User reviews

Generally I hate SyFy movies with a passion. Haunted High is thankfully not one of their worst, the zombie frog sequence is fun if all too brief, Shawn C.Phillips and Lauren Pennington are likable and while Danny Trejo deserved much better he does what he can. On the other hand, a lot of the film was lame. The rest of the acting is bland, but there is no wonder when their material was as under-par as it was. I had a feeling that the characters would be stereotypes as they always are when it comes to SyFy, I wasn't necessarily put off by that. It was that few of them were memorable or had any spark to them. They were further disadvantaged by some embarrassingly stilted dialogue that never rings true and by a story that manages to be both predictable and dull with no chills or suspense and the attacks and ending were too contrived to be believable. The music is also repetitive, while Haunted High is also very cheap to look at with very choppy editing and while the effects have been worse before in SyFy movies they are substandard here at best. So in conclusion, a lame movie but at the same time it could've been much worse. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Given this is a SyFy Channel movie, the movie already have odds stacked against it. But every now and then these original SyFy Channel movies do surprise. However, I will say that "Haunted High" wasn't a surprise. Not even with a nice ensemble of actors and actresses as the movie has.

The story in "Haunted High" is about an evil headmaster who returns from beyond the grave to wreck havoc, torment and kill students at the high school. And it is up to the janitor and the students to put an end to the vile spirit and his entourage of ghostly followers.

It was so difficult to buy into the whole concept of the movie, because the storyline was so badly constructed and even worse brought to life on the screen. The ghosts were a little bit too real - too manifested in the flesh - to appear believable as ghosts or supernatural entities. And the death scenes were, most of the time, laughable.

There weren't a single scare or thrilling moment throughout the entire movie. Unless you consider seeing Danny Trejo for the first time in the movie as a thrill.

But for fans of the lower budget horror movies, then there is a good handful of familiar faces to be seen here. At least thumbs up for this ensemble of actors and actresses.

If you enjoy ghosts/haunting movies, then "Haunted High" is not recommendable. I rate this movie a mere 2 out of 10 stars. It was a real drag to sit through this movie, because it took forever to get nowhere. And most of the scenes that were supposed to be scary or menacing, just came off as spoofy scenes.

I had expected a low-budget made-for-TV SyFy feature, this is why I'll generously award this campy feature 3 stars. One simply cannot watch a movie like this and expect a high quality production, however viewers deserve to not face-palm themselves every 4 minutes.

"Low budget", as most of us cinemaphiles know, is not a valid excuse for bad writing, bad acting, and... bad everything.

The plot is like cheap fishnet stockings... covered with holes, transparent, and weak. Sadly, not as attractive. Some of the scenes are so illogical it's frustrating.

A better screenplay, set and directing would have lent this mess some respectability because the concept itself is very intriguing. It's a good idea with potential, gone wrong.

There are some unique kills, and I wasn't really distracted by overly bad CGI like in some comparable productions. I was too distracted by poorer qualities, I suppose.

The dialog is so bad, it exceeds description. The bad puns tossed out by our antagonist before each kill were insufferable. Even if they were aiming to be campy, it still failed.

I've seen better acting at middle school Thanksgiving pageants. The worst performance (arguably) was offered by Shawn C. Philips. He's no stranger to the horror genre. Perhaps he just did the best he could with the material he had? It's all terrible waste of several proved talents. Please do not judge the actors exclusively by this feature if you happen to be unfamiliar with their other work.

If you're a fan of other Sy-Fy channel movies and are prepared for their usual shortcomings, you may not be disappointed. Admittedly, this is not their worst work nor their best.

Haunted High (2012)

1/2 (out of 4)

The setting is a high school in New England where an old headmaster's spirit comes back to haunt and kill the students. It turns out this guy and his assistants were doing human sacrifices at the school and their spirits are back for some fun. HAUNTED HIGH is another incredibly stupid, incredibly bad movie from SyFy, which has very few redeeming factors. I knew I was in trouble because I was already bored out of my mind before the opening credits even started. Look, I know not to expect quality when it comes to turning into SyFy on Saturday nights at 9pm but at the same time I at least want to be entertained. This film here is pretty much useless to horror fans for a number of reasons but the biggest is that it's certainly not scary. I love ghost movies but this here will probably go down as one of the worst I've ever seen. For starters, as I said it's not scary but even worse is the fact that the CGI ghosts are all lame and the effects just don't work. It also doesn't help that the headmaster says bad jokes and his assistant is more annoying than anything else. The death scenes are all forgettable and the majority of the characters are just bland. I will say that I enjoyed Lauren Pennington so let's hope she get more and better work in the future. I also enjoyed Shawn C. Phillips here as I thought he brought quite a bit to the film. I didn't realize this guy was "famous" until after I watched the movie and checked out his credits. I also want to give the film credit for casting "real people" and what I mean by that is the fact that the cast features real looking people that you'd expect to find in a real world and not just those from a modeling school. Heck, even Danny Trejo shows up. Still, HAUNTED HIGH is pretty worthless and the only thing to really consider is if it's worse than SyFy's BIGFOOT.

