Detention (2011) - LetterboxD Review

Detention - LetterboxD Review

This came as a pleasant surprise... A trashy, kinetic, energetic, post modern take on the commercial high school movie that plagues generation x, it has a style all it's own yet derivative of some of the better unseen and unappreciated indie horrors of recent years. It you take the opening scene of John Dies at the End and splice it with a bit of Hot Tub Time Machine, Scott Pilgrim Must Die and a whole heap of low budget horror nonsense that I have a very big soft spot for!

I always remember watching Moulin Rouge and thinking if a film could keep up the pace that it showed in the first 30-40 minutes and make it last over an entire film, it really would be one hell of an experience and barring a few other examples, Detention is one of those rare examples of a film that genuinely never lets up. It's relentless march through self aware modern and not so modern pop culture references (including wry nods to the fact that in 5 or 10 years it too will no doubt look dated and old!) is competently done. The story itself is episodic and at times very abstract although in the end it does manage to retain a reasonable enough structure to it that it still tells "a story" in the midst of all its madness.

This quite clearly isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but you get the feeling that in the end, that's kind of the point. I for one would be there front row, the strobe like experience of the film blasting away at my senses and in the end, knowing that it largely meant nothing at all. Sometimes things that look to make a point of how rubbish things can be, by appearing slightly rubbish themselves, actually turn out to be kinda fun. This is one of those examples!

I rated this film 4 out of 5!