Horror Hound Countdown Day #2

Summer School

(1987)

Inexplicably, in the pecking order of Horror Hound Weekend celebrities, Shawnee Smith comes in second to John Landis as far as star power goes. I can only imagine that having breasts goes a long way in boosting your rating at a nerdfest such as this. Shawnee Smith is probably best known for her role in the Saw movies. I think that she's been in all of them so far, but I could be wrong. Honestly, after seeing that the first one (which is considered by many to be the only good one) was a steaming dookie loaf I couldn't be bothered with any of the rest.

In my mind, Ms. Smith will always be the dumb receptionist from Becker, but that's not to say that she didn't make some appearances in some pretty decent feature films (even if she was just a tertiary character). While she appeared in remakes of The Blob and Carnival of Souls, my favorite film that she appeared in wasn't a horror film at all, but a high school comedy.

In Summer School Shawnee Smith is part of a pretty good ensemble of teen outcasts that antagonize Mark Harmon's as the comic foil. In some ways, they are the anti-Breakfast Club. Sure they represent most of the teen movie stereotypes; there's a nerd, a jock, a duo of knuckle headed punks, and a foreign exchange student, but here, despite their respective positions in the high school hierarchy, they are all misfits and failures forced to give up their summer to make up lost English credits. They start out with that strong bond and learn quickly that together they can bully the well-meaning substitute to do their bidding.

Summer School, of course, was one of the first major releases to star Mark Harmon and, despite his dearth of recent success, it's obvious why he was the "it" guy for at least a fleeting moment. Even in this inconsequential role, he is completely charismatic and charming. Harmon plays Freddie Shoop, a gym teacher who gets railroaded into teaching summer English. He's a jovial, doormat of a man that wants to be liked by everyone and that's exactly what gets him in trouble with the group of students he is put in charge of.

Summer School features two of the most original character ever to appear in a high school comedy. Dave and "Chainsaw" are a couple of horror-punks that delight in being generally disruptive, but get really nasty with an arsenal of prosthetic gore effects and buckets of blood. Of course, this all culminates in a scene of faux classroom carnage that would never pass in these post-Columbine days, but was good clean fun back int he late 80s.

Back in the day I loved this movie, but watching it again recently I realize that it has lost a little bit of its lustre for me. Honestly, it's just a lot more corny than I remembered it being. It's very broad and built to appeal to an impressionable middle schooler. And in my case, it succeeded. I'm gonna pass this one on to my middle school aged nephews to see what they think.

Video Goodness!

Summer School - School Room Massacre Scene

Summer School - Classic "Tension Breaker" Scene

Bizarre, Homemade Mark Harmon Tribute Montage