levels, not just because of the subject matter but also because they ingeniously pull a bait and switch by giving the A story, the revenge, less depth and spending much more time on the sleaziness of the B story, the seduction. The A and B story then collide at the end. The director pulls no punches and chooses not to romanticize the teacher/student relationship and instead shows her for what she is... a calculating predator.
The nature of their relationship is even more awkward if you keep in mind Sean is played by Jay North who was widely known for his portrayal of the preteen 'Dennis the Menace' on the classic 1960 TV sitcom, a family show. So shocking was the casting at the time, that growing up in the eighties ten years after this movie was made, even I was aware of the rumors that Jay North had starred in a 'porno'. This is NOT a porno; Ms. Tompkins delivers copious nudity and sexuality but the sex is only implied.
The themes of this movie, PTSD, revenge, seduction, sexual awakening, May/ December romance, delivered within the confines of a $65,000 budget, put it squarely in the grindhouse genre. It is also elevated, slightly, by Tompkins' portrayal of a femme fatale child predator. There are no awards to be won here but she delivers a truly memorable performance based on her screen presence and sexuality. Anthony James uses his uniquely sinister face and lanky physique to embody a genuinely creepy villain with severe mental health baggage. Together they carry the movie but barely.
It's a must see for grindhouse fans.
Just an afterthought... while watching the film, which honestly got so uncomfortable I turned it off a few times to digest it, my thoughts kept drifting to Todd Field's 'In the Bedroom'. It could be a Quentin Tarantino style reimagining of 'The Teacher'; Tarantino rewrote history so The Inglorious Bastards could kill Hitler and rewrote history again so Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio could kill the Manson family. Perhaps Field made 'In the Bedroom' to give the parents of 'The Teacher' the ending they deserved.