"An independent film with a class A story and actors that rivals Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer."
“Jenny Bilson, a high school senior, is the perfect student, a wonderful daughter to a veteran police detective and an all American Dream. But the one mistake she is unaware of making is about to haunt her in a very violent way, as her past returns for revenge.” (IMDB)
Ditch Day Massacre is definitely an independent film, but it follows the pattern set by Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer so well that by the end you forget the other two existed. That's mostly because it takes you a step further than its predecessors by letting you get close to the primary antagonist to the point where you'll not only empathize with him, but hope he gets his revenge and maybe even redemption in the end. Of course he's also an insane methodical killer that happens to be played by the always amazing Bill Oberst Jr. If you only know Bill by the creatures he portrays on screen you'd think twice about how close you actually get to him. But that isn't all that's worth talking about in this film.
Ditch Day Massacre is the beloved cautionary tale about the indiscretions of your past coming back to bury an axe in your head. Our perfect girl's mistake was drinking and driving and the reason she initially got away with it was because her father was a cop. Bill Oberst Jr and his family just happened to be in the car she plows into. This is all pretty obvious pretty quickly so I don't feel like I'm giving anything way. If nothing else it adds to the cautionary aspect of the film, I mean seriously, how bad aof luck would you have to have to be leaving a high school party and crash into Bill Oberst Jr? Yep, something like that only guarantees that in a couple years, before you graduate, while ditching school to party with your friends, something really bad is going to happen. But of course, that’s the whole point!
Though not exactly new, Ditch Day Massacre's director Joe Hendrick (Smiley, 2012), and writers Daniel P. Coughlin, Ryan Coughlin (Farmhouse, 2008. Lake Dead, 2007) have created a solid homage to horror masterpieces that is more than Craven worthy. The cast, besides our loved Bill Oberst Jr., consists of Katy Foley as our perfect angel with the deep dark secret, Zach Silverman as our princesses boyfriend who has a deep dark secret of his own, and a special appearance from the incorrigible veteran scream queen Lynn Lowry (The Crazies, 1973/2010. Cat People, 1982. They Came from Within, 1972) as the lonely cat lady next door. Together with the supporting cast, we have a hoard of characters that work well together and a bunch of up and coming actors that surely had lots of fun on the set! The practical effects are perfect, despite a few continuity issues, and the music definitely creates the desired ambiance.
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