Deadly Detention (2017) (aka: The Detained) Gillian Vigman, Sarah Davenport, Alex Frnka, Henry Zaga, Coy Stewart, Jennifer Robyn Jacobs, Kevin Blake Movie Review

Deadly Detention (2017)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Sarah Davenport in Deadly Detention (2017)

The Boring Breakfast Club

Because their school is being fumigated, a group of five teenagers find their Saturday detention moved to Wayview Prison, a vacated correctional facility where Principal Presley (Gillian Vigman) awaits them. The teens are a mixed bunch; there is the devout Christian, Kevin (Coy Stewart), who has a flamboyant side, Jessica (Sarah Davenport), a sexy bad girl, the handsome and he knows it Barrett (Henry Zaga), skateboarder Lexie (Alex Frnka) and good girl athlete, Jessica (Sarah Davenport). But when Principal Presley meets her demise and they find her suspended from a meat hook the bunch of misfits must attempt to work together and stay focused to escape from the former prison before what ever killed the Principal gets them.

I have many an idea, I remember when I got my first car I built a big speaker system to fit in the boot, of course the idea was better than the finished product. I mention this because "Deadly Detention", also known as "The Detained", feels like one of those movies which on paper probably sounded like a good idea, move "The Breakfast Club" to a prison and make it a horror comedy with a deranged killer. Sadly the end product lacks some thing to make it really work. The trouble is that "Deadly Detention" wants to be about the humour of these misfit characters in an empty prison trying to survive rather than the horror. As such what we get is a lot of bickering and the characters acting without much sense of fear as to the predicament they are in, as such we have Barrett flirting his way through much of the movie.

Unfortunately the attempt at being humorous when it comes to the characters isn't that great and truthfully ends up quite boring with all the characters in "Deadly Detention" ending up easily forgotten. So what this movie calls out for is some fun gore and a humorous yet dangerous atmosphere to accompany it but it never materialises and you are constantly waiting for something good to happen, and I don't mean two of them deciding to get it on in the canteen rather than trying to escape. It isn't that "Deadly Detention" doesn't have some ideas it's just those ideas never really end up being that entertaining be it humorous or horrifying.

What this all boils down to is that the idea behind "Deadly Intention" was a decent one and I reckon a horror version of "The Breakfast Club" could work. But in this case the finished product ends up being disappointing and lacking the right blend of humour and horror to really make it as entertaining as the idea could have been.


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