Detention (2012)

High school detention never ends

Bringing even more angst to student life, a slasher killer has chosen their high school as the new home of slaughter. It becomes a race against time to stop the killer, which will in turn save the world - if only the students can get out of detention.

From the opening scene, this is a film that'll make you utter 'What the-?' or any variation of that phrase at least twice in every scene.

The film's premise mainly focuses on a serial killer dressed as in-film horror icon Cinderhella, a Jigsaw/Leatherface hybrid who targets the students of Grizzly High. If Detention were a person, it would have Attention Deficit Disorder, as it forgets about the main plot and incorporates many useless detours such as a daughter swapping bodies with her mother in 1992, an acid-vomiting, half-fly Jock and a flashback to a time-travelling bear from another planet who ended up becoming the mascot for Grizzly High.

With the plot constantly jumping around combined with frenetic editing, your constant attention is needed to be focused on the film. What is annoying is how the film constantly references the 90s (referred to as the new 80s), as it feels like they're leaning too heavily on these references to make-up for the thin storyline, weak script and poor writing, all of which contributes to the overall obnoxious and hipster-ish feel of the film.

They looked on in despair at my review. Sorry guys.

The teen performances are good, but none of them are worth mentioning, as they're overshadowed by the fact that it's hard to care for these vapid, undeveloped, uninteresting, generic cliches of characters. In fact, the only performance worth mentioning is by Dane Cook, who's actually funny. Also, look out for a great montage which charters musical trends through the past.

Detention tries to be Scott Pilgrim meets Scream, but ultimately fails to reach the standards of both of those films. With his focus mainly on 90s references and cramming as many useless subplots into one film, as opposed to a coherent script, character development and some actual substance, Joseph Kahn is not one to watch.

Also, a film full of 90s references, and nothing about Nirvana? For shame!