Reviewed by: cal42 Date: 07/16/2007 Teens, eh? It’s a wonder any of them survive into their twenties. If they’re not being chased by some homicidal serial-killing maniac, they’re being picked off like flies by some supernatural force that the post-pubescent population is either immune to or blissfully ignorant of. You can probably tell from the title that THE HAUNTED SCHOOL is in the latter camp. For reasons that are never explained, four boys are introduced into a previously girls’ only boarding school. Although the sexes are kept separate as much as possible, contact is inevitable and rampaging hormones do their duty. Unfortunately, the school’s number one rule is “falling in love is not allowed” (unusual for a girls’ only school, I thought). There seems to be some wisdom in this rule though, as twenty years previously a fire ravaged the school resulting in two deaths and the stirrings of lust between the kids has reawakened something evil in the school that starts pulling the children into another dimension. THE HAUNTED SCHOOL is typical teen horror all the way. It’s unlikely anyone above the age of eighteen will find it particularly frightening, although it does achieve a few good scares along the way. This is simply because it throws so many of them at you that a few of them are bound to be effective. There ARE some decent ideas in here (I quite liked the permanent shadows on the wall) but most of the time the film relies on clichés – the flashbacks to the original incident show that it occurred on a stormy night with lightning flashing in the sky, blah de blah. Also, the kids’ reactions are just bizarre at times. One boy, after seeing his missing friend dragged through into the netherworld, simply walks calmly away. Also, the sudden appearance of hitherto nonexistent doors seems to cause a breakdown in intelligence: “Hey, that door wasn’t there before! Let’s go and have a look at what’s inside!” There are far too many tired ideas in this to make it work, and the attempt at fleshing out the characters fails and just makes the film drag. But if you’re young and not too demanding, you might find something to like in here. Reviewer Score: 6