Vernon Potts (Pat Cardi), the brilliant nerd, is not having a good day. First his English teacher, Miss Grindstaff (Joye Hash) gave him an “F” on his English paper she chopped up his biology report with a paper cutter and threw it into the trash. He then got in trouble with the janitor, Mr. Griggs (Jeff Alexander), for chasing Griggs’ cat away from the guinea pig test subject for his science project. His only friends seem to be pretty little Robin Jones (Rosie Hololtik) and his guinea pig, Mr. Mumps. Coach McCall (John Niland) belittled him, and Robin’s jock boyfriend, Roger Davis (Mike McHenry), and his jock friends harassed him before gym class. It is a standard day in the life.
That night Vernon slips into the school’s science classroom to feed Mr. Mumps. He finds that the guinea pig has killed the cat. Vernon realizes that the drug he invented to change people’s personality, turned the guinea pig into a killer. When Mr. Griggs comes in and sees his dead cat, he blames Vernon. He makes Vernon drink some of his formula and then kills Mr. Mumps. Griggs then goes after Vernon. By now the formula that Vernon drank begins to take effect. Vernon gives Griggs a bath in sulfuric acid.
The next day the remains of Mr. Griggs are found in the sulfuric acid. The police are called, and Lieutenant Bozeman (Austin Stoker) is assigned to investigate but there is not much for him to go on.
Vernon’s next run in is with Mrs. Grindstaff. When she threatens to fail him, if he doesn’t give up his library time to attend her literature club, he mixes up a batch of his serum and drinks it. Mrs. Grindstaff ends up decapitating her with her own paper cutter. One by one Vernon’s enemies bite the dust.
“Horror High” was released in 1973 and was directed by Larry N. Stouffer. It is a low budget American horror movie. The plot is basically a modern high school version of the Jekyll and Hyde story. The movie had a limited release in Texas in 1973. It then had a wider distribution in 1974.
The first part of the movie is setting up all the people that picked on the shy nerd. The second part is the satisfying revenge. The acting is rather bad and cinematography so-so but the movie itself is your standard nerd revenge movie drive-in fare and popular with anyone who’s ever been picked on.
There are two versions of the film. The original version has an “R” rating. Some of the more graphic scenes were cut to give it a PG rating. Additional scenes were shot to give the movie some padding to add to the run time. The additional scenes incorporated an absentee father that had nothing to do with the original film. The father was played by Mark Tenser. He was, at the time, the president of Crown International Pictures, the production company that purchased the rights to the film. The watered-down television version was called “Twisted Brain”.
The policemen were played by some of the players of the Dallas Cowboys football team. Pat Cardi and Austin Stoker were both in “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” 1973.