‘Summer School’: The ’80s Teen Comedy That Proudly Celebrated Horror Fandom
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I’ll never forget my very first horror convention, which I attended over 10 years ago in Maryland. I remember instantly feeling at home when I walked into the Hunt Valley Inn for HorrorFind Weekend, as the hotel was swarming with people I immediately felt a strong bond with. It was clear that they were “my people,” and it was the first time I was actually able to physically interact with fans who loved the same things I loved; this was a pleasure that the internet forums I was part of at the time simply did not allow.
But before the internet was a thing, and prior to being aware that horror conventions even existed, I really had nobody to share my horror fandom with. I developed a love for monsters and madmen at a pretty young age, thanks in no small part to the Goosebumps books and Nightmare on Elm Street films, and there was a period of time where I was convinced that there simply weren’t others like me. If there were, they sure didn’t seem to be sitting beside me in school, while I daydreamed about Freddy turning people into roaches.
I suppose my first sense of the so-called “horror community” that I would eventually become part of came many years prior to that inaugural convention outing, and it came from a highly unexpected source. I remember being up late one night (sometime in the ’90s, I can be sure) and catching Carl Reiner’s Summer School on TV, a 1987 comedy about a super cool high school gym teacher (Mark Harmon) who gets in way over his head when he’s forced to teach a summer class to a bunch of misfits.
Those who have seen the movie surely know where I’m going with this, but two of those slacker students in the film are best friends Francis “Chainsaw” Gremp and Dave Frazier – played by Dean Cameron and Gary Riley. Though it’s fairly common to see nowadays in both movies and television shows, Summer School was/is incredibly special to me because it was the first time I ever actually saw my own horror fandom represented on screen.
We initially meet Chainsaw and Dave in an opening credits montage sequence, where they’re standing in front of their lockers and playing around with fake body parts. The insides of the lockers are decorated with images from Dawn of the Dead, The Fly, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, establishing right off the bat that Chainsaw and Dave share a defining character trait: they’re horror fans, loud and proud.
And it’s their love of horror that makes Summer School something of a horror movie itself.
In Summer School, a comedy by way of a slasher film, Chainsaw and Dave’s shared love of the genre actually becomes an integral part of the movie’s storyline. Practical effects aficionados and mega fans of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in particular, Chainsaw and Dave are almost always talking about horror movies, and at times the film directly channels the spirit of ’80s horror; slashers were super hot at the time, so I suppose it was only natural that blood and guts started spilling over into other genres.
Fun Fact: One of the film’s students is played by Shawnee Smith, who went on to play Amanda Young in the Saw franchise!
In one scene, the wacky duo stages a killer rabbit massacre during a field trip to the petting zoo, using fake blood and liquid latex to prank their classmates. But Summer School‘s horror influence is strongest in a sequence where Chainsaw and Dave trick a substitute teacher into thinking the entire class has been slaughtered. It’s easily the goriest scene in any ’80s comedy, feeling like it was ripped straight out of a high school slasher flick. The practical gore effects, which include a sliced throat, a ripped out tongue and a complete disemboweling, are better than the effects you’ll find in many horror movies of the time; naturally, Chainsaw and Dave, wielding chainsaws, eventually reveal themselves to be the “killers.”
At another point, Chainsaw and Dave even convince teacher Freddy Shoop to screen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for the class; clips from the 1974 classic, featured in Summer School, were to be my very first introduction to the film. In another scene they pen a love letter to makeup effects artist Rick Baker, praising his work in An American Werewolf in London and noting that they admire him very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very much. Me too, Chainsaw and Dave. Me too.
Chainsaw and Dave are oddball outcasts in Summer School, not quite blending in with the other students, but there was something about seeing their love of horror represented on screen that made me feel, well, less like an outcast myself. And in the days before I realized how many people in this world appreciate gore effects and slasher maniacs, I got a lot of comfort out of watching their wacky antics. They were, after all, just like me.
More than anything, Summer School opened my eyes to the fact that there was an entire community of like-minded horror fans that I would someday – hopefully – be embraced and accepted by. It would be many years after the first of countless times I stayed up late at night watching Summer School, but that day eventually came. And thank god for that.
So thanks, Chainsaw and Dave. Thanks for being my horror pals until I found real ones.
I originally published a version of this article on Halloween Love, September 2015.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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