Part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival
Based on the Bad Kids Go 2 Hell comic book series, this sequel, set four years after its illustrious predecessor Bad Kids Go To Hell (2012), centres around trailer park rebel Siouxie (Sammi Hanratty) who, after being deliberately sent to Saturday detention in order to avenge her sister’s death (don’t ask), finds herself trapped in Crestview Academy with four other pupils, when the school goes into lock down mode. Soon Siouxie, along with rich senator’s son Blaine (Colby Arps), cat-loving Sara (Erika Daly), gay Brian (Matthew Frias) and supposedly God-fearing Faith (Sophia Taylor Ali), must fight for their survival as someone inside the school doesn’t want them to survive the weekend.
Bad Kids of Crestview Academy begins promisingly, with a comic book-style animated title sequence that appears to set the tone for 100 minutes of gory fun. However, the rest of the film lacks about 90% of the intro’s charm, instead relying on poorly-written one-liners that rely on racist and homophobic stereotypes for cheap laughs. Brian in particular suffers the worst with the character being little more than a younger R-rated version of the likes of John Inman in Are You Being Served?. The young cast try their best to rise above the sloppy material, with Hanratty in particular providing Siouxie with a convincing devil-may-care attitude, however, this does little to distract from the lack of basic wit in a film advertised as a “tongue-in-cheek action-horror romp”.
The lack of quality humour wouldn’t be so much of an issue if Bad Kids provided detailed and convincing special effects, giving horror fans the blood-spattered spectacle they look for in films of this genre. However, despite the occasional convincing practical effect in the form of an exposed cranium and intestines, the multiple CGI effects shots used are so rudimentary that it’s as if they were animated on a single computer in a hurry. The worst offenders are computer “glitches” that resemble cheap YouTube filters, and flamethrower fire during the film’s climax that looks badly-superimposed onto the main action. The low-budget feel of the film is emphasised by the flat, over-lit cinematography, which makes the film look ridiculously un-cinematic to the point where it is surprising that Bad Kids has achieved a theatrical release in the USA. It looks more like a big-budget YouTube video than a professional theatrical release.
Bad Kids of Crestview Academy is a disappointing attempt at a high school comedy-horror that fails to produce much in the way of scares or laughs.