''Zombie High'' (also known as ''The School That Ate My Brain'') is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Ron Link. The film was released theatrically on October 2, 1987, and stars

Virginia Madsen Virginia Gayle Madsen (born September 11, 1961) is an American actress and film producer. She made her film debut in ''Class'' (1983), which was filmed in her native Chicago. After she moved to Los Angeles, director David Lynch cast her as Pr ...

as a beautiful young teenager who must fight against a boarding school that is intent on turning everyone into a Stepford-esque "perfect" student.

Plot

Andrea (

) is a teenage girl that has won a scholarship to Ettinger, a formerly all-male boarding school. She leaves behind her boyfriend Barry ( James Wilder) in the hopes of scholastic achievement, but soon discovers that things are not as they seem at Ettinger. Andrea finds that her friends are slowly changing from regular teenagers into personality-less drones. Some investigation shows that the school's faculty has been harvesting life-sustaining chemicals from the student body, which results in them becoming seemingly perfect students that are only focused on doing well in school and obeying rules. Andrea is spared from this fate by one of her professors, Philo ( Richard Cox), who takes pity on her due to her resemblance to a former lover. Along with her boyfriend, Andrea discovers that the staff uses classical music as a way of stabilizing the students. Philo gives her a tape to play over the loudspeaker system that he claims will stop the faculty and students from capturing her and turning her into a zombie, only for her to lose it while she is chased by the school's students. With nothing to lose, Barry plays a tape of rock music in its place, which accomplishes the desired task of stopping the students and saving their lives.

Cast

as Andrea *

Paul Feig Paul Samuel Feig (; born September 17, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is known for directing films starring frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy, including '' Bridesmaids'' (2011), '' The Heat'' (2013), '' Spy'' (20 ...

as Emerson *

Sherilyn Fenn Sherilyn Fenn (born Sheryl Ann Fenn; February 1, 1965) is an American actress and author. She came to attention for her performance as Audrey Horne on the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017) for which she was nominated for a Go ...

as Suzi *

Clare Carey Clare Carey (born June 11, 1967) is an American film and television actress best known for her roles as Kelly Fox in ''Coach'' (1989-1995) and Mary Bailey in ''Jericho'' (2006-2008), and her film role in '' Savannah Sunrise'' (2016). Backgrou ...

as Mary Beth * Scott Coffey as Felner * Richard Cox as Philo * Kay E. Kuter as Dean Beauregard Eisner * Henry Sutton as Bell *Walter Addison as Chief Hillis * Christopher Peters as Phillip * Christopher Crews as Biff * James Wilder as Barry *

John Sack John Sack (March 24, 1930 – March 27, 2004) was an American literary journalism, literary journalist and war correspondent. He was the only journalist to cover List of wars involving the United States, each American war over half a century. B ...

as Senator Felner * Paul Williams as Ignatius * Susan Barnes as Mom * Jeff Morgan as Zombie student * Tease (Music Band, with Kipper Jones, Derek Organ and

Tommy Organ Thomas LeRoy Organ, Jr. (born 22 February 1963), known professionally as Tommy Organ or Tommy "O", is an American musician, songwriter and producer. The son of Thomas LeRoy Organ, Sr. (1940 - 1966 Musician, Army Veteran) and Dorothy Louise Rende ...

) as themself

Reception

Lana Cooper of Brutal as Hell wrote, "For unintentional humor and as an ‘80s genre horror timepiece, Zombie High cannot be beat. Just don’t expect to be scared." The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' panned the film in a 1988 review, expressing surprise that Madsen would star in ''Zombie High'', as they viewed it as a step down from her previous acting work. Michael Wilmington of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' called it "a student project gone awry". Glenn Kay, who wrote '' Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide'', called the film a "nondescript, forgettable flick". Writing in ''The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia'', academic

Peter Dendle Peter Dendle is a professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto, teaching classes on folklore, 20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages, Old and Middle English (language and literature), and the monstrous (in film, folklore, and s ...

said, "The movie plays the concept more seriously than the title lets on, and, in fact, winds up dragging quite a bit."

References

External links

* * * * {{Amg movie, 56172 1987 films 1987 horror films 1980s comedy horror films 1980s high school films 1980s teen comedy films 1980s teen horror films American high school films American teen comedy films American teen horror films American zombie comedy films Films set in boarding schools 1980s English-language films Films shot in Los Angeles 1987 comedy films Films produced by Elliott Kastner 1980s American films