‘Every morning I try to remember I’m only the second biggest loser to walk Grizzly Lake High…’
It’s rare that a film defies classification but Detention? I have no idea what this movie is. I guess it’s a horror/comedy, coming-of-age, feel-good, rom-com teen slasher. While it doesn’t succeed at being any of those things, I will say that I was rarely bored…
Plot. Hmmm. Where to start? There is a love triangle between three teenagers. Neurotic and depressed Riley (Shanley Caswell) has a crush on high school hero Clapton Davis (Josh Hutcherson from the Hunger Games movies). ’90s-obsessed cheerleader Iona (Spencer Locke) also fancies Riley. So there is that. Alongside this, there is a film within a film called Cinderhella that is spilling out into the real world in the form of a copycat killer who is violently killing off teenagers. Elsewhere, all of the film’s central cast are placed in detention (yes, like The Breakfast Club) and have to try and decipher who the killer is before they end up dead. And this is all relayed through a dizzying mixture of fast-paced editing, flashbacks, music cues and lots of breaking of the fourth wall. This film is a lot.
While some moments here are bad, those moments are often bizarre enough that they don’t much harm the overall perception of the film. In the end, Detention is closer to Scary Movie than it is to Scream, but the surprisingly solid performances keep Detention from falling apart altogether. Hutcherson and Locke breathe some life into the archetypes they are playing but it is Caswell who carries the movie with a likeable and relatable performance that perfectly captures the intense mood swings that come with the territory for all teenagers.
Detention is a genuinely weird movie but I would also add that it is pretty unique. Some will hate it, some may even love it, but most importantly of all, I can’t imagine anyone forgetting it in a hurry.