Haunted High is an unremarkable exercise in hack work that got 2 stars only because of the all too brief "zombie frog" sequence. M.C. Gainey as a released spirit of a evil cult leader comes across as a poor man's Stacey Keach spouting off pre death puns so bad that Freddy Kreuger wouldn't touch them. The CGI isn't as bad as say Piranhaconda but it isn't any better than an old episode of Goosebumps either and Goosebumps is scarier. The bare bones plot of teens and teachers locked in school with demonic forces is purely a Chinese menu type of affair. Take one tired cliché from collum A and 3 bad scenarios from collum B. As for kills the majority of them take place off screen followed by a gush of blood on the nearby wall. Shawn C. Phillips is the most believable person in the cast so that says something right there. Danny Trejo is the stereotyped Hispanic love sick janitor but his good guy roles aren't nearly as convincing as his bad as roles and this is nowhere as entertaining as Machete. Rent that instead. The bottom line is as long as there are masochists that stay home on Saturday nights to watch this crapola and as long as there are sponsors willing to jump on board SyFy is gonna keep churning out the cinematic equivalent to Montezuma's Revenge.If you must watch it do what I did and fast forward through about half.

I normally do not considered the rating given by IMDb visitor about the movie, however, on this particular movie, I should say that the rating was too much on the high side. The rating should be max 1.

I was tempted to watch this movie because of Charisma Carpenter was mentioned as on of the star. If you are talking about using somebody's name to sell your movie, this is a very good example. Charisma did appear, although in a total scene of less than 1 minutes. I don't even know why she accepted this part, it is really degrading.

When you see a ghost movie, you expect something that is scary, but on this one due to the bad story and strange script, you do not feel the fear. Instead it is a hollow feeling, like if you want a very unromantic love story.

One of the ghost action which I can not understand is how it is possible that you have a collapse building on one section of the school and the rest of the building seems okay and of course to follow the title, the ghost will have the incredible power of shaking the building like an earthquake. An of course the usual light that is always flickering when you are entering a room in a ghost story is there.

A movie is basically a collection of acts being put together by a director to make sense out of this collection. There is a recipe for each type of movie. But if you do a terrible mixed, then what you will get is a make up story with something supposed to be scary but end up being funny.....

I give 1 out of 10, because there is no zero or more for the effort of making something so bad to annoy other people.....

I must say that i enjoyed the movie it is very cool movie to watch when you're bored the acting was not that bad as the not professional worked ghosts.They were so unprofessinal made they were so fake you need to make them a lot more alive the people to belive what they are watching and the sky at the ending above the scholl was comedy it was FAKE a lot so i decided to shut down the movie there.Anyway i will give it 5 stars just because i enjoyed it :D

It wasnt a home run hit or a classic shaun of the dead but it was still ok for a family comedy horror. Had a few decent special effects and come on people it's a syfy so its low budget they cant compete with the major studios. I purchased the region b 3d bluray and it was an enjoyable movie that I watched with the whole family. Had a few funny parts and trejo is always trejo not great but not bad. Ignore the negative haters and watch it realizing that it's a low budget comedy horror. Would have been a 6 but kicked it up to help off set the undeserved 1s and 2s!! Its better than that garbage movie saint maud that received a 7.4!!

The demonic ghost of a long-dead school headmaster, along with his equally dead, but considerably more attractive, wife haunt a high school after a teacher dares to steal a gold coin owned by the ghost's grandson. Starring Danny Trejo as the janitor seeking his dead love,Justified's MC Gainey as the pun-afflicted demon, and the prolific Shawn C. Phillips as the token fat kid.

As to offer a counterpoint to the other reviews, I didn't find this to be a bad SyFy film, much less 'the worst' and actually found it no be a nice change of pace to the recent crop of 'nature run amok' offerings that they've been airing as of late. The acting is all right for a film of its ilk and the film was a bit of fun, although granted, the groan worthy puns by the ghost are pretty bad.

The story for this movie is hardly going to win any awards and it sets the scene for mediocrity which really underpins this movie.

Danny Trejo could have phoned it in for a movie like this but didnt he really put the effort in, unfortunately he was the only good part of the acting in this movie. Most of the acting was pretty meh and the headmaster and female teacher he goes around with are pretty awful, and whats worse get a good amount of screentime each.

The effects were certainly done on a budget but at the end of the day this is a horror movie which fundamentally doesnt scare you. It has a few 'jumps' which of course all the worst horror movies confuse with scary and thats it really.

Its nowhere near the worst I have ever seen and for a lazy afternoon viewing it could be worse but I wouldnt suggest it was a movie worth seeking out.

High school senior Jonathan Baron (as Quentin Smith) agrees to help a history teacher in the boiler room. They drop some mystical gold coins Mr. Baron inherited from his grandfather, which causes the old man's spirit to appear. Ghostly grandfather M.C. Gainey (as Lionel Danforth) causes earthquakes in the New England private school. Baron's girlfriend Lauren Pennington (as Whitney Douglas) starts seeing things. People get slaughtered - in very violent ways. Wizened janitor Danny Trejo (as Ortiz) joins the students in battling Mr. Gainey...

In featured roles, thin Marc Donato (as Colt) and thick Shawn Phillips (as Blake) overextend their years in high school. Sexy librarian Charisma Carpenter is seen briefly. The opening credit sequence is a highlight, but the accompanying song - a re-write of Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go" - could stir the rock 'n' roll star's once protective lawyers into action. The special effects aren't too bad, for this sort of thing. However, the TV Movie earns a failing grade as director Jeffery Scott Lando and his crew can't turn the effects into an engaging story.

*** Haunted High (8/25/12) Jeffery Scott Lando ~ Jonathan Baron, Lauren Pennington, M.C. Gainey, Danny Trejo

After becoming stranded in a high school, a group of students find the cause to be a reawakened spirit of a demonic headmaster and his minions, forcing them to battle the deadly spirits to get away alive.

This here turned out to be one of the more impressive and enjoyable Sci- Fi Channel original films. One of the more impressive elements here is the rather nice suspense displayed, which comes from the exceptional use of the creepy-looking school location throughout here with its endless corridors and hallways littered with lockers and others that showcase the locations of the school after dark which comes off incredibly well. Those are furthered by the film's best aspect as the early actions of them trapped inside as these are strongly built-up using the concept of the earthquakes, strange remarks of the ghosts on the PA system as well as the gradual realization of them being stuck here in rather nefarious set-ups which make the burgeoning mystery a lot more chilling than expected. As those are combined with their tormenting the students and faculty throughout with all manners of tactics including reanimation of dead bodies, hallucinations of every kind from the twisting of reality to keeping them at odds with reality and mind tricks comes together for a strong series of scenes here featuring the attack by the demon in the locker-room shower, the great sequence in the science lab of the frogs running amuck or the general teases here of turning the floors of the hallways into glue, disappearing and vanishing again during an attack or just generally teasing and toying with them for the sheer fun of it all which is where this one comes off as fun as it does. These scenes do have a rather cheesy and goofy tone and feel throughout here for the majority of it's scenes by keeping the action going along nicely, and when combined with the nice gore from the high body-count make for a great time overall. There's only a few small problems here, most of which come from the ending's fantasy-derived solution, as it's just way too overblown and goofy against the more intense sections elsewhere in here with the ghosts displaying energy weapons, supernatural powers and much more, turning it into an overall goofy tone that goes against the rest of the film quite obviously. as well, the atrocious CGI and rather lame story that never makes any sense do drive this down somewhat, as a whole this was quite a bit of fun.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Nudity

SYFY has been somewhat famous (or infamous) for producing low-budget horror films, which some see as late-night fodder. However, if you are like me and love these campy tales of ghosts and mayhem. Filled with an insane amount of gore and ultra low-budget special effects. Then you can't go wrong with a movie like, HAUNTED HIGH. I think what impressed me most about the film, was the cast. A really young and talented group of kids. Hold their own against genre veterans Danny Trejo and M.C. Gainey. The film serves its purpose and does it fairly well. I really enjoyed this one! Definitely give it a look. If and when it airs again, on SYFY.

I watch a lot of sci-fi movies and i thought Shawn C. Phillips was great in the movie and has a great future in movies. I thought it was decent i like the cheesy kind of low budget kind of horror movies, those are the ones that usely are the best to me. I've seen far worst movies on sci-fi before and considering this was filmed in New Orleans they probably didn't have the budget or time to make it like a movie theater version. To be able to have Danny trejo in the film was awesome he's been in hundreds of films and is very well know with Quentin Tarintino and his movies. If you want a bad sci-fi movie watch the shark one where their making fun of MTV's Jersey shore. Hopefully Sci-Fi will begin making some better movies in the future and get some of the actors in a lot of these movies acting lessons.