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Massacre at Central High

Director: Rene Daalder Run Time: 87 min. Format: 35mm Rating: R Release Year: 1976

Starring: Andrew Stevens, Derrel Maury, Kimberly Beck, Robert Carradine

THE DEUCE storms the New Amsterdam for Rene Daalder’s MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH!

Plus: Prizes and surprises, drink special at the after-party, and music by DJ BONES! Hosted and presented by THE DEUCE JOCKEYS: Jeff, Andy, and Joe! 

Not what its title implies at all, Massacre at Central High (aka Blackboard Massacre) is neither a slasher spooker nor gory gross-out, but a powerful commentary on post-Vietnam, 1970s American unrest. First time director – and protégée of Russ Meyer – Rene Daalder’s unfairly neglected political allegory is now more relevant than ever.

Derrel Maury’s transfer student David gets in with the ‘in’ crowd, but learns fast that their iron fist threatens the entire student body. Soon David liberates then rallies the school’s underclass – who become an oppressive force themselves, armies of social outcasts –  while David plots his revenge fantasy of revolutionary mass murder. Years ahead of the more popular Heathers (on which Central’s influence is more than palpable), Daalder’s debut foreshadows the vigilante angst of Columbine and the early-21st Century’s lost generation of mid-teen marauders.

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