Bad Kids Should Go Back To The Comic Book

After his underground graphic novel became a bestseller, it’s no wonder Matthew Spradlin was up for the challenge of turning Bad Kids Go To Hell into a motion picture. With the help of Barry Wernick, Spradlin served as both writer and first-time director in making his quirky, fan-favorite comic a reality on the big screen—a task that proved much too difficult for even the author to achieve. Even with a bestselling novel as its basis and an excitement-filled trailer on television, Bad Kids Go To Hell taught its audience only one important lesson: some things should be left in the comic books.

            It’s The Breakfast Club meets Scream in this horror-comedy flick, a combination that rarely mixes well into a cohesive plotline, especially in this case. Six high school seniors from different social circles are all sentenced to detention for gross misconduct (which they contribute to the stress and pressure of their upcoming graduation) and must sit locked in the school library for eight hours on a Saturday afternoon to think about what they’ve done. Little do they know, the library is actually haunted by a dead Native American man whose home was destroyed in order to build the library. Slowly, the teenagers are killed off one by one by the revenge-seeking ghost whose terror seems unstoppable and inescapable for those 8 long hours.

            The movie opens up with a classic reverse-chronology scene: the police kick open the front door of the library to find one male student, Matt (Cameron Deane Stewart), holding an axe, panting, and covered in blood, with the remains of 5 mangled bodies surrounding him on the floor. The film then cuts to a scene of the high school with “8 hours earlier” written across the screen and an introduction, complete with loud rock music, to each of the six stereotypical high school characters ensues: Matt Clark, the handsome but cocky rebel back from juvenile detention; Tricia, the spoiled, stuck-up princess who runs the school; Craig, the letterman-clad jock determined to make his father proud; Megan, the nerdy, inhaler-toting braniac who just can't seem to fit in; Tarek, the token foreign student and finally Veronica, the gothic, troublemaking outcast. As the film progresses, we find out the extremely unrealistic situations that landed each character in his or her 8-hour detention sentence, proctored by school psychologist Dr. Day.

            Tricia is caught for attempting to plant cocaine in 2 other students’ backpacks. Craig tries and fails to drop a punch bowl on Tricia’s head from the ceiling at the school dance. Megan rips off all of her clothes in the middle of class and performs a strip tease on a table for her classmates. Tarek steals mashed potatoes from a student in a wheelchair and an inhaler from Megan. Veronica pretty much skips every class and talks back to all teachers. And last but not least, Matt ends up in detention for tackling the prom queen, exposing himself in the middle of class, causing a student’s wheelchair to speed out of control and crash, and finally, hitting a dozen cheerleaders in the face with basketballs during gym class. Ah yes, it’s just another typical day in high school.

            The illogical storyline has a lot of holes and many aspects of the film (besides the haunted library) are completely unrealistic. While this film does have some hilarious one-liners and surprising twists, Bad Kids Go To Hell fails to live up to the expectation set by the success of its comic book predecessor. Its lack of cohesion outshines any positive aspects of the film.

            Looking back at almost every scene in the film, one can take away witty and hilarious moments from each of the characters, but the circumstances in which they deliver their jokes are totally impractical. As each student begins to mysteriously die a gruesome, far-fetched death, the remaining living students engage in silly, nonchalant banter and reminisce on their high school experiences in a series of flashbacks; meanwhile, mangled, bloody bodies of their classmates pepper the floor around them. Not only are the students’ reactions to the deaths unrealistic, the actual deaths appear pretty outlandish as well. Craig falls down a small fight of stairs and an entire crutch pierces through his chest, leaving his heart perfectly balanced on its wooden tip. Immediately afterwards, Veronica and Matt engage in a bizarre sexual encounter, any typical teenager’s reaction to a peer just bludgeoned and speared to death.

            While the storyline lacks understanding of human nature and overall plotline consistency, the heart of this film’s error lies in the ending. The students finally figure out that Craig’s father and Tricia’s mother, two big-wigs of the city, were the main funders of the library to ensure their kids would graduate on the honor roll. By kicking the Native American man off his property, the parents accidentally set the kids up to be killed off one by one, with Matt as the sole survivor.

As Matt looks around at the dead bodies, realizing he is the only student left alive, the lights briefly flicker off. When the lights switch back on, Veronica comes back to life and suddenly starts to laugh, beckoning someone to come out of the shadows. Dr. Day appears, revealing that he and Veronica are not only romantically involved, but share a dream to create a real-life storyline about how six students went crazy in detention in order to turn into a best-selling movie and make millions. As Veronica is about to kill Matt to complete the story with a suicide, Dr. Day strikes her on the head with an axe, claiming that she is “annoying” and he “is sick of her,” the logical reaction of any frustrated boyfriend wishing to get out of a relationship. Shortly after, a bunch of bookcases randomly fall onto a statue, which tips over and decapitates Dr. Day. The police enter, and the film is back at the opening scene, completing the cycle. However, Spradlin isn’t ready for the film to end quite yet and he’s definitely the only one who feels this way.

            The real ending reveals that the school janitor is actually the son of the Native American who was stripped of his land and murdered, leading the audience to believe that he sought revenge. However, the final scene shows the janitor conversing with Tricia’s mother and Craig’s father, who both agree that they are “glad the problem is taken care of.” This baffling conversation leaves the audience with several burning questions: How did the janitor know that Dr. Day was going to kill Veronica and that the bookcases would randomly fall on him? And why would he team up with the two people who kicked his father off of his land? Based on the storyline, it appears as though the writers went back over the film, found several holes in the script, and chose between two options: offer a random, unrelated explanation or leave the hole as is.

The disorganization of the general plot causes Bad Kids Go To Hell to fall short. The comedic aspect of the film seeks a relatable storyline, such as a day in high school detention, but the students all have bizarre, irrelevant motives and circumstances with which the audience can’t relate.  The horror aspect is promising in the beginning but turns into somewhat of a joke in its “the janitor did it” ending. While the actors gave decent performances, their lines were too awkward and their circumstances too unrealistic for any of them to shine. Overall, the stupidity of the plot and unsatisfying feel of the ending make Bad Kids Go To Hell a movie worth skipping.

Cast and Credits:

Amanda Alch, Marc Donato, Augie Duke, Roger Edwards, Ali Faulkner, Cameron Dean Stewart, Jeffrey Schmidt

BKGTH Productions (Barry Werner and Brad Keller) presents film directed by Matthew Spradlin. Written by Matthew Spradlin and Barry Vernick. Running time: 110 minutes.