1/5 DO NOT BUY THIS DVD!!!
  by stryper (Canada)
Yes, "DO NOT BUY THIS DVD"!!!

Why?

Because there is, in fact, an authoring error, which has caused approximately 4 minutes of the movie, to be missing.

I have personally contacted Media Blaster, the company who have put out this DVD, and talked with the customer service rep (who claimed to have no knowledge of such a problem at first, and had to check) who confirmed that there was a problem, and that the company was aware of it, and that they were supposedly doing something about it, but that he had no idea what, or when, and to periodically call back, to see what the progress was.

My question is, why hasn't the company done a call back on this DVD, as well as why do companies like amazon.com, still have this title for sale?

It's like selling you a book, with about 40 pages missing from the middle...!!!

And understand that this is NOT a problem with only some of the, Hell High discs, and/or certain DVD players not playing the missing 4 minutes of the film; the missing 4 minutes just aren't on the disc, period!!!

This is my second run in with bad DVD authoring, by Media Blaster (also known as, "Shriek Show") as their version of, Zombi 2, also has a problem with the 2 channel, English, stereo soundtrack, which from the time of, 68 minutes and 41 seconds to 71 minutes and 12 seconds, the sound cuts in and out, for long periods of time, completely killing the famous, rotting corpse with worms in his eye socket, rising from the grave and attacking, scene.

I also called Media Blaster about this problem, and was met with the same cluelessness and indeterminate solution, that I was with, Hell High.

I checked with the Blue Underground version of Zombi, which was supposedly culled from the same film negative, but which sadly, has no extras (where as the Media Blaster DVD comes with 2 discs, loaded with extras) and their 2 channel, English stereo soundtrack is perfect, in the same place where the Media Blaster version, messes up.

So, until Media Blaster puts back in the missing 4 minutes of footage, DO NOT BUY THIS DVD!!!

You've been warned...!!!

P.S. And for those of you, like myself, who found out to late that this DVD was defective, Media Blaster's customer service number is, 212-868-0991 ex. 237, and I figure that if we keep deluging them with phone enquiries as to when the fixed discs will be available, then we may actually see this come to pass, sometime before the next millennia.


P.S.P.S. Oh, and the one star rating for this DVD is only because, unfortunately, you can't post a review without any stars, as I would have given it ZERO, had I been able to.

1/5 Avoid this EDITED DVD and get the uncut VHS
  by S. Phillips (Las Vegas, NV United States)
The old VHS was uncut, but the DVD has been edited by several minutes. Why spend your money on a truncated horror film? Buy something from a company that released movies in the original versions.

3/5 Little known slasher flick from mid-80s isn't too bad...
  by
Job Bob Briggs is included on this DVD with an intro and commentary track. He's a big fan of this movie apparantly.
The film is a departure from your run-of-the-mill 80s slasher flick but essentially follows the conventions of the genre with a few novel twists.

It's a low budget offering with some inventive kill sequences (I particularly enjoyed the prologue) but the acting and directing are somewhat uneven.

The outright sadism of the kids is hard to take at times. Just why are they so mean spirited towards their teacher? There doesn't seem to be any justification for the malevolence directed at her. It reminded me a little of "Demented". (I'm sure there's hardly anyone who has seen that sick little movie)

You'll enjoy the movie a lot more with the Joe Bob Briggs commentary track turned on.

For completist fans of 80s slasher flicks only.

4/5 A pretty good DVD except...
  by Matt Delgado
This is a good DVD of a little known slasher film but as previously mentioned, it is indeed missing a couple minutes of footage. I seriously doubt this editing was intentional because if you listen closely it affects both the Joe Bob Briggs and the director's commentary tracks. If you listen to Joe Bob's commentary track about seven seconds into chapter 10 there is a slight pause (possibly a layer change) and it immediately goes to chapter 11 and you suddenly hear Joe Bob in mid-sentence talking about parts of the movie included in that missing footage. If you watch your DVD player's display, you'll notice there is no time gap and that chapter 10 really does last only a mere seven seconds, meaning that not only is there missing footage but missing Joe Bob commentary as well! Since the Joe Bob commentary was the main reason why I bought this DVD, I consider that a pretty big negative. Overall, it's still a good DVD that could have been great were it not for that one flaw. I still suggest buying the DVD and then e-mailing Media Blasters about it like I did and hopefully they'll consider fixing the problem.

2/5 Hell High or just Hell!!!!
  by J. Maher (Howell, NJ USA)
Overall the picture quality is superb compared to that of the vhs transfer. I did notice, however, that there are a few scenes edited out for the dvd version. There is a scene in the vhs where John John goes to steal a football jacket from a classmate and a few scenes with Dickens and Queenie discussing what they have done. It's at least five minutes edited out. During the scene where the teacher is laying on the ground you notice a slight pause then it cuts to Dickens eating a hot dog but there is no time gap so the dvd doesn't skip scenes but in fact that material was edited. Overall the movie is worth having on dvd but if you are fortunate to have the vhs-keep it!