Raging Fury (1989)

Also known as "Hell High" this was actually made in 1986 (and released in 1989) so was more than a whole decade before "Teaching Mrs Tingle" came out and is much more hardcore.

The plot: "A teacher still haunted by the death of two teens that she accidentally caused as a young girl goes beserk when four teens start harassing her and then attack her in her home."

See, sounds just like "Teaching Mrs Tingle", doesn't it? The difference of course is that Miss Brooke Storm has some serious mental issues going on which the kids don't realise until it's all too late.

I really enjoyed this little film but for two things: 1) It had the potential to be really sexy, 2) None of that potential was realised.

There was a shower scene early on when the kids were spying on Miss Storm and she had a fantastic body but there was no more sign of it after that. Also the girl who played Queenie flashed her norks briefly but that was it for her as well. Maureen Mooney who played the teacher hasn't really been in anything else and neither has Millie Prezioso so sadly the only place to ever see those glorious orbs is for those few seconds in this film. It's a shame.

Now it's not as if rape scenes do a lot for me but this movie really failed to deliver when the evil kid called Dickens didn't actually make good on his promise to "nail the bitch". It really needed the extra push of something like that to realistically send Miss Storm over the edge rather than just having a bit of swamp mud thrown on her. So, when she jumped out of the window in a scene which reminded me of one of the truely nasty moments of "Death Wish 2", I just felt that something was missing.

Everyone still did quite a good job with the script, but I was left a bit perplexed by some of lines delivered by the fat kid, Smiler. Was he just randomly quoting The Smith's lyrics to Dickens or not when they were sitting in the living room waiting for Jon-Jon to return? I'll probably never know. "I should have stayed home tonight" and "And now I'm crying" sound like Smith's lyrics to me though.

If you've ever wondered why you've never heard anything more of Christopher Stryker who played Dickens, it's because he died of AIDS before the movie even came out. It's very sad as he might have gone much further in movies if his performance here is anything to go by.

Anyway, my rating is 4 out of 10. As I said, I felt that it just didn't go far enough to justify why the teacher went completely mental. It's not a great film, but it's still a hell of a lot better than a lot of '80s teen slashers.