The brilliant black comedy Heathers (1988) has frequently been compared to another gem of a cult movie, Massacre at Central High (1976). This lesser-known film is considered by many to have been an influence on Heathers—but was it really? The truth is probably not what you think.

In the mid 1970s, Dutch filmmaker Renee (a/k/a Rene) Daalder was approached by a couple of film producers about making a movie, for which they had a couple of stipulations: nine high school kids had to be killed, and the picture had to be called Massacre at Central High. Daalder accepted and went about penning the script, imagining it as a political parable. He would also direct. 

In Massacre at Central High, a new student, David, arrives at the high school and discovers it’s run by a band of bullies, a unit that includes Mark, who David knew previously and had once defended against similar tormentors. David is appalled by their actions, and that Mark is running with them. Once David makes his opinions known to the junior fascists, he becomes yet another target of their wrath. After David is hospitalized following an accident instigated by the rulers of the school, they begin to drop.
 

 
The cast includes Robert Carradine, best remembered today as Lewis from the Revenge of the Nerds series, and Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith, who appeared in many other notable B-movies throughout the ‘70s and early ‘80s, including Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and alongside Carradine in The Pom Pom Girls, released the same year as Massacre.
 

L-R: Robert Carradine, Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith, and Lani O’Grady.

For nearly all its running time, no authority figures of any kind—teachers, parents, police—are seen on screen, giving the proceedings a lawless, uneasy quality. Another interesting element are the murders of the bullies, which are executed with a slasher-like level of creativity, as they all involve gravity.
 

 
Massacre at Central High is a thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining B-movie. Given Daalder was tasked with writing and directing nothing more than a low budget exploitation picture with a sordid title and specific body count, it’s remarkable that he created such a substantial film. It’s certainly better than it needed to be.

There are several similarities between Massacre at Central High and Heathers. Both involve a loner who’s transferred to a new school and goes about knocking off the popular kids. The ruling cliques in both films are factions of four—male in Massacre, female in Heathers—with one being a somewhat reluctant member of the group, who has a close relationship with the killer. Both movies address the power vacuum that takes place when the domineering students at a high school are murdered. In addition, the intense finales of Massacre and Heathers, which concern a plot by the killer to blow up the school, are remarkably similar.
 
 
Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters has been quoted as saying that although he didn’t see Massacre at Central High prior to writing Heathers, he had read about it in one of Danny Peary’s Cult Movies books (specifically Cult Movies 2), which were treasured by fans of obscure, wonderfully weird flicks looking for guidance in the in the pre-web ‘80s. Here’s Waters:

I most definitely had not seen the movie, but I do remember reading about it in the beloved book Cult Movies by Danny Peary . . . so I guess it was rattling around somewhere in my subconscious. (from Heathers by John Ross Bowie, 2010)

Intriguing, eh?

While Heathers is a comedy, albeit a dark one, Massacre at Central High takes its subjects of teen violence and hierarchy seriously. But that’s not to say it’s without depictions of less heady subjects found in similar teensploitation films of the day.
 

 
In 1976, the movie came and went without much notice. Well after its release, noted film critic Roger Ebert went out of his way to praise Massacre on Sneak Previews, calling it “an intelligent and uncompromising allegory about the psychology of violence.”

One of the common criticisms of Massacre is its use of a maudlin song that airs a couple of times, including over the opening credits. “Crossroads of Your Life” sounds like a lame TV show theme, but it’s not Daalder’s fault; it was forced on him by the producers. Daalder, who was also a composer, had written a theme that Derrel Maury, who played David, heard at the time and has said was an incredible, haunting piece of avant-garde jazz.
 

 
On the international front, the Italian release was edited to include—if you can believe it—depictions of hardcore sex (not of the original actors) and retitled, Sexy Jeans.

For decades, Daalder wanted nothing to do with Massacre, believing it had been taken from him, but he did embrace the film in his later years. He died in 2019.

In 2020, Synapse Films gave Massacre at Central High it’s Blu-ray debut, issuing a fantastic, restored version of the film—supervised by Renee Daalder—as a limited edition SteelBook. A standard version of the Blu-ray has just come out. Among the bonus features are interviews with Daalder and cast members, along with a making of documentary entitled, Hell in the Hallways. Get the Blu-ray via the MVD Shop
or on Amazon. 
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Seventeen’: Shocking made-for-PBS documentary on American teens was too real for TV
Edgar Wright’s brilliant fake trailer for ‘Don’t’ spoofs exploitation films of the ‘70s & ‘80s