We know Oscar winner George Clooney as Danny Ocean from the critically acclaimed heist hit “Ocean’s Eleven” (and its sequels), from award-winning dramas like “The Ides Of March” and “Up In The Air” or the TV mega-hit “First Aid”. . Anyone with a soft spot for 80s and 90s horror will probably primarily associate the Nespresso man with his genre films, which range from cult (“From Dusk Till Dawn,” 1996) to legendary bad (“Grizzly II” , 1983). “Return To Horror High” is also a movie from that era – which had a hard time in Germany for a long time.
“Return To Horror High” once had bad luck with the local authorities, was not released in its entirety and landed on the Index in 1988. A full 25 years later – the usual time it takes for a re-examination of the FSK – indexing was finally lifted. More than nine years later, there is even a renewed reduction: Now the FSK has released the uncut version of “Return To Horror High” even from 16 years old!
The news reached us shortly after the film celebrated its German HD premiere. Because just a few weeks ago, Nameless Media released the film as a strictly limited edition Blu-ray media book. In view of the new release, however, there is a very good chance that an official FSK 16 uncut release will follow soon – probably not just as an expensive collector’s item, but as a standard edition on DVD and Blu-ray for a small dollar. .
This is “Return To Horror High”
“Return To Horror High” was not only the directorial debut of filmmaker Bill Froehlich, but is also the only feature film by Froehlich, who later mainly worked on TV series such as “Freddy’s Nightmares” and “MacGyver”. In view of this, however, he managed to gather a very prominent cast: in addition to Clooney, who would not celebrate his breakthrough until a few years later, Pepper Martin, known for “Superman II”, and Alex Rocco, are also among the cast, which film fans especially appreciate. as casino owners Moe Greene from The Godfather.
However, the ambitious low-budget production was received mixedly by fans and the trade press. Schlock fans with a penchant for handcrafted (albeit obvious) gore effects can certainly check it out, but otherwise the wild genre ride has hardly any appreciable qualities. This is also suggested by the average ratings on various movie review platforms: only 18 percent of users on Rotten Tomatoes rate the movie positively and also on IMDb (4.3 out of 10 stars) and on Letterboxd (2.4 out of 5 stars). “Return To Horror High” below average.
This is what Return To Horror High is all about: Years after Crippen High School became the scene of a spectacular series of murders, a film crew sets out to bring the story to life. But then a first crew member disappears. The terrible events of the past seem to be repeating themselves – after all, the murderer from then was never caught…