Review #636: 'Class of Nuke 'Em High' (1986)

Following the surprising success of The Toxic Avenger (1984), cult, Z-movie proprietors Troma Entertainment stuck with the toxic-mutation-in-high-school theme and blended it with the zero-taste, smutty humour of the likes of Porky's (1982) to bring us Class of Nuke 'Em High. This is crass, low-brow entertainment, but entertainment it certainly is. Long a cult favourite, this is hopefully due a critical re-evaluation, because if you can look past the many burp and fart gags (although admittedly these probably got the biggest laugh from me), there is an energetic movie underneath, and certainly one of Troma's best works.

Tromaville High School has been overrun by formerly respectful honours students, who now dress like punks and sell weed in the school corridors, calling themselves 'The Cretins'. They sell weed to Eddie (James Nugent Vernon) for a party, where he gives a joint to his friends Warren (Gil Brenton) and Chrissy (Janelle Brady), who end up having some supercharged sex. Unbeknownst to them, the weed was grown next door at the nuclear power plant, giving the weed an extra 'potency'. That same night, Warren and Chrissy have strange dreams, and Chrissy gives birth to a deformed foetus which is flushed down the toilet, only to land in a drum of toxic waste underneath the school.

It's a ridiculous premise, and nothing more than an excuse to flash some boobs and show some gore. The blood-letting is kept a minimum, however, and doesn't really advance with the movie's opening, which has a nerd affected by nuclear waste jump out the window to his death, his body quickly rotting away. This is all about the comedy, and subtle this certainly ain't. The Cretins are ridiculous caricatures, one with a nose ring so big it drops well below his bottom lip, and he carries a bone for some reason. So while Warren gets super-strength, the Cretins have seemed to have just turned nihilistic from smoking too much of that 'Atomic High', as they call it. It's a major inconsistency to the plot, but not one that will have any Troma fans complaining, nor me neither. Some extremely dodgy special effects aside, the climax proves to be insane and amusing, even throwing in a foetus monster for good measure, and rounds off what is a pretty good movie.


Directed by: Richard W. Haines, Lloyd Kaufman
Starring: Gil Brenton, Janelle Brady, Robert Prichard
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie