So before I get into this, I'm giving you a massive trigger warning. This is a film about the Columbine tragedy made not long after. It deals with shootings, and a lot of other things... So please stop reading now if anything dealing with schools, bullies, and shootings is triggering. If you continue on...don't say I didn't warn you!
Hey everyone! So last month or so my brother was putting an order into Vinegar Syndrome and asked if there was anything I wanted. I searched the site, and happened upon this film. I'd never heard of it, which is odd considering what all happened after this film was made. Apparently it made headline news in the late 90s early 00s and the filmmakers ended up in jail. I'll have to look more into that part, but I do when the Columbine shootings happened. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and how school changed after that. Our small country school put in metal detectors at the exits and entrance to the school. Anyway... let's get into the movie.
Duck! The Carbine High Massacre
So the movie starts off with the two main guys playing around on the internet. One of the parents come in and talks for a bit. We see he is loved by his parents, who are nice and giving. His friend, we later find out comes from a broken home with a drunken dad, and a drugged out mom?
Then we get the school life. The two aren't really loners, as the goth kids do talk to them, but the jocks and greaser picks on them. The do talk back which doesn't help. And the popular kids pick on the goth kids as well. As the movie progresses, one of the two guys is jumped and beaten. Later the two talk and decide they hate life. And go buy guns to end everything. Then after a few more scenes the final act happens.
Now...I've kept things a bit vague, but for a good reason. This movie was made by amateurs on a lowbudget, and it feels very much like a home movie meets a school play. Some of it becomes very haunting because it...but in the same way those don't drink and drive videos they used to show us at school...if anyone re them.
(Side note. Anyone else have the thing where a grim reaper would walk their hallways and pick out a few students. They'd take them to put in black robes or something and you couldn't talk to them cause they were ghosts. Then later the cops and teachers would have everyone go outside where they'd set up a car crash and tell the story of them dying...school was weird man!)
Anyway. So, this movie is a social satire. The film makers claim its about the media's portrayal of shootings like this. But I feel it says a lot about the people getting bullied. The jocks do a lot of weird things thats seen as one thing...to an outsider it would come off that way. And thats kind of the point to this movie. The two kids who come from different lifestyles both feel they don't belong, and the kids at school don't help the matter. And the teachers are also no help. And they see no way out...
Now...the story is there, but it takes too much time to tell it. And a lot of the stuff they add is to pad time, and it drags it out. But the actual shooting part is only the last few minutes and includes some comedy...for reasons? Like the cop mistaking a goth kid for a shooter and being like "oh he wasn't one? Oops!" Or the cop trying to disarm the bomb by what he saw on TV. Or the principal caring more about his shoes than all the dead bodies around him, then telling the news the survivors are such heroes.
The movie really is an indie film of two guys wanting to be heard on a topic they felt something about. And I do kind of get what they wanted to say. But unless you are into indie controversial films...I can't recommend this to anyone. Am I glad I bought it? Yeah, I am. It will stay in my collection, though I'll probably only rewatch it if someone im with has never seen it. I don't really feel the need to rewatch it. But I'm glad I experienced this. So unless any of this sounds interesting...like you just feel the need to experience a lowbudget satire on the media's take on shootings... it by.
Now I'm off to find something else to watch. I'm thinking one of the Joe Sherlock movies. If it is, I'll be doing another review soon. If not...I'll see you next time!
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