Detention (2011) Review

Detention (2011)

Dir. Joseph Khan 93 minutes

What do you get when you mix Heathers , Scream and Breakfast Club and set it in 2011? Well you get a visually stunning , disjointed film that tries so hard but eventually fails on almost every level.

Its really hard to know where to start with this, it’s a hugely fast paced rapid assault , that plays out like about 20 short music videos. Which becomes more obvious when you find out that director Joseph Khan has a large amount of them to his name.

The film starts with high school cheerleader and most popular girl Taylor Fisher (Alison Woods) being almost decapitated in her bedroom by a Ghostface type killer.

Then we have the main character Riley Jones (Shanley Caswell) who could well be the schools least cool and most unpopular student.

Next we are quickly introduced to the rest of the cast including Riley’s crush Clapton Davis (Josh Hutcherson – Hunger Games) , his girlfriend Ione (Spencer Locke) , her ex boyfriend and Claptons nemesis Billy Nolan (Parker Bagley) , Riley’s creepy friend Sander (Aaron David Johnson) and playing the Principal is the great Dane Cook.

So what follows is a time travelling , high school slasher film that just goes all out 100 mph like a kid with ADD on speed, and you just want to say “ calm down , sit down and relax – take deep breaths and tell me all about it”.

Maybe its my age , or I am too cynical. But it was all just far to much for me. There were some great ideas like a student with alien fly mutant blood who is forced by his father to wear a TV on his hand until his teenage years. And star of the film is the time-travelling stuffed bear that sits in the school hallway.

There are a huge amount of cultural references , almost every minute and these go from cinema , music and plenty of Star Trek nods.

Maybe if I was 18 (oh god no) I would have enjoyed this more, but I really just couldn’t keep up with the pace, language or at times story. It is aesthetically fantastic , but after 90 minutes my eyes were burning and my brain hurt.

Now pass me my blanket, a copy of Prom Night and tell them kids to keep the noise down.

Tried hard but fell flat 4/10