ROBERT CARRADINE & KIMBERLY BECK 'MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH'

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH Year: 1976 Rating: ***1/2

In one of the strangest high school bully pictures ever made, MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH begins like an Afterschool Special (including a cheesy opening song)... until future picked-on REVENGE OF THE NERDS star Robert Carradine gets slammed around by popular jocks for having a swastika on his locker... adding to the overall bizarre nature in what's both completely ambiguous and horribly melodramatic...

Where new-kid-on-campus Derrel Maury's reunited with childhood friend Andrew Stevens... the latter a passive middleman for the trio of square-jawed/blond-haired bullies, who actually terrorize all weaker students with angry venom more befitting A CLOCKWORK ORANGE before than MY BODYGUARD after...

Ray Underwood and Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Initially the two male leads could be interchangeable... until the table-turning second-half when otherwise benign Derrel Maury kills each bully in suspenseful and creative methods, ranging from a hang-gliding accident to an exploding van: at which point Stevens (paired with moral-compass/good girl Kimberly Beck while exploitation starlet Cheryl Smith eventually joins hippie counterpart Carradine) realizes his former friend's now also picking-off the vengeful geeks, who the dead bullies had severely humiliated...

Overall making MASSACRE a kind of high-school-popularity cautionary-tale, combining edgy teenage violence with what could have been a much tighter vehicle had it reigned more into its horror-genre potential.

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Andrew Stevens, Ray Underwood and Damon Douglas in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH with Lani O'Grady and Cheryl Smith

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH with Derrel Maury

Ray Underwood, Dennis Kort, Damon Douglas & Andrew Stevens in Massacre at Central High

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Andrew Robinson and Derrel Maury in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Cheryl Smith in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH with Dennis Kork and Cheryl Smith

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Cheryl Smith, Robert Carradine & Tom Logan in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Derrel Maury in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH with Lani O'Grady and Cheryl Smith

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH with Derrel Maury

Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Kimberly Beck and Andrew Stevens in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH with Rex Steven Sikes

Robert Carradine and Damon Douglas in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Kimberly Beck in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Cheryl Smith in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Robert Carradine in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH with Cheryl Smith

Steve Bond in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH

Andrew Stevens in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH