The Stay Awake (1988) – John Bernard.

20 years after his execution, the malevolent spirit of a sadistic serial killer returns to haunt an isolated Girl's school, mindlessly revenging himself on this equally vapid crop of bland young women. Bloodthirsty lunatics stalking and slaying nubiles, in corporeal, or unfleshed guise was, by the late 80s nearing saturation point, and this South African supernatural slasher seemed oblivious, and clunkily got on with its generic, bizarrely bloodless body bag stuffing. Acting and screenplay are singularly inept, but often provide unintended bouts of genuine levity (javelin scene!!!). Slasher savages weaned on The Prowler and Maniac will find The Stay Awake a snoozer, but fans of prodigiously goofy horror trash will hungrily gobble up the fromage-laden larks herein! The conspicuously rubber demon is no less unthreatening than a little trees car deodorizer, but his absurd antics remain a delight to behold! Even if this had been produced under the aegis of The Children's Film Foundation, a younger demographic would nonetheless angrily balk at the glaring omission of actual scares. Absolutely goreless, and so monumentally chaste, I earnestly believe the founder of the Mormons would have demanded a full refund for its borderline criminal omission of T & A! I think it is fair to say that the writer of The Stay Awake might have had equal trouble successfully completing the partially scribbled crossword in a vintage Beano Annual. John Barnard's listless characters often claim they experience a terrible odour, and no less beleaguered viewers must endure the very same stupefying reek from the malodorous dialogue.