Detention

Bill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.

With the brilliant The Cabin in the Woods opening on the same weekend, you'd think the hyperactive horror comedy Detention from Torque director Joseph Kahn would suffer by comparison. After all, this is also a movie that micromanages the genre mandates in the same surreal fashion, throwing in its own internal references (The Breakfast Club, Scream) and quirks along the way. But ever since it hit festivals last year, this weird combination of wholly stylized storytelling and slasher film generics has had audiences in stitches -- that is, when they aren't screaming with fear. While the terror tropes presented have been begging for a comic reprimand for years, only Kahn seems to understand how to present them to a post-modern demo. The results may reek of advanced ADHD, but they're a lot of fun, nonetheless.

It's the typical teen experience for the students at Grizzly Lake High. Awkward outsider Riley Jones (Shanley Caswell) just doesn't fit in, and to make matters worse, she has a major league crush on resident cool breeze Clapton Davis (Josh Hutcherson). Of course, he couldn't care less, nursing an equally obsessive lust for choice cheerleader Ione (Spencer Locke). As with all adolescent angst, thoughts of death fill Riley's waking hours. Unfortunately, an actual serial killer known as Cinderhella is willing to make that desire an actual possibility. As he (or she) carves up members of the student body, Principal Verge (Dane Cook) decides that the murderer is actually one of the kids. So he locks them in all day detention, hoping to avoid a prom night tragedy and trap the fiend, once and for all.

If head scratching were a sign of cinematic brilliance, Detention would knock off Citizen Kane as arguably The Best Film of All Time. It's like Donnie Darko as re-imagined by Edgar Wright circa Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It's bound to become a lightning rod within critical circles, earning the kind of love/hate/huh that freak show spectacles like this tend to warrant. No doubt that Kahn sees himself as a cracking social commentator, his approach taking on most aspects of our short attention span culture. From aliens to time travel, high tech accessories to low tech life lessons, his effort is like a primer for personal irony. And with its rapid- fire delivery, nonstop forward momentum, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it manipulations, it's like Crank's Neveldine/Taylor without the Ritalin.

All outside elements aside, the internal process of Detention is as fresh and inventive as the aforementioned Whedon/Goddard meta-monster movie. We see flashes of our own past -- either personal or entertainment-wise -- in the film's nuclear narrative, as well as elements wholly owned by Kahn and his co-writer Mark Palermo. By never giving the viewer a chance to breathe, the duo hope to overcome a few plot holes and personality flaws, and for the most part, they succeed. We don't really mind how vacant Ione is, or how sappy Riley becomes. Instead, we marvel at a motion picture which plays so loosely with the precepts of the medium before readily reconfiguring the artform.   

Perhaps most importantly, Detention is a lot of fun. It's so jam-packed with references and shout-outs that a drinking game could be devised from the many insightful homages. Sure, things spin wildly out of control at times and we do grow a bit tired of all the flashback/flash-forward switch-ups. Still, for its power to propel us through our own individual educational experience, either in front of a teacher or in front of a VCR-fitted television, Detention is terrific. It's also a test of one's movie mantle, with only the most vacant viewer unable to earn a passing grade.

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