‘Return to Horror High’ (1986) - Bill Froehlich.

Bill Froehlich’s delightfully ironical ‘Return to Horror High’ (1986) while initially gleaning some infamy for featuring a disarmingly youthful, magisterially mullet-ed, George Clooney smarming his very first signature smarm, now quite rightfully enjoys the sterlingly rib-ticking reputation of being one of the wittiest, self-aware 80s slashers, its elevated status in the perfidious pantheon of 80s horror due in no small, dismembered parts to its playful script and a ‘cut above’ acting performances from dreamy 80s B-screamer, Lori ‘Bloody Birthday’ Lethin a triple threat in three toothsome, terrifyingly tittersome performances!

A ramshackle crew of a ceaselessly quipping, gleefully opportunistic Troma-esque filmmakers are currently ensconced in ‘Crippen High’, which only recently had the mammoth misfortune to be the grisly real-life location of an uncommonly frenzied, boisterously body dissecting bloodbath!  With the sanguineous carnage still lemon-fresh in the clearly vexed mind of the school’s deliciously disturbed principal Kastleman (Andy Romano), the chaotic, murderously accident-prone production turns deadly serious as one by one, bit by bloody bit, the mysteriously absconding cast and crew gorily go missing. Amidst this escalating mayhem, our perky can-do lead actress, Callie Cassidy (Lori Lethin), and her cop beau bravely, if not entirely sensibly, seek to unmask the insane identity of the high school hall haunting, tyrannically twisted, creepily cadaver collecting thrill killer of Crippen High! 

With its satirical sense of absurdity mostly intact, and so many heroically hard boded, juicy juvenile teens savagely sundered, this feisty 80s fright flick, flagrantly festooned with its multitudinous, memorably mirthful scenes, its myriad full-blooded performances and wickedly knowing sense of sadistic fun, it is no small wonder why fear-meister, Froehlich’s killer diller of a bodacious B-movie blood-spiller, ‘Return to Horror High’ remains so highly regarded among sick-headed, ghoulishly grin-seeking, slice n’ dice aficionados to this very day! And I couldn’t end without praising the gleeful, frog-flaying performance of, Vince Edwards as serial student boinker, Richard Birnbaum!