Tom Holland (3) (1943–)

Classic slice of faux-punk anarchy sees new and idealistic teacher Perry King (Andrew Norris) arriving in America's most deadly and anarchistic inner city school. The school is run by Peter Stegman (Timothy Van Patten) and his gang of psychotic, drug-dealing punks. The faculty are impotent and the cops blind to mass criminality leaving Norris alone to take on Stegman and his ultra-violent outfit. "Class of 1984" is wildly unrealistic in its premise, possibly because it is pure and simple show more exploitation thrash - and highly entertaining exploitation trash at that. Director Mark Lester piles incident on incident with an unrelenting momentum that leads to an inevitable bloody climax. It is violent with a number of unpleasant sequences, has plenty of black humour and a nice line in satirical wit. Andrew Norris is a touch one-dimensional in the lead role while Timothy Van Patten gives a rip-roaring performance as the disturbed but brilliant Stegman. Roddy McDowall puts in a great turn as the experience teacher who has seen too much and a very young Michael J. Fox turns up as a bullied school kid. A decent rock soundtrack and a pummelling score by Lalo Schifrin round out this memorable piece of tacky, violent exploitation cinema. show less

B (Good).

A suburban vampire is found out by his teenage neighbor.

A lot weirder and more fun than I'd expected. It doesn't give a damn about genre or audience expectations, in classic 1980's style.

(Aug. 2024)

A murderer possesses a doll.

3/4 (Good).

Huh, okay. I really was not expecting this to be good. It takes itself seriously, and works as a suspense film, while at the same time being inherently ridiculous enough to cut the intensity down to escapist fun.

It was fun, I enjoy movie novelizations. Fright Night is a favorite cheesy one of mine, Chris Sarandon is perfect for it, and is the underrated score. I'm not sure why it;'s called origins instead of just something like Fright Night: Movie Novelization. I like the additional back story that suits books better since they have more time, and this was very fun overall for fans of the film. Not perfect, but enjoyable